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Announcing the Insert Coin: New Challengers judges!

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Announcing the Insert Coin New Challengers judges!

You've already voted for your favorite Insert Coin: New Challengers finalist, right? What? You haven't yet? What are you waiting for? Seriously. The voting's nearly closed! We've already whittled the list down to 10 finalists and asked you to help us get things down to five. Of course, there can only be one big winner, and for that we're bringing in the big guns.

MAKE Magazine Editor-in-Chief and Boing Boing co-editor Mark Frauenfelder will be joining us at Expand to help present the top five projects, each of whom will be getting time on our stage to convince readers and judges alike that they deserve to take home the top prize of $20,000. As for the judges themselves, we couldn't be happier -- the list includes four of the biggest names from the world of design, DIY, crowdfunding and gadget blogging. Check out the judges, after the break.

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Insert Coin semifinalist: SmartKnob brings keypad access to your front door

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Insert Coin semifinalist SmartKnob 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!

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Source: The Smart Knob

Insert Coin semifinalist: Radiator Labs wants to help you control your heat

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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 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!

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Source: Radiator Labs

We’re celebrating Insert Coin semifinalists with a giveaway makers will love

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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.

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Insert Coin semifinalist: Hodu is a ‘zero failure’ physical therapy hardware / software combo

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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!

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Insert Coin semifinalist: cSpring bipedal robot wants to ‘level the playing field’ for university research

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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!

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Source: Cognitive Spring

Insert Coin: New Challengers voting is now open — help us pick five finalists!

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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!

The Candidates:

1. cSpring: Bipedal Robo

2. Hodu: Physical therapy hardware / software combo

3. Moedls: 3D scanning for smartphones

4. Make a Play: High-tech puppet stage

5. Observos: Environmentally-aware computers

6. Radiator Labs: Personal radiator temperature controller

7. Smart Knob: Keyless door lock

8. smARTPulse: Hackable Bluetooth oximeter

9. Snapzoom: Superzooming for smartphone cameras

10. Ziphius: RC aquatic drone

Now don't forget to vote!

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Insert Coin: HeatMeter wants to save your money and the planet (video)

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DNP Insert Coin HeatMeter wants to monitor your hearing, save your money and the planet video

Back in 2011, MIT discovered that the Fisker Karma's batteries only lost 10 percent of their battery life after 1,500 charges. Admittedly, the study didn't examine the EV's reliability, nor its tendency to spontaneously combust, but the MIT researchers did learn plenty about energy conservation in the process. Fast-forward to now, and YShape, a start-up spun off from that original research, is taking to Kickstarter to fund HeatMeter, a sensor that's designed to measure the efficiency of fuel-based boilers.

While electricity usage meters are ten-a-penny, it isn't so easy to find equivalents for gas, propane or oil-powered units. By measuring the vibrations in its casing, HeatMeter can tell you exactly how much energy has been used. Combine that data with your home size and average bill cost, and it'll work out what you're spending and how to use less. YShape, led by Radu Gogoana, needs $60,000 for the initial production run -- and will offer you a discounted unit if you kick in $129 -- or lifetime upgrades and support if you make it $149. Not convinced? Head on past the break for the video pitch.

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Source: Kickstarter

Insert Coin: New Challengers semifinalists announced!

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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!

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Insert Coin: Securifi Almond+ takes the touchscreen router to the next level

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In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line.

We've been talking about Securifi's Almond router a fair amount, since the new year rolled around. Darren put the thing through its paces, just after the company announced plans to release its successor -- or, rather, plans to Kickstart the followup. As of this morning, the crowdfunding push has landed. The Taipei-based company launched the Kickstarter page for the next generation of its beloved touchscreen router.

The latest version, which we had the opportunity to play around with at CES, features a 2.8-inch display, as before, but adds some much welcomed additions, including support for 802.11ac, Zigbee and Z-Wave. The former promises a WiFi speed bump, the latter two bring the promise of extended home automation. Speaking of home automation, the Almond+ lets you control things like security alerts, heating and light control on the go with your iOS or Android device.

Securifi's currently working toward a $250,000 goal, and has some solid prizes to offer up. Those who pledge $95 or more will get the $99 router, along with free shipping. Pledging at $129 will get you one of a number of Kickstarter exclusive colors. Those winning routers are set to ship around September.

Previous project update: At last look, the Pinoccio microprocessor is well on its way to becoming a real device, with around $44,000 pledged of its $63,000 goal, with a full 22 days left to get in on the action.

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Source: Kickstarter