Hasta La Ideas

The latest Kickstarter success story comes from industrial designer Chris Thomson and cinematographer Ben Ryan, who have created a simple, portable, and clever device to help shooters regulate motion control. Called the Genie, it doesn’t take up much more space than the SLR body it’s meant to be attached to, and it allows the user to program in both rotating and panning features.

What most impresses us is the inherent hackability of the device: Because it can propel itself along by a provided rope, the camera can go anywhere you’re willing to string that rope, either using an optional track or something you whip up yourself, like a few pieces of wood nailed together or even a skateboard.

What’s also neat is that in the video below, you can see that they’ve prototyped it with the help of a MakerBot Cupcake:

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Show support for two new supportive undergarments

Kickstarter helps get an array of independent endeavors off the ground every day. While many of these entrepreneurial projects revolve around the arts, we recently found two creative minds using the funding platform to up the underwear game. Each with a different motive, both JoeyBra and Flint and Tinder aim to enhance our lives with a new take on the ubiquitous undergarment. Check out the “kickstapants” projects below.

A concept sure to be a hit among ladies who love to go out and dance or go for a run, the JoeyBra gives women the advantage of a hidden pocket in their bra. The small side compartments are big enough to fit an iPhone, but the elastic seams keep it all conveniently secure. The JoeyBra is the brainchild of two business students at the University of Washington who will use the funding to first create an adjustable sexy push-up style with a sports bra to follow.

Former FHM Magazine editor and Buckyballs founder Jake Bronstein would simply like to bring men’s underwear production back to the US. His idea is Flint and Tinder, a line of premium Supima cotton skivvies made in a family-run factory. Comfort and function are key components to the three styles in his collection, but another driving force is job creation—for every 1,000 pairs sold, one full-time job is generated.

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and recently we’ve seen this maxim holds true for creators looking to produce a video of their object rotating in space.

With 3D software, it’s not difficult to create a video like this of a virtual object you’ve modeled. And with Autodesk’s 123D Catch software, you can use a point-and-shoot to photograph real-life objects, giving you the data you need to achieve the same. But Comp Sci professors Jason Lawrence and Abhi Shelat are attempting to Kickstart the Arqball Spin, a sort of hi-tech/low-tech hybrid that combines software with a physical, rotating platform:

I’m not convinced a physical turntable will trump Autodesk’s 123D Catch solution, which requires just the camera; but at press time it seemed Arqball Spin could go either way, with 25 days left and about $14,500 of $40,000 in the bag.

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A creative Kickstarter project designed to easily boost the audio on your iPad

Nonlinear Studio‘s Amplifiear is a clever clip-on device designed to enhance your iPad’s sound. Stunning in its simple design and basic, low-tech construction—no batteries or wires, nor electric currents of any kind required—the Amplifiear magnifies volume by reflecting and redirecting sound forward from the iPad’s back speaker.

Nonlinear’s head designer Evan Clabots conceived the lightweight, recyclable ABS plastic ear to correct what many might see as a design flaw in Apple’s tablet: a back-facing speaker, which offers less-than-optimal sound without the reliance on other stereo devices. The intelligible Amplifiear comes outfitted with a tension clip for fitting both the newest iPad model and the iPad2, and slips onto the tablet’s top corner. Like a mini amphitheater, it draws its sound-increasing power from basic physical acoustics.

Easy to transport and instantly functional, Amplifiear is an impressive example of simplified design. The Amplifiear project will remain on Kickstarter through 12 May 2012 for funding, and once successful will be produced stateside in Minnesota.

Pebble is a fully customizable e-paper watch that interacts with your smartphone.

It’s hard to remember, but there was once a time, at least according to Dick Tracy, when we thought we might be speaking into our watches to communicate with each other. That vision of the future seemed to be a distant memory when cell phones came along.

Pebble, an e-paper watch, might just get us talking into our watches again. Brought to us by the same folks who developed the Blackberry-ready inPulse watch, Pebble is a fully customizable interface that syncs up with an iPhone or Android phone via Bluetooth. The 144×168 pixel display may be small but the device can stream plenty of data, with features to rival its smartphone ‘host organism.’ The developers suggest apps for exercise, among other things, where the e-paper provides a lighter display that is easier to read in bright sunlight. The watch can even interact with your phone’s caller ID or an mp3 player to control music over Bluetooth.

But the killer app is that anyone can make an app, and that’s where the potential lies. Aside from what you can download from their watchapp store, you can create your own functions using if this then that or tap into the full SDK, using a familiar structure from Arduino and simple C. That means savvy developers can customize the four buttons, motor and accelerometer for any number of uses.

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