Every
now and then a Kickstarter project catches my eye and makes me wanna say
“Cowabunga dude…surf’s up!”.
Interaxon’s Muse Mind Controller, the next big thing in
Gaming as noted in my Geezam
blog
article entitled “Interaxon’s Muse Mind
Controller and Tailly the Wearable Tail”, readily comes to mind…..that and
the fact I wrote about it and I’m betting big on it like a gambler at the high
Roller’s Table. Next to the Microsoft Kinect and other similar Controller Technology
that mimic natural Human interaction to control electronic devices, Mind
Controllers are poised on the brink of Greatness.
I’m
of course referring to the very ambitious 20,000-pound ($30,456) Kickstarter
campaign of Vaavud’s
Portable Anemometer for the Apple iPhone as reported in the article “Smartphone
wind meter has no electronics”, published March 23,
2013 7:00 AM PDT by Tim Hornyak, CNET
News.
Designed
by a trio of Danes from Stockholm, Sweden(Shakespeare’s Hamlet anyone?), it’s
easily another GoPro in the making as
stated in the article “The
Mad Billionaire Behind GoPro: The World's Hottest Camera Company”,
published 3/04/2013 @ 6:59AM by Ryan Mac, Forbes
Magazine. It’s threatening to make the Danish Kitesurfin’
trio of Thomas, Maria and Andreas into instant billionaires in the next ten
(10) years!
Very
much like 37 year old Nick Woodman’s GoPro who came up with his
go-anyplace-on-my-body mini Digital Camcorder out of the desire to capture the
best shots from the point of view of the surfer. Vaavud’s doing it the
same; helping kitesurfer’s find the best wind for Kite surfing, which happens
to be their sport.
In
the process they’ve developed another peripheral that can be used with the
Apple iPhone and other smartphone that has uses both to:
1. Windsurfing
enthusiasts looking to log the best Waves and Wind (Surf’s up!)
2. Weather
Reporters with a death wish during a hurricane (…or Tornado…anyone?!)
3. Scientists
wanting to make a cheap off-the-shelf Remote Uplink Anemometer and weather vane
to measure atmospheric conditions
Not
because it’s yet another clever use of the Apple iPhone akin to Kickstarter
alumni Orbotic’s Sphere Orb shaped robot as described in my Geezam blog
article entitled “The Apple iPhone
as a Remote – The R2-D2 Effect of Orbotic’s Sphero Robotic Ball”
or Griffin HELO TC Helicopter as described “US$60
Griffin HELO TC Helicopter at CES 2012”, which by the way is
very popular among IT Staff in ACCENT Marketing.
Rather
because of its simplicity. Simplicity is what Vaavud’s Swedish
Trio’s of ABBA Lookalikes are using to
survive, Sizzla Kolange Style.
It
just a plastic anemometer with some magnets attached on the vanes, basically a
“wireless” device. As it rotates in its pivot point snug in the Audio Jack of
the Apple iPhone or any other smartphone or whatever orifice you can stick it,
its magnetic field fluctuations is detected by the smartphones internal Magnetometer.
The frequency of the fluctuations is then translated into windspeed which is
displayed by the Vaavud’s
Portable Anemometer App.
The
Magnetometer is now standard issue in all smartphone ever since the Apple
iPhone 3GS, making the Samsung Galaxy S IV as describe in Kelroy’s article “Samsung Introduces the GALAXY S4”
more than capable of using this device.
Simplicity
indeed: no electronic parts and just attached magnets creating a rotating
magnetic field that detectable via the app that taps into the built-in
Magnetometer. Backers for a minimum US$30 pledge get the product that’s
actually on the bleeding edge of portable Weather Technology, easily a very low
cost manufactured quality product with very high profit margins.
GoPro’s
made founder and Surfing enthusiast Nick Woodman a billionaire some nine (9)
years later since it surfed into the daring adventurer’s heart in 2004 with the
concept of a Camcorder you can strap on
to your body to take video from any angle. The company’s go-anywhere (and yes …..like
duh-uh waterproof!!) GoPro Camcorder’s clocked some 2.3 million cameras sold to
some very satisfied customers valued at
US$521 million in 2012. Already, GoPro showing sign of surpassing that figure
US$100 million in sales in January 2013 alone.
Hon
Hai Precision Industry Co aka Foxconn, that Chinese assembler of devices for
the likes of Apple, HP (Hewlett Packard) and Dell, plunked down a not too
shabby $200 million direct investment in GoPro in December of 2012 as reported in “Foxconn
CEO Terry Gou On His Company's Growing Relationship With GoPro”, published
3/18/2013 @ 1:58PM by Ryan Mac, Forbes
Magazine. This, folks, is Foxconn CEO Terry Gou big bet on
the future of the company that's making strap-on Camcorders with Social
Networking built in (??), a hot commodity to watch for 2013 and beyond.
Fate
and destiny seem to have intertwined and conspired, as Foxconn CEO Terry Gou’s
son and Nick Woodman attended the same high school, separated only by a year. Vaavud’s Portable
Anemometer is a Kickstarter Project that’s Gone with the GoPro Wind.
My
prediction, akin to the one made of the Interaxon’s Muse Mind Controller as
noted in my Geezam blog
article entitled “Interaxon’s Muse Mind
Controller and Tailly the Wearable Tail”; and guided by the billion dollar
fortunes of GoPro’s CEO Nick Woodman, Vaavud’s Portable Anemometer’s the next big thing in
2013, 2014 the latest.
The
trio’s Kickstarter funding goal looks set to hit the stratosphere and even
surpass it in the next few months by taking advantage of the growing popularity
of Watersports, Mobile Social Networking and Mobile Computing as noted in my Geezam blog
article entitled “How
the Apple iPad killed Ultrabooks, Printing and the Mouse as the World
Rediscovers Tablets” via its simplicity and applicability for
Fun and Science in the Sun.
Here’s
the link:
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