TECH CRUNCH - Feb 27 - Walden Riverwood Ventures and Intel Capital led the round, along with participation from Formation 8, Techstars, and Western Technology Investments. Part of the money will go towards funding the manufacturing of Skully's first smart helmet, the AR-1.
Skully Raises Another $1.5 Million
TECH CRUNCH - Jan 14 - Last summer the motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display became the fourth-most popular Indiegogo campaign in history. The financing, which took the form of convertible securities, was added to existing cash that Skully had raised through its crowdfunding campaign and previous fundraising. Skully has raised a total of $5.8M in both pre-orders and angel investment thus far.
25 Things I Learned At Glazed Conference This Week
WAI - Oct 24 - Here are the top things I learned at Wearable World's Glazed Conference in London this week.
- Pebble isn't worried about Apple iWatch. Pebble will occupy the low-end. In Sams Club for $95
- Successful wearable entrepreneurs are empathetic and oriented towards serving humanity.
- The best wearables truly extend basic human capability.
- Google as a company is not emotionally empathetic which is why they've had a problem with Glass.
- Jobs didn't want apps on the phone and didn't like mobile video. He wasn't right about everything.
- Wearables – is it merely a transition industry towards embedables/sub-cutanous computers?
- Apple will spend 100x more than all the other wearable companies combined in their first year
- Shenzhen is an awesome area for prototyping and manufacturing!
- In Shenzhen many products are started with $25k capital and then they start their pre-selling phase 6 to 12 months before their crowdfunding and manufacture. Go to Shenzhen early.
- Using the phone while wearing a Skully helmet is ok. Its been shown that using the phone while riding actually activates the brain more so riders are more aware of their surroundings.
- The best wearable tech will be invisible wearable tech. Unseen.
- Intel is building the Edison platform to help smaller wearables innovators. Right now its good for lite IoT and larger wearables. Intel is developing more SoCs for smaller products.
- You should realise and consider the emotional value of wearables! i.e. women hearing the heartbeat of their baby using Bellabeat.
- See this “make it wearable” Intel program!
- The fashion industry stands at $3.7 trillion USD a year and is growing 5% a year! Wearables need to be fashionable.
- Most people don't know that Nest makes their money from selling power data to power companies.
- We need to relieve people from information overload, not add to it. Information nausea! We need to save people time.
- Swiss watch manufacturers are safe. Noone is occupying the digital high end space. Digital watches will suffer from rapid obsolescense. They're not something that will be handed down in family.
- To design a great wearable consider 'would you go on a date with that wearable?'
- Wearables are 'living services' and need to have some of the qualities of good relationships.
- It's so important to stick prototypes onto people and observe how they use them.
- The Minority Report computer interface will never happen. Although its inventor might disagree (see TED video from 7 mins). Tom Cruise got tired holding arms up operating it. It's exhausting. Same with Leap Motion.
- Because of information overload we've become a different kind of human. We're becoming more uninteresting and uninterested. We're hooked on the dopamine response to new information. There's an atrophy of the mind-body connection. We're in trouble. There's a loss of deep focus and creative thought.
- We've been dematerializing for the last few years. Losing CD's for mp3's, downloading things, consolidating devices. And yet here we are introducing more devices in the form of a multitude of wearables. The trend is reversing.
- The London College of Fashion has prototyping and manufacturing rooms waiting for more creators.
SKULLY Extends Pre-Order Campaign
BUSINESSWIRE - Sep 10 - Due to global demand, the company will extend its pre-order campaign through October 9th, 2014. The record-breaking campaign resulted in SKULLY becoming the fastest company to reach $1 million on the Indiegogo crowdfunding site. SKULLY also provided the first open AR-1 consumer experience as part of TechCrunch Disrupt.
Skully Launches AR-1 Motorcycle Helmet
PC MAG – Aug 12 – Skully has launched its AR-1 augmented reality motorcycle helmet and is now taking pre-orders. The helmet integrates a heads-up display which provides driving directions, incoming calls, speed data and more. The helmet is available for pre-order on Indiegogo at a price of $1,399. It will retail for $1,499 and is expected to ship in May 2015. $1,999 will buy an AR-1 hand numbered and signed by the CEO. Skully has raised $730K in pre-orders.
10 Weird Wearables You Need To Know
IMEDIACONNECTION - Mar 14 - Here are ten technologies announced at SXSW and other recent tech conferences that are weird.
1. Password pills
Created by Proteus Digital Health, this pill turns a human being into an authentication token. It reacts with acids in the stomach to make an 18-bit code. The signal is transmitted to the authentication device. The pills are approved by the FDA.
2. Smart Contact Lenses
It tracks eye health factors such as intraocular pressure for glaucoma disease.
3. Heartbeat-based security authentication
Unlock your email, car, computer... - all through a wristband that reads your unique heartbeat.
4. An app that lets you discover fashion through Google Glass
This app uses Google Glass to take a pic of a garment. The app will use image recognition to find similar items.
5. 314: the purse that charges devices
The bag can charge a device 14 times before the battery needs to be replaced. The purse currently rings in at $1,592.
6. Kiwi Move: one device, many apps
You can program the device to recognize when you wake up and trigger your digital coffee maker to turn on.
7. Skully Helmet: the augmented reality motorcycle helmet
The helmet uses a Synapse-integrated HUD (Heads-Up Display) to give riders an advanced situational awareness system, navigation and blind spot data, and more.
8. Temporary Tattoo Fitness Sensors
This digital stick-on tattoo tracks body levels to help measure and predict things like muscular exertion and fatigue, electrolyte imbalance, hydration, amino acid breakdown, and more.
9. Ping: a social networking garment
Ping clothing connects wirelessly to your social media accounts. For example moving the zipper will let you ping friends.
10. Sensory Fiction - the book you wear
You wear a vest, and Sensory Fiction evokes what is on the page using physical sensations.
Subscribe
Consulting
Search
CEO Interviews
- Q&A With Linden Tibbets, CEO Of IFTTT, 2nd part
- Q&A With Linden Tibbets, CEO Of IFTTT, 1st part
- Q&A With Mark Gainey, CEO Of Strava
- Q&A With Niina Venho, CEO Of Moodmetric
- Q&A With Chaotic Moon Studios
- Q&A With Benjamin Hubert, Founder Of Layer
- Neuro-marketing Primer Part 2
- Neuro-marketing Primer Part 1
- All interviews