With sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, the masses can fund the next big thing in tech. Here are the projects have raised the most enthusiasm, and money.
Raising more than $12 million is impressive. Unfortunately, it wasn’t near enough (imagine that) to bring to fruition the Ubuntu’s phone concept, which needed $32 million to meet its Indiegogo goal.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Pebble is a customizable watch that works with various apps and can send the user notifications for things like emails and phone calls, from your phone. Pebble’s runaway success on Kickstarter made smartwatches a thing and helped launch the wearable computing revolution.
Also see: Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
The Ouya gaming console built on Android allows users to play mobile video games on a television, instead of just on a smartphone or tablet.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Music legend Neil Young’s crusade for better audio quality became the third-most successful Kickstarter in history after much talk as to whether anyone would want to pay for a new music device. The answer, apparently, is “yes.”
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
These wireless earphones can store 4GB of music, track the vitals of the wearer, and monitor things like distance and speed.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
The makers of this printer, Formlabs, aimed for a 3D printer that was affordable, high resolution, and reliable. More than 2,000 backers wanted in on the idea.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
The virtual reality headset most recently made news for being bought by Facebook for $2 billion.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
3Doodler markets itself as the world’s first 3D printing pen. It heats and cools plastic so the user can draw in 3 dimensions, or trace stencils on a flat surface.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
This home security device has multiple sensors that take in and analyze data on things like motion, temperature, sounds, and movement, alerting the resident when something doesn’t seem right at home.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
After a very successful campaign for a product called Geek Out, LH Labs, created a new Indiegogo campaign for a high definition digital audio system called Geek Pulse. Where it differs from Pono Music, for example, is that it’s not strictly a music player, but a tool to enhance audio from your computer, meaning music, videos, games, etc.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
The Scanadu Scout is a medical tricorder that measures things like heart rate, temperature, blood pressure, and more, and delivers that info to your phone.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Another project geared toward collecting data from the wearer, the Emotiv Insight tracks brain activity and turns it into usable data.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
This kit was designed to make building a computer as easy as building with Legos. Kano also teaches basic coding and computing principles, and even lets you hack games like Pong and Snake.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
The Meteor smart watch differs from others in that it includes voice and gesture control. It’s compatible with the iPhone, Android, and Windows 8.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Airtame is wireless HDMI that allows the user to display whatever is on their computer monitor.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Panono, a “panoramic ball camera,” takes full-spherical panoramic pictures at 108 megapixels when thrown into the air like a regular ball.
Also see:Photos: Crowdfunded tech projects that are changing the world
Erin Carson is a Staff Reporter for CNET and a former Multimedia Editor for TechRepublic.
