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Insert Coin semifinalist: Smart Knob brings keypad access to your front door
Keys? Who needs keys? The Smart Knob is an attempt to do away with those pesky metal things for property managers and renters, attaching a keypad to your front door's deadbolt. Owners of the property can issue codes remotely for a chosen period of time. Visitors can also get codes by calling the service's automated phone system. The Smart Knob is compatible with all standard circular deadbolts, and its creators insist that the installation process takes under a minute. The battery should last "up to two years" with daily use -- and when it gets low, a warning will let you know. Check out a video of the original plastic prototype after the break. The final version will, thankfully, be made of metal. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin semifinalist: Radiator Labs wants to help you control your heat
Just about any apartment-dwelling urbanite can tell you that radiators are a bit of a necessary evil in the world of city living. What if there was a way to control the heat to individual rental units, without relying entirely on a landlord's temperature-controlling omnipotence? The Radiator Labs team has developed a device to help realize this dream. It's essentially a housing that sits on top of an individual radiator unit, controlling heat transfer to a room. Turn it off, and the insulation hampers the heat from making a room too hot. Turn it on, and the ducted fan spreads the heat out to the room. Radiator Labs has a bit more info on its page, which you can check out in the source link below. You can also view graphical breakdown of the technology after the break. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
We're celebrating Insert Coin semifinalists with a giveaway makers will love
On Wednesday, we opened voting so you can help us choose five finalists in our first Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. It was hard enough for Engadget editors to decide on 10 semifinalists out of the myriad awesome crowdfunded projects entered, including such futuristic fare as bipedal robots, high-tech puppetry and more. Now it's your turn to pick which final five entrants will also present on stage at Expand this March for the chance to win a total of $25,000: $5,000 for the Reader's Choice winner and a whopping $20,000 Grand Prize. Voting closes this coming Wednesday, February 27 at 12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST, so get your vote in! To celebrate the DIY ingenuity and high tech innovation demonstrated by our intrepid entrants, we're running an Insert Coin Twitter Giveaway that gives a little something back to all the makers out there. We're giving away the following three kit prizes: Grand Prize is the Egg-Bot, an art robot that draws intricate designs on eggs or other round objects including ornaments, golf balls, and light bulbs; 2nd Prize is an Apple 1 Replica Kit designed with permission from the Apple I's original creator, Steve Wozniak; 3rd Prize is the Adafruit FLORA GPS Starter Pack including a Flora motherboard, a GPS module that can also perform location datalogging, eight ultra-bright chainable RGB pixels and more. To win, simply send a tweet naming which of the 10 semifinalists you want to win, in the following format: "I think [PROJECT NAME] should win $20,000 in the @EngadgetExpand Insert Coin Competition!" Of course while you're at it, don't forget to vote! To be eligible to enter, you must be 18 years of age and a U.S. resident (please peruse the full rules). Name your inventor of choice by 5pm EST on Monday, February 25 (one entry per person, please!). We'll choose three winners at random to win each kit prize and will notify them via Twitter. Plus, make sure to follow @EngadgetExpand for more chances to win tickets, prizes and other goodies. UPDATE: We have our lucky winners! Thanks for entering and keep looking out for more chances to play... Grand Prize Winner: Jerry Yuan 2nd Prize Winner: Jason Lee 3rd Prize Winner: Richard Espy
Insert Coin semifinalist: Observos serves up the internet of places
Internet of things? That's so 2012. 2013? Well maybe, just maybe, it'll be all about the internet of places. Hexagonal Research founders Loren Lang and Ronald Bynoe are betting that the next big thing will be environmentally aware computers. The pair have created Observos which combines an ATMEL microcontroller (with integrated wireless) with a host of on-board sensors. What began as a prototype built around a tower of Arduino shields is now a small first-run integrated board with spots for connecting XBee radio cards and a small LCD display. Right now the focus is on humidity, temperature and barometric pressure, though other environmental variables would be relatively trivial to tack on. While the Observos board is isn't quite ready for prime time, its already getting some serious field testing in a plant nursery, restaurant and other diverse locales. In addition to the small display, the board can be programmed to send text message or email alerts, and in the future could tie into venting or heating systems for completely automated control. There's even a rudimentary web interface for monitoring the various data coming in from the sensors. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin semifinalist: Hodu is a 'zero failure' physical therapy hardware / software combo
Hodu borrows its name from the Korean word for "walnut," a reference to the culture's use of the nut as an exercise tool in traditional medicine. The barbell-shaped device is a "zero failure" physical therapy tool, aimed at rewarding patients for even the slightest level of feedback. There are on-board pressure sensors and accelerometers for detecting activity and a series of colored LEDs that light up based on feedback levels. The team behind Hodu is also working on proprietary software to help log patients' squeezing and rotational progress. After the break is a video that should give you a bit of a better idea of precisely what Hodu is capable of. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin semifinalist: Moedls brings 3D scanning to your phone
3D scanners are kinda old hat at this point. But, while we've seen more than our fair share of Kinect hacks, we haven't come across too many phone-based systems. Moedls actually puts the power to create models like the one above in the palm of your hand... sort of. The heart of the system is either an iOS or Android app (sorry MeeGo fans), but there are actual lasers with a custom enclosure as part of the platform. Clearly, that does somewhat restrict portability, but it should all fit into a 10-inch x 10-inch x 4-inch box for storage or transportation. Creator John Fehr started the project as a way to save some of his daughter's sculptures in digital form. After trying many different component options, Fehr settled on a combination of parts that totaled around $300. That included a custom enclosure and variable speed rotating platform have been sourced. Right now the iOS app is awaiting approval from Apple and the Google-fied equivalent is currently in development. Combine this with a 3D printer (we hear you've got quite a few choices at this point) and the world becomes your playground. You can see an example of what Moedls is capable of, even at this early stage, at the source. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin semifinalist: Make a Play is a high-tech puppet stage
The students at ITP are constantly churning out creative projects that are unafraid to walk the fine line between art and tech. So its no wonder that Gal Sasson's Make a Play wound up as one of the semi-finalists in our Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. It doesn't hurt that the concept also combines two of our greatest loves here at Engadget: toys and Arduino. The name, it turns out, is actually quite descriptive. The microcontroller-driven stage allows anyone to quickly create a piece of miniature theater using handcrafted puppets and an impressive selection of buttons, knobs and switches -- all lovingly handcrafted out of wood on this prototype. The control panel can move the actors using two motorized carts, cue lighting, playback voice recordings and even activate special electronics embedded in the puppets, such as LED eyes in the demo video after the break. Any action can be recorded and fed to a companion computer program, where tweaks can can be made to the automation. Honestly, sounds like the sort of thing we wish we had a as kids. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin semifinalist: cSpring bipedal robot wants to 'level the playing field' for university research
Check out this Mac-headed robot. It's the cSpring Biped Educational Development Kit from the folks at the similarly-named Cognitive Spring team. According to its creators, the 'bot is an attempt to "level the playing field between universities," letting students tool around with an affordable bipedal robotics platform. cSpring has 12 servos in all -- three per hip, one per knee and two per foot. It's controlled by the Cognitive Shield, a bit of technology developed by the team in order to help bring the 'bot to life. Cognitive Spring will be launching crowdfunding campaigns to bring bot of these products to life. cSpring's also got a "Kinect-like" camera on-board for sensing its environment, to help users perform what the company's CEO calls "really easy controls." Jump in after the break for a couple of videos of an early cSpring model in action, and click the source link below for more information on all of the above. Check out the full list of Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists here -- and don't forget to pick a winner!
Insert Coin: New Challengers voting is now open -- help us pick five finalists!
Just want to vote? Right this way! Last Friday, we announced our semifinalist pics for Engadget's first-ever Insert Coin: New Challengers competition. We're incredibly excited about the projects we selected, but had a hard enough time whittling the list down to 10. That's where you come in. As far as we're concerned, they're all winners, but we've got presentation time at next month's Expand conference in San Francisco, and we need your help knocking the list down to five finalists. It's a diverse array of entrants, including seafaring drones, bipedal robots, 3D scanners, futuristic radiators and more. Jump in after the break for links to posts about each of the candidates, and when you're done, please click here to vote on your favorite. Five winners will go on to present their projects at Expand in March, for a chance to win $25,000. You have until next Wednesday, February 27 at the same time (12:30pm PST / 3:30pm EST) to cast your vote!
Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists announced!
As 2012 drew to a close, we asked you creative types to let us in on your forthcoming crowdfunded projects -- and boy did you deliver. We've spent the past week whittling down the submissions for our first-ever Insert Coin: New Challengers competition, and are pretty excited about the results. As detailed in our announcement post, we've chosen 10 semifinalists, who will receive a free trip to Expand next month, along with a $1,000 travel stipend. Better yet, those on the list are in the running to win a total of $25,000, including a $5,000 Reader's Choice award and $20,000 Grand Prize, along with product reviews on this very site. Congratulations to all the winners and a big thanks to everyone who entered -- paring down the list wasn't an easy task. We'll be highlighting each entry further in the week to come, leading up to a Wednesday, February 20th, vote for five finalists. Skip on through after the break to check out the list of semifinalists, and we'll see you in March!
Engadget's Insert Coin: New Challengers Official Rules
ENGADGET'S "INSERT COIN" CONTEST OFFICIAL RULES NO PURCHASE REQUIRED TO ENTER OR WIN 1. ELIGIBILITY: The Contest is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (including the District of Columbia) and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 13 years of age or older at time of entry. Employees of AOL Inc. and its respective subsidiaries, affiliates, parent companies, distributors, divisions and agencies, as well as the immediate family (spouse, parents, siblings and children) and household members of each such employee are not eligible. Subject to all federal, state, and local laws and regulations. Void in Quebec, Puerto Rico and where prohibited by law. 2. SPONSOR: The Contest is sponsored by AOL Inc., 770 Broadway, New York, NY 10003 ("Sponsor"). 3. AGREEMENT TO OFFICIAL RULES: Participation in the Contest constitutes entrant's full and unconditional agreement to and acceptance of these Official Rules and the decisions of Sponsor which are final and binding. Winning a Prize is contingent upon fulfilling all requirements set forth herein.
