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Dream on

face-down-sleeping

The allure of sleep and dreaming is undeniable, those mysterious necessities that fill a third of our lives (if we’re so lucky). Despite decades of research, there is no comprehensive theory of sleep, why we dream, or why I feel like a slug when I wake up early. It’s no wonder we find them fascinating.

Unfortunately, some unscrupulous creators have taken advantage of that fascination, raising insane amounts of money with good marketing and shoddy science while more legitimate campaigns languish. Let’s set aside the hyperbolic nonsense – no more shouting about the “power” of sleep and dreams – and investigate the science and technology behind:

  • NeuroOn – A magical device that claims to track your sleep patterns, train you to sleep less, induce lucid dreams, and wake you up gently, all while ripping off early supporters
  • Lucid Dreamer, CanLucidDream, Aurora, & DreamNet – Lucid dream inducing masks
  • Napwell – Progressive light alarm clock
  • Vigo – Track your alertness and give you a poke when you start to doze

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Drop Kicker Mop Up – 03 January 2014

slippery-when-wet

It’s time for another installment in our occasional “Mop Up” series, a review of crowdfunding news that caught our interest. In this issue:

  • Project Aire – An overambitious smartphone
  • Magnoplug – A safer power cord
  • myLIFTER – A BLE-enabled lifting device
  • Bluetooth LED Dog Collar – You have to respect descriptive product names
  • Bringrr – A Bluetooth Low Energy location tag
  • OpenBCI – EEG for the people
  • No More Woof – Read your dog’s mind

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Drop Kicker Mop Up, Dec. 9

There are some crowd funded projects we come across through our search that are just so out there that we really can’t find anything interesting to say about them.  They’re so far gone that we’re confident that every one of our readers knows better to take them seriously.  That being said, they’re still pretty amusing, so we thought it’d be fun to do a brief bi-monthly wrap-up of the projects that aren’t really worth a full analysis.  Thus, the Drop Kicker Mop Up:

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