Tag: diagnostics

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Automotive Connected Objects

Exploride makes a clear case for a smart car display

editors-choiceThe OBD (On-Board Diagnostics) II port in all cars produced since 1996 has been tapped for the wide array of information it can yield about a car’s status and performance . Much of this information has been transferred to an app or a clunky tablet-like device on the dashboard.

Exploride, though, ties together input from the OBD II connector, your smartphone and even the good old car stereo (via Bluetooth) to create an ambitious and holistic smart car retrofit solution. The basic functionality includes tasks we’ve seen in many other in-vehicle systems, including control over phone calls, navigation and music. What really sets the product apart is its 6″ fold-down transparent display that also features a dash cam for good measure. While companies such as Garmin have experimented with heads-up displays, the car computer from the Maryland-based company has a much slicker, sleeker and colorful experience.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Fuel Book piles on the features to make your car a smarter ride

One of the biggest fears of drivers is running out of fuel in the middle of nowhere and not having any idea where the nearest gas station is.

patent-claimedFuel Book is a small, white plug-and-play on-board diagnostics device that alerts users when they are low on fuel and tells them where the nearest gas stations are. In conjunction with an Android, iOS and Windows Phone app, Fuel Book creates a smart environment through the diagnostic port of a car. The device costs $169 and will ship in November. Its maker is trying to raise $50,000 by June 21 to use towards production tooling, Bluetooth certification and large-scale production,

The device faces competition from several OBD-II devices, including Automatic. But Fuel Book has a few features that help it stand out from the pack, including park tracking that will enable users to find their car if they forgot where they left it in a huge parking lot.

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Connected Objects Health and Wellness

MedWand measures vitals, peeks inside you to further telemedicine

Anyone who’s seen much of Star Trek has probably seen the tricorder, the magical device used by Dr. McCoy to scan patients for a whole host of possible ailments. Interest in the practicality of that device really picked up with the Scanadu Scout that raised over $1.6 million. However, there’s  plenty that technology can do long before the days of warp drives and phasers.

Take, for example, MedWand. The compact device combines seven medical diagnostic tools in one to send data and images to a doctor available via a telemedicine call. The MedWand allows the remote physician to check out the inside of the patients’ noses, ears or throats, or monitor their heartbeat or blood oxygen level.  This information is sent to an app via Bluetooth although it is no doubt the company’s intent to have it compatible with apps from multiple healthcare providers MedWand seeks $75,000 on Indiegogo by May 28th. A $199 unit that represents a $50 discount off the retail price is due to ship in October.

Unlike products with tricorder ambitions, the MedWand is designed for today’s medical landscape… almost. Telemedicine is still immature and relatively unavailable. However, it stands to fill in a critical gap for immobile patior rural patients. The success of the product will likely come down to the company’s ability to convince insurers to at least partially subsidize its costs.

Categories
Automotive Connected Objects

Drivebot joins the car diagnostics club

It’s interesting to see the types of emotions we harbor towards the vehicles in our lives. We silently appreciate their hard and diligent work taking us where we need to go everyday until the day comes where they breaks down, where we then proceed to generate a maelstrom of foul language and intense hatred for forcing us to spend ridiculous sums of money to fix them.

Although having a car is heavy financial responsibility, with the Drivebot it doesn’t have to be so expensive. Billed as a Fitbit for your car, the Bluetooth-enabled dongle connects to your car’s On-Board Diagnostic II port and continuously monitors problems in their earliest stages before they become worse, ballooning in cost. It also helps by reminding you of maintenance requirements and analyzing your driving patterns to save you time, gas, and money. Onboard flash storage stores two months of trip data which can be exported as documents to claim taxes on, tacking on the savings. For $75, the Drivebot can be yours in February of 2015. The campaign is attempting to reach a $35,000 goal.

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Automotive Connected Objects

Freematics dishes driving data to developers

FreematicsWhat do you get when you cross the hobbyist Arduino platform with Bluetooth and  the On-Board Diagnostics (OBD-II) port found in every vehicle? Nobody really knows yet, but the developers of Freematics (a portmanteau of “free” and “telematics” aim to find out by opening up the combination to open source developers. One thing’s that certain is that the device can handle a lot of data about your car’s vital statistics such as its speed and engine RPMs. Turning that into something more meaningful for people will be left to developers who will be the main audience for the data collector. Freematics should be available in March 2014 to backers who pledge at least $89 AUD.

Categories
Automotive Connected Objects

Truvolo plugs in to vehicle diagnostics

The Premise. Technology is fabulous. Alas, we still do not have flying cars, but if we do you can bet they’ll be connected to our smartphones. In the meantime, car manufacturers are focused on connecting gravity-bound automobiles.

The Product. Truvolo is a small device which plugs into your car’s data port along with a smartphone app that collects data from the device and sends it to a secure cloud-based platform. The device, which plugs into a car’s on-board diagnostics (OBD-II) connector can clue you in to problems, help optimize gas mileage, and send alerts for unsafe driving. Being connected, it also provides several car-related services such as regular maintenance reminders, alerts when it’s time to fill the gas tank, alternate routes when traffic is heavy and an organization system which helps account for trips for business and separate them from personal travels.

The Pitch. Jaideep Jain, co-founder and CEO lays out the need for Truvolo in a straightforward video in which he also explains that the project was inspired as his son approached legal driving age. He thinks of Truvolo as “the place to go for everything car-related.” He explains that Truvolo can help make you and a safer driver by providing feedback on driver performance in addition to location information. He claims that in the future, Truvolo will even be able to block texting while driving. Other than the video, the campaign on Indiegogo features a link to the various press Truvolo has garnered to date in addition to some partial screen shots of the app.

The Perks. This project has many, many reward tiers starting at $30 for the most basic level of support with a corresponding reward of a Truvolo tee and letter of thanks. The first 150 people to donate $89 can become either an “early bird” or “beta tester” of the Truvolo device and app, with beta testers receiving the product about two months in advance of other audiences. Other tiers escalate to increasing amounts of product and rewards which include dinner with the founders (transportation excluded) and for $6,000 you can even become a “development partner.” According to the posted project schedule, units will complete beta testing in May and start shipping to Indiegogo supporters in June 2014.

The Potential. While there’s no doubt in the potential for a new connected standard for future vehicles, the concrete benefits to a product like Truvolo remain somewhat unclear for now. Similar products like Zubie and Automatic are already available in the market and it’s difficult to see how Truvolo will differentiate itself. Most people already know how to be safer drivers — slow down, use caution, stop fully at stop signs, etc. But there’s something to be said for hard evidence. If Truvolo can’t leverage that to change driver behavior, it may be seen as just an expensive way to remind yourself to get an oil change.