I have a third source scheduled to call me Friday morning and I'm still wanting to get another source to tie it all together so I'll have to harass some people tomorrow before class. I wanted to go ahead and get this up though.
Critique and tell me it's dumb and you hate it :) Thankkkkssss. Bye.
The constant evolution of
technology has shaped how consumers perform day-to-day tasks and society can
only expect many more technological leaps for 2014.
From wearable technology to
even the way individuals commute, developers such as Stephan Bolitan, a founder
of Notch, and Kyle Doerksen, the inventor of Onewheel, have found innovative
ways to alter what is available today.
Wearbles have been on the
rise with products from Fibit, Jawbone, Nike and more, however; Bolitan said
the one newest product to be launched this year, Notch, exceeds their
capabilities.
The Notch system links up to
10 sensors, which can be placed around your body, tracking individual motions,
he said. The data will then reconstruct a 3D skeleton and tell the user how the
body moved and analyze the information to allow the user to improve the
technique used.
“The people who are most
excited about Notch right now are people in sports,” Bolitan said. “And some of
the things we are doing now is making sports applications and medical
applications that focus on reconstructing movements of the body for action
triage.”
The product goes beyond
measurements though. The ability to compare one’s movements, strength and form
to an expert is another feature as well as to provide a heptic feedback when
the move one is trying to improve is done incorrectly, he said.
“So far it’s (also) the most
affordable way for consumers to get information in 3D without some type of
camera,” Bolitan said.
Wearables aren’t the only
consumer electronics shaping the way people live, however. In the form of
riding, Onewheel has brought a new method of traveling around town.
Although holding a steep
starting price point of $1299, the product gained a great show of excitement
from backers on its Kickstarter campaign, Doerksen said. The company exceeded
its goal and will have the first set of products launched in September.
Onewheel is not just another
electric skateboard added to the market, he said. It is an entirely different
form of riding.
“It feels a lot more like
snowboarding or wakeboarding than it does skateboarding,” Doerksen said. “It’s
a little different. For people who’ve never ridden a skateboard, they’re not
really at any disadvantage riding with only one wheel. Most people can learn in
two or three minutes.”
The idea behind the product
is a gyroscope that computes information to help the rider out, he said.
“There’s a motor in the hub
of the wheel and then there’s batteries and control electronics,” Doerksen
said. “The control electronics have motion sensors and accelerometer sensors,
and they look at what angle the board uses relative to the ground. Then there’s
some software running on a little computer that looks at those angles, does the
math and calculates exactly how it should drive the motor to balance you out.
So if you lean forward, it drives the motor faster to catch up with you.”
The charge time is another
aspect to the product’s popularity for a method of transportation, he said.
With the ability to spend $100 more to upgrade to an ultra charger means consumers
can plug it into a wall outlet for 20 minutes to receive a full battery, which
will last anywhere from 4 to 6 miles.
Although the product won’t
hit the streets for a few months, the company has high expectations for what
else is to come, Doerksen said.
“Our goal is when you look at
a sidewalk five years from now, it’ll look different because there will be all
these people zooming around on these electric vehicles we’re making,” Doerksen
said.
No comments:
Post a Comment