Kickstarter breathes life into tech start-ups

Protei
The Protei oil spill-cleaning robot is designed to sail upwind and collect oil slicks as they drift downwind. The robot uses a long, oil-absorbent tail to collect the spillage, and has a self-righting system to stay afloat in choppy weather.

The project has exceeded its target of $27,500. The money will be used to buy sensors for the next prototype, which will be "the first articulated sailing boat that can tack upwind pulling a long heavy payload and initiating a revolutionary family in ocean robotics".

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CustomCTRL
CustomCTRL allows people to control various aspects of daily life — from lighting and thermostats to entertainment systems — via their smartphones.

The open-source project is based on Arduino and consists of an adapter that connects to your smartphone. CustomCTRL is looking to raise $33,000 by 3 May.

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Mindgine
Mindgine's project aims to create a 'social cloud' based on small, low-cost 'plug computer' servers and open-source software.

There are two server devices, the 600MHz Mindebian-micro and the 1.2GHz Mindebian-X. Both weigh around 227g, have 512MB of RAM and connect to networks and peripherals via Gigabit Ethernet and USB 2.0. The smaller Mindebian-micro has a microSD slot, while the slightly larger Mindebian-X has an SD card slot. To go with the hardware, Mindgine has created a Debian-based Linux distribution called Mindebian OS.

The project creators envisage the servers and USB-attached devices being used for internet-accessible storage, music and movie streaming, printing, VoIP call handling and camera control. When idling, the servers can be assigned to work on one of the many Boinc (Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing) research projects.

Mindgine needs to raise $99,991 by 28 May to reach its target.

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Diaspora
One of Kickstarter's success stories of 2010 was the Diaspora social-networking software.

The project reached its funding deadline with $200,641 — not bad, given that its original target was just $10,000.

Diaspora — the brainchild of four New York University students — is a personal web server that lets people store their information and share it with friends.

The software aims to ensure that data you share is only seen by the people you intend, and ownership of that data stays with you.

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Gameduino
Another recent success on Kickstarter is Gameduino, a game adapter for Arduino hardware that lets people create their own videogames.

The device is built as a single shield that stacks up on top of the Arduino and has plugs for a VGA monitor and stereo speakers. It comes with demos, hardware sprites and rolling backgrounds to help people get started with their games.

Gameduino raised $38,297 — far exceeding its target of $3,333, which was intended to fund its first production run.

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TikTok/LunaTik watches
By far and away the biggest success story in Kickstarter's short history are the TikTok/LunaTik watches. These turn a sixth-generation iPod Nano into a multitouch watch.

The project was funded by 6,000 percent, earning $941,718 on a target of just $15,000.

TikTok is a snap-in strap that lets you place and remove your iPod; LunaTik is a premium wristband for people who don't mind dedicating their iPod Nano to the life of a wristwatch.

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