Tag Archives: safety

This spherical robot is your smart home guard and your family companion

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Our homes are starting to be filled with technology, and not just from the computers and smartphones that we use day in and day out. But despite all the advancements in software, AI, and human-computer interaction, these technologies still feel distant and almost impersonal. Even those “personal” AI assistants are nothing more than disembodied voices that can hear us and not much else. These devices and services do make life convenient, but they don’t always help us with the other important things in life, like connecting with or checking up with another, especially when we’re not at home. The average human spends 26 years of their life sleeping and 30 years of their life working. That leaves just 1~2 hours in a day to truly connect with family, elders, or pets if we’re lucky. With all that time apart and no one there to supervise, there can be a lot of concern about the health and safety of our loved ones. This is why Enabot created the EBO X, your family’s protector, companion, and playmate. Smart home security cameras just don’t cut it, especially because they lack that “human touch,” and that is the kind of connection that this adorable moving homebot is trying to make while also making sure that your family and house are safe.

Designer: Enabot Design

Click Here to Buy Now: $569 $999 ($430 off). Hurry, only 50/480 left! Raised over $280,000.

Smart Mapping – Provides EBO X with autonomous & accurate movement ability. Upon first use, EBO X will travel through your house using V-SLAM technology. This will allow EBO X to travel anywhere in the house.

Self-balanced Two-wheeled Design – EBO X ensures flexible mobility and high-precision motion control. EBO X can move around your home with ease and turn 360 degrees smoothly.

4K Stabilized Camera – EBO X’s 4K camera is one-axis stabilized, and the vertical angle is adjustable within a range of 104 degrees. EBO X has an 8-megapixel ultra low-light sensor and provides the super large 106-degree FOV.

Smart Tracking – If your child says “EBOEBO , follow me!”, EBO X will follow him or her anywhere it can reach, just like a loyal companion.

Edge Detection & Obstacle Avoidance – With multiple built-in dToF and ALS sensors, EBO X will stop itself from crossing any edge and avoid obstacles.

EBO X is, first and foremost, a smart guardian for the home and the family. Thanks to its self-balanced two-wheeled design and especially its smart mapping capabilities, it can go reach almost any part of your house. Despite this, users can set up restricted areas to protect their privacy. Not only can it map the layout of your house using V-SLAM (Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping), detecting edges and deftly avoiding obstacles, it can see clearly no matter the time of day or night with its stabilized 4K camera and 8MP ultra low-light sensor. It can even hear and turn towards the source of a sound, following not only your voice but also a potential accident.

Elderly Fall Alert – EBO X can be set to detect the fall-down of an elderly during auto-cruising. lf detected, it will send alerts through 3 optional ways to ask for help.

Crying & Call-for-help Alert – If your child is crying, EBO X will detect it and trigger an App call to you. Besides, EBO X will inform you through the App call if anyone at home is experiencing an emergency and calls for help.

Facial Recognition & Medication Reminder – At a scheduled time, EBO X can find the specific family member by facial recognition, and send the medication reminders in voice.

Unlike even the smartest home security systems, the EBO X robot is also your family’s protector. It can detect and report when someone, especially an elderly person, has fallen down and alert family or emergency services. It can do the same for someone crying for help, calling your attention through the app. It can also help prevent accidents in the first place by reminding family members to take their medication, even when no one else is around. It can use facial recognition to find your loved one around the house and give them a gentle nudge to take their meds.

The robot, however, does more than just secure your home and safeguard your family. It puts a face on these technologies, literally and figuratively. EBO X’s cute face will endear itself to members of your family, regardless of their ages. It can follow kids around, ensuring their safety while also keeping them entertained with sound effects and music through its premium Harman AudioEFX speaker. EBO X also uses Alexa Voice Control, so every convenience is just a voice command away. The robot can take pictures of the whole family, or it can even take low-angle photos of your furry family members. It can act as a two-way communication between those at home and those far away, bridging the distance in a far more interesting way than a simple call.

Enabot designed EBO X with privacy protection at the forefront of our minds, and Enabot truly focused on user privacy and made some improvements. For example, all the media files could be optionally stored only on the local SD card, and you can use the privacy switch in the App to remotely turn off the gimbal camera. You can also physically press the gimbal button on the camera, which can completely obscure the camera from the product structure. When EBO X detects that the gimbal is completely closed, it will stop video recording. Besides this, the circular 4-array microphone at the top can also be powered off at the hardware level to ensure that the camera and microphone are not being monitored or bugged.

Protector, companion, and playmate, the EBO X robot puts an emphasis on the “home” part of smart homes. Combining three devices in one, the agile smart guardian keeps your family safe, entertained, and comfortable, creating an environment that you can truly call home. All these for a sweet Super Early Bird price of $569, a large $430 discount off its $999 MSRP.

Click Here to Buy Now: $569 $999 ($430 off). Hurry, only 50/480 left! Raised over $280,000.

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All-in-one modular robot mower with 3D vision keeps your lawn clean without fuss or wires

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Robot vacuum cleaners have become more common these days, but indoor spaces aren’t the only ones that need cleaning. Maintaining a lawn is even harder work, especially since the tools available haven’t exactly been the easiest to use. Gasoline-chugging lawnmowers are noisy and dangerous, but robot lawnmowers with perimeter wires are only a step less inconvenient. More than just their efficiency, however, these supposedly smart lawnmowers turn out not to be that smart at all and require a bit of human intervention just to make sure they stay within boundaries. Fortunately, you can finally stop wishing for an effortless way to keep your lawn clean and green with this truly smart mower that makes lawn care not only easy but also safe for both people and animals alike.

Designer: Heisenberg Robotics

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 $2499 ($1500 off). Hurry, only 19/285 left! Raised over $1.2 million.

Compared to a vacuum cleaner, a robot mower needs to juggle a lot more responsibilities. Cutting grass is actually the easiest part, but a hands-free mower also needs to know where it should and shouldn’t go, avoid obstacles that may come in the form of unexpected furry critters, and more. Keeping within boundaries is already a difficult task, and most robot mowers require setting up wires around the area, which means digging up the ground to set these up.

With today’s technologies, especially AI and machine learning, that shouldn’t be the case anymore, and the Heisenberg LawnMeister demonstrates how to utilize these to free up our time and energy for the more important things in life. Calling this robot mower “smart” might even be an understatement because of how many features it packs inside to keep your lawn looking beautiful, no matter the time of the year.

Set Virtual Boundaries – Its smart navigation uses vision AI and GPS to learn your whole lawn – so you’ll never have to dig up dirt and lay wires around your yard.

Avoid All Kinds of Objects – LawnMeister can recognize all types of objects from a hedgehog to a lawn chair, then use its AI-powered system to steer around.

Instead of using cumbersome and intrusive boundary wires, the LawnMeister utilizes a combination of vision AI and GPS to know its location and its path. It creates a 3D navigation guide of your lawn and detects the edges, so it knows where to go and where to keep off. It sees and learns in real-time, avoiding obstacles like chairs and toys even if they change locations every day. Of course, it also avoids people, pets, and even unexpected furry visitors, so everyone and everything is safe, except for unmanageable grass, that is.

Custom Mowing Schedules – Customize your mowing schedule to fit your routine, giving you the freedom to have a great lawn on your time.

Set Up No-Go Zones – Simple lawn zone management means you can protect certain areas of your lawn, like a vegetable patch or a spot your dog likes to nap.

Conquer Any Terrain – They designed LawnMeister to handle slopes, bumps, and divots while still delivering the same even cut.

Th LawnMeister is so smart that you can immediately start using it right out of the box, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any control over it. Using its companion app, you can set no-go zones or even have different settings for different areas, trimming grass short in one place while letting it grow in another. The robot mower can also take into account the season and the weather so that it can offer mowing schedules tailored to the grass’ needs.

Fertilizer – LawnMeister’s vision AI enables it to see yellow spots on your lawn and to sprinkle a trail of nourishment over the patches of stunted growth, giving your grass what it needs to grow back stronger and healthier.

Edge Trimmer – LawnMeister tidies up around gardens, patios, and driveways to cut loose ends and make your lawn look perfectly manicured.

Leaf Blower – Not only does it blow away fallen leaves so they won’t clog up the blades, but it also gets rid of grass, debris, and other fallen bits to give your lawn the neat and tidy look you want.

But wait, there’s more! LawnMeister can do more than just cut grass, which is really just one part of lawn care. With the fertilizer sprayer add-on, it can also apply fertilizer on grass by manually setting the areas that need to be sprayed on the app. Are fallen leaves messing up the scene? The rolling robot can blow them out of its way, along with debris, dust, and dirt. There’s even a driveway sweeper add-on to clean those grass clippings to ensure a thorough mowing session. The single 5Ah battery is enough for two hours of yard work on a single charge or four hours with the 10Ah dual battery option. And when it’s time to charge, the robot drives itself to its docking station and then returns to the exact spot where it left off. Say goodbye to noisy weekends, intrusive boundary wires, and uneven grass with the smart and safe Heisenberg LawnMeister All-in-One Robot Mower, starting at $999 only for a Super Early Bird discount.

Click Here to Buy Now: $999 $2499 ($1500 off). Hurry, only 19/285 left! Raised over $1.2 million.

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Walking aid for the elderly comes with a box for carrying their furry friends

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Humans seem to be wired to be social animals, and that is sometimes a difficult problem for certain people. Loneliness affects everyone, but the pain can become more acute for people who are more advanced in age and who find it hard to develop new relationships because of limits to their mobility. Pets have become a solution for some of the elderly folk, but that, too, comes with its own puzzles to solve. People advanced in age are often advised to still go outside as long as they are able to, but they are hesitant to leave their furry friends at home as well. Solving multiple related problems can be a daunting task, but this walker concept pulls it off in a way that is both simple and effective.

Designer: Feng Chang

There are definitely plenty of walking aid designs, some even serving multiple functions. Some are just a step above crutches that you have to lift to move forward, while others come with wheels that increase mobility at the expense of some stability. Some come with small seats for the user, and others have baskets to hold their things. This particular walker concept combines some of these to present a more agile yet safe aid that has room for your pet when you go out.

The most conspicuous part of this walker is the large box that serves as your pet’s mobile home. You can simply slide the door on top to let the little furry friend in or out, or you can keep it close so that they don’t jump out suddenly. Of course, there are vents that allow the pet to breathe easily while comfortably confined in there.

The walking aid itself has a few aspects that help it rise about common designs. The handle, for example, travels in almost all directions, giving the user the freedom to grip it any way they prefer. There’s a brake button underneath the handlebar that will prevent the user from falling over or sliding. The front wheels also have LED lights above them that can be recharged via a USB-C slot on the opposite side, offering additional safety, especially in darker areas.

This walking aid concept hits two birds with one well-designed stone to help make elderly lives a bit more enjoyable and meaningful. It offers a convenient way for them to bring their beloved pets with them for a walk while also providing mobility and safety for themselves. And while the walker is primarily designed for very old people, anyone with limited mobility and a small pet can still benefit from this idea, at least if it ever becomes a real product.

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Face protector concept for bikers, athletes, and workers gives off a cyberpunk vibe

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Although requirements to wear face masks have already been lifted in many places around the world, there will always be cases where people have to wear some sort of protection for their faces or at least their mouths and noses. This is especially true for those who get exposed to dust and smoke all the time, from motorcycle riders to skiers to metalworkers. While there are definitely plenty of face protectors in the market today, most of them are designed just for cheap mass production and offer neither true protection nor comfort. A well-designed face protector is definitely long overdue, and thankfully there is one that will soon be heading to production that is not only stylish but also has a trick up its sleeve.

Designer: Kim Sang-il (BUYRUSDESIGN)

Face protectors or face masks block dust, smoke, and small particles from entering your mouth and your nose that could cause damage to your respiratory system. Some even employ filters to purify the air that goes through the mask. These masks range from simple pieces of fabric to hefty mechanical oddities clinging to your face, and very few of them really take into account the varied cases that people would use these masks.

The G.O.A. Face Protector design, in contrast, was made from the ground up to be effective, comfortable, convenient, and aesthetic. Although it was primarily made with bikers in mind, its versatility also includes sports users, workers, and crafters, practically anyone whose faces and lungs are exposed to harmful particles. Because of its primary target audience, the face protector takes on a more aerodynamic shape that makes it look like a single piece of material, a design that benefits more than just bikers.

Despite that unified appearance, the face protector is actually modular to make it easy to clean or replace parts. One particularly interesting feature is that you actually remove the front cap so that you can drink quickly without having to take off the entire mask. That cap can also be used as an opportunity for adding decals or branding to make the face mask look even more interesting.

The design does use plenty of plastics and synthetic material, which is pretty much the norm for protective gear like this. The priorities, after all, are the wearer’s protection and comfort. G.O.A. does have a particular aesthetic that makes it look a little punkish, which is probably not a surprise and a perfect fit for its primary biker audience.

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Modern ditch cover redesign blocks mosquitos and saves your coins

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There are many everyday things in life that we easily take for granted until they cause us a great deal of trouble. The cover ditches and drains are a good example because we rarely pay attention to them until streets start flooding or we drop some of our stuff, from coins to even smartphones. They also become gateways for mosquitoes, bacteria, and harmful microorganisms to invade the world above and threaten our health. These drain covers are often crude, ineffective, and pretty much unappealing, mostly because very few people bother making an effort to design one that checks all the right boxes. Fortunately, there are a few creative minds willing to tackle these problems head-on, producing a ditch cover design that isn’t just safe but also good-looking to boot.

Designer: Chris Chang

To be fair, designing an effective yet presentable ditch cover isn’t exactly easy because of seemingly contradictory goals. On the one wand, it needs to let water flow easily into it to prevent flooding during heavy rains. On the other hand, the holes have to be small to prevent people’s feet and loose change from falling into them. Even if covers meet those two requirements, however, they’re still open to letting mosquitoes out from sewers below, not to mention the backflow of dirty water if those sewers start to flood.

FloaX is a concept design that aims to address all those issues without leaving a single one unsolved. It lets water in but keeps the harmful things out, and it also prevents things from falling into it. The best part is that it actually looks interesting and visually appealing rather than being an eyesore on otherwise well-kept streets.

The design’s secret is the use of floating parts that can block the flow of water in either direction. A ball made of thin rubber acts as a plug that blocks the single round hole when there is no water to drain. When water flows down from the cover, however, it easily floats to let water drain quickly. The ball sits on top of a valve plank that also floats up or settles down, depending on the situation.

This plank serves as the bottom “cover” that blocks mosquitoes, bacteria, and even odors from escaping. When the sewer below starts to flood, the plank rises and blocks the dirty water from flowing into the streets, keeping the area sanitary and pedestrians safe. The parts that make up this ditch cover aren’t anchored down to allow them to move and float freely. Instead, they are enclosed in a metal shelf that turns these parts into a single product.

Instead of typical grilles, the cover on top uses a polygonal gradient design that still lets water in while blocking small objects from falling through. It also gives the cover better structural integrity and friction, preventing people from slipping or falling into ditches. The design also looks good, to the point that it could even be an attraction rather than something people avoid because they look gross.

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A veteran designed this compact all-in-one multitool to be an incredibly versatile tactical EDC

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It looks like your average pocket knife, but the CRKT Septimo Multi-Tool cleverly gives you much more than just a flipper blade. Designed to be a combination of compact, ergonomic, and feature-rich, this handy little critter was named Septimo (Spanish for ‘seventh’) after the 7th Special Forces Group in which designer Jeremy Valdez served. Modeled after his vision of the ideal EDC multitool, the Septimo has a fold-out 2.86-inch long American Tanto blade with a liner-lock mechanism, a bottle opener, a flathead + Phillips head screwdriver, an adjustable wrench, and finally a glass-breaker tip for getting out of sticky situations. Finally, a pocket clip lets you carry your Septimo Multi-Tool around, keeping it always at arm’s length for practically every situation where you’ll need yourself a handy EDC.

Designer: Jeremy Valdez for CRKT

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The Septimo’s design isn’t arbitrary. It comes from a place of experience – the kind that Valdez wouldn’t wish on anyone. During a combat operation in Afghanistan in 2009, Valdez was involved in a helicopter crash. In the chaotic aftermath, he found his EDC folding knife of choice failing rather miserably at real-world applications that involved cutting straps/harnesses, prying apart fuselage, and moving debris to help extract his fellow soldiers from the blazing, mangled chopper wreckage. This single incident set him on a path to design the ideal tactical EDC that could be used by pretty much anyone. The Septimo Multi-Tool was crafted as a tribute to his fallen brothers and sisters in arms, with a design versatile enough to get you out of any mess. The high-friction grip and desert-proof oxide finish would also help the Septimo serve loyally even in extreme conditions.

With its tactical black aesthetic, the Septimo Multi-Tool measures 4.77 inches in length and weighs 4.4 ounces (124 grams), making it both compact and lightweight, yet cleverly versatile for all sorts of scenarios. The American Tanto blade comes with a dual-edge design that’s perfect for cutting and piercing, and a Veff™ serration located near the end of the blade provides a hooking point that’s perfect for cutting through paracords, seatbelts, etc. The 8Cr13MoV steel blade comes with the same black finish as the rest of the multitool, boasting an oxidized layer that acts as an anti-corrosive.

The rest of the tools are cleverly integrated into the Septimo’s handle. The handle itself is made from aluminum with glass-reinforced Nylon inlay plates for high grip and durability. The aluminum ‘chassis’ of the Septimo comes with a bottle-opener built into its profile, working also as a thumb-grip when you’re using the knife, and right beside it is a hexagonal slot for docking S2 bits to turn your Septimo into a screwdriver that docks flathead and Phillips Head bits.

By far the most innovative bit of this multitool is the tiny-yet-practical adjustable wrench built into the back of the handle. Armed with a moveable jaw that’s operated by a thumb-screw, this compact wrench is just as handy and useful as its larger sibling, but fits right in your pocket and works perfectly for smaller Hex bits, bolts, and nuts. The Septimo ends with a final flair by integrating a glass-breaker tip at the end of its handle, making it perfect for striking down on toughened glass to instantly shatter it for a quick getaway in an emergency.

Click Here to Buy Now

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Safety never looked sexier with these AI-generated superhero motorbike helmets

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Sure, not every single one of them is practical, but I’d personally sell my kidney for the Bumblebee-themed helmet below.

I can’t help but reinforce my point that Midjourney and other similar AI art-generators are incredible ideation tools. In a matter of mere seconds, they spit up inspirational images that can sometimes directly and oftentimes indirectly be taken as design inputs. Not everything the AI bots make is ‘usable’ in an industrial design sense, but it does a pretty good job of boiling down the concept-generation phase from weeks to mere minutes, whether you’re creating concept images for an imaginary Tesla Cyberbike, or Marvel-themed Nike sneakers. These superhero-themed helmets are quite similar in nature. Designed by Instagram user Coldstar Art, these futuristic helmets take inspiration from popular cinematic legends spanning a variety of universes. Not all of them are great to wear, but every single one of them is stunning to look at!

Designer: Coldstar Art

The first two helmets exist in Hasbro’s Transformer-verse, with a Bumblebee helmet above, and a Megatron one below. The former helmet distinctly borrows from the friendly black-and-yellow robot’s head design, albeit with a larger visor, while the latter has all the features of a Decepticon, The segmented helmet design is reminiscent of Megatron’s face, which features multiple moving parts, and a gun-metal finish just makes the helmet look brilliantly devious.

We’re now dipping our toes in the MCU, with a Punisher helmet above, and a Deadpool helmet below. The Punisher helmet looks unapologetically badass, with its skull-inspired design and a respirator on the front where you’d expect the mouth to be. Grill lines on it make it look like the Punisher logo’s teeth, while the rest of the helmet looks almost like an exoskeleton with an emphasis on skeleton! Moving forward into slightly more familiar territory, the helmet below pays homage to our favorite merc with a mouth, Deadpool. The headgear is almost instantly recognizable, with its red and black colorway, and those large expressive eye cutouts, although unlike Deadpool’s mask, which is made from fabric, this hard-hat can take impact. Deadpool-meets-Deathstroke, maybe?

Sure, these two helmets look incredibly familiar, but let’s just say that Midjourney took a bit of creative liberty with them. You’ve got a green Iron Man helmet on the top, and a purple and gold Iron Man helmet on the bottom. I’ll be honest, the green helmet just doesn’t feel right. There’s something deeply unsettling when I look at that helmet in green, although the purple+gold helmet sort of feels weirdly familiar in a Thanos-meets-Tony-Stark way. Perhaps a conceptual helmet for a Thanos-buster suit?

We near the end of this list with two Power Ranger helmets for good measure. The helmets really feel natural because the superheroes wore helmets too, but Midjourney really pulled no stops, giving each headgear flaps/horns on the top that make the helmets look more edgy. The two helmets also display one of Midjourney’s most fundamental flaws – the inability to maintain basic symmetry with its art generation. The notch on top of the visor on the blue helmet seems discernibly off-center, and it seems like the purple helmet doesn’t even have a matching set of horns on its left side.

Our final helmet is perhaps the most easily recognizable yet, following the Marvel helmets. Meet the Predator helmet – it looks rustic with its stony finish, rasta-futuristic with its dreadlocks, and is the kind of helmet you wouldn’t want to see in your rearview mirror… definitely not if you identify as an alien!

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iPhone-style satellite connectivity on an Android phone? Motorola’s dongle lets you send SOS texts anywhere

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Debuting (rather by surprise) at MWC 2023, the Motorola Defy Satellite Link does for all phones what Apple built into the iPhone 14 – gives them satellite connectivity so you can send texts in areas with little to no network coverage. The palm-sized dongle comes as a collaboration between Motorola and Bullitt, and connects to pretty much any Bluetooth-enabled smartphone, making the potentially life-saving tech accessible to many more people.

Designer: Motorola & Bullitt

Built with a rugged IP68 waterproof and dustproof exterior, the Motorola Defy Satellite Link comes with a portable design that weighs a mere 3 ounces (70 grams) and can strap around your keychain or even onto your backpack using a simple carabiner clip and the strap-loop built onto the Defy itself. The Defy sports three buttons, including a power button and location button on the left, and a larger, more visible SOS button on the right. A USB-C port helps charge the Defy’s 600mAh battery, which lasts for “multiple days,” according to Motorola and Bullitt.

A hallmark of the Motorola Defy Satellite Link is that not only is it device agnostic (supporting both Android and iOS devices), but it can be used by multiple phones together once paired via Bluetooth. The large, orange SOS button on the right side helps instantly call for emergency assistance, tapping into Defy’s partnership with FocusPoint International, an ERaaS (Emergency Response as a Service) company with 24/7 monitored response centers in 120 countries that handle emergency and assistance requests. The location button built on the other side sends your current location to your close contacts, and the Defy even allows you to send text messages via the Bullitt Satellite Messenger app.

The $99 Defy Satellite Link can connect to geostationary satellites 22,300 miles (35,888 km) above the Earth using the 3GPP NTN open standard “direct-to-device” satellite communications technology, although hardware doesn’t factor in the subscription you have to pay to actually use the service. Just the SOS feature starts at $4.99 a month, and there’s also an optional $149 bundle that gets you the Defy dongle with a 1-year subscription that also includes 30 outgoing and incoming messages per month using the Bullitt Satellite Messenger app, available on Android and iOS devices.

Satellite coverage should be live across Europe and North America at launch, followed by Australia and New Zealand, Africa, and Latin America in mid-2023, according to a report by CNBC. It’s unclear when Asia (where Motorola’s parent company Lenovo is based out of) will get satellite coverage to support the Defy Satellite Link.

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This hidden Taillight Drawer gives you secret storage in your pickup truck

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A much better alternative to leaving things on your dashboard or in your glove box…

Designed by Swiss-based Black Sheep Innovations, these hidden taillight drawers are absolute genius, going to show that no idea is TOO ridiculous, and no space too small to be used as storage. The Rear Light Drawers cleverly sit in a hidden area right behind your taillight. When closed shut, there’s absolutely no way of knowing that there’s anything behind there, but open the taillight and a long drawer comes cascading out, with enough linear storage for an entire minibar, camping/hunting gear, or even for objects you’d ideally like to stash away from the public eye. Even with the drawer hiding behind it, the taillight still remains entirely functional, giving you an extra bit of secret storage space with quite literally nothing to lose!

Designer: Black Sheep Innovations GmbH

Given the intricate nature of this custom modification, Black Sheep Innovations is limiting it to just two models – the Volkswagen Amarok and the Toyota Hilux, with more models yet to be added in the future. The storage itself can be customized based on request, allowing you to create a space that’s perfect for what you have in mind, be it a minibar, a toolkit, or a hideaway spot for important documents and valuables.

The hidden drawers remain easily accessible and don’t affect your car’s functionality in any way. The taillight housing can be unhooked by pressing a secret button, causing the hidden drawer to slide out as much as you want. Depending on the design, you can either have the taillight fold downwards to reveal the drawer or have it permanently attached to the drawer and extend outwards when pulled.

The mods don’t come cheap. Each kit is built to order, costing as high as 3392 Swiss Francs, or $3635 of your finest American dollars. You’ll still have to assemble it on your own, though.

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Enabot EBO X is a security robot that disarms you with its cuteness

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It’s becoming more common for houses to have at least one indoor security camera, whether to keep an eye out for intruders or to look out for the safety of family members and pets. Knowing that there’s an all-seeing eye inside your house can cause both peace of mind and uneasiness, especially because of the cold and impersonal way most of these cameras are designed. Not much of a problem if you’re staying by yourself, but living with kids and pets changes the atmosphere and the requirements significantly. Not only will you need something that can keep up with these fast-moving creatures, but they also need to be something that the young ones can approach with confidence. That’s the kind of robot that the upcoming EBO X is, combining the safety features of a security camera on wheels in the guise of a cute robot that your kids and even pets can befriend.

Designer: Enabot

Futurists had us believing that our homes will be filled with robots by now, but so far, only robot vacuums have become a more common novelty in some households. Admittedly, there aren’t many use cases for other robots to be moving around the house aside from cleaning and maybe assisting those with limited mobility. Enabot, however, has been introducing home robots that, at first glance, seem to be just sophisticated toys but can actually become important safety measures, at least if they work perfectly.

EBO X is the latest spherical wheeled robot from the company, and it can do everything that its predecessors can and so much more. That includes monitoring your house remotely or communicating via voice with whoever is at home. It can also follow moving objects, like pets and small humans, to take timely pictures or even sound the alarm if it detects something amiss.

What really sets it apart, however, is its human-centric design, specifically kid-centric. Enabot gave the EBO X not only a cuter face, with dynamic lighting that changes according to its functions, but also a smarter brain. It can respond to voice commands, for example, so that kids can converse with the robot as if it was their friend. It also has touch-sensitive zones on its side for activating features, giving a more tactile and more personal experience as well.

In some ways, the EBO X sounds like just an upgraded version of other EBOs before it. Its more approachable and more relatable design, however, makes a world of difference that turns the device from an advanced security system to a family friend. And if robots are going to start invading our homes, looking friendly and adorable can help integrate them better into our daily lives.

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