[CES 2014] Wearable technology and connected objects is going to be the major trend at CES this year. All the conditions are set for the “perfect storm”: components are cheaper, more powerful and consume less energy than ever, a lot more people own a smartphone in 2013, software development costs have decreased (except for the engineer salaries in the US) and crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter have funded wearable concepts to a level never expected. I am thinking of Pebble ($10 M), Emotiv Insight ($1.6M), or Oculus Rift ($2M) for example.A lot more objects will be connected one way or another to the internet and, following that trend, Kolibree, the “World’s First” connected electric toothbrush launched today at CES Unveiled. The company’s claim to be the “World’s First” seems reasonable, to our knowledge, we have never seen a device like this one except for the Beam, which is a non-electric $25 connected toothbrush.
The Kolibree toothbrush records every brushing with its accelerometer. Once connected to your Android or iOS Smartphone via Bluetooth 3.0, the free Kolibree application automatically synchronizes the data about how you brushed and can tell you whether you brushed everywhere and long enough. The application provides a rating of each brushing and allows users to make progress. I will update this article once I will see the demo with the prototype at CES.
Teeth brushing is a boring and annoying activity that parents have to teach their kids very early on. Kolibree ‘s goal is to make this activity fun to trigger self motivation in young children. The brushing data will be available via an API to let 3rd party game designers develop new apps and enhance brushing time via interesting game-play.
Kolibree is a rechargeable sonic electrical brush that features only one button and no display, all the information related to the collected data is visible within the free iOS or Android application. The device will be available starting in Q3 2014 but ready for pre-order starting this summer through Kickstarter and can be shipped worldwide with fixed shipping prices to Europe and North America. The price of Kolibree will range from $99 to $200 depending on the model.
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