Cross-border hardware entrepreneurship

These days, do not want to be a code of the musicians are not good Wenqing, small series can be counted at the disrupt New York Convention to see.

Once upon a time, I only know TC disrupt is the most vane-worthy entrepreneurial event in the American tech circle; What I didn't think of was that a science and technology conference could gather so many ' literary youth '.

At this conference's hardware show (Hardware Alley), I saw a lot of hardware that was innovative across the border. Their founders are versatile: they can play guitar, speak French, and weave python ... Thanks to the Kickstarter platform, where their imaginations transition from art to technology ' barrier-free ', they can finally be put into practice; today, they are gathering their babies in New York, where the culture is a blend.

Figure Note: Disrupt exhibition site.

The so-called ' geek dream ', that's what happened:

1 Intelligent Chord roadie.

Co-founder Hassane Slaibi is a young Lebanese who loves to play music. He used to play the band while he was studying programming in college. He knew how embarrassing and time-consuming it was to be a musician, ' hand-tuned in front of the audience, ' and made the world's first intelligent tuning string with a college band partner. Hassane told me, English roadie originally refers to the band of those who pipe equipment (installation, tuning etc.), and they do this hardware may really let the reality of the roadie are unemployed, hehe. P.S This product is suitable for almost all stringed instruments (as long as the steel knob on the line, the wood is not), but also supports a variety of open chord method.

This is the case, roadie through Bluetooth and mobile phone-side app to connect. We just open the app and set the tone that we want to tune, at this time put the roadie in the instrument of the rotating button, plucked the strings, roadie internal rotating motor will start, it will be based on the sound of the phone will be received to tune the strings to the best state, 2 seconds to fix a string, very magical. According to Hassane, due to machine recognition, Roadie's tuning accuracy is 3 times times more than the human ear. At present, Hassane's partner is in Shenzhen to raise the production of things, is expected next month roadie will be able to ship. Presumably, Kickstarter fans are impatient.

2 Guitar almighty Butler acoustic Stream.

This is a small square black box that needs to be used with your smartphone, and it has a specially matched app. When you use it, you can put this little thing in the guitar cavity or near the guitar. Acoustic stream Set the following functions: 1 for your performance recording: You only need to hit the piano box two times (many guitarists before playing the habit of cool action), it will automatically start recording function, and can sync music real-time to the smartphone. 2 to help your guitar tuning: When you turn on your app's attunement, your phone will be able to recognize whether the sound of the strings is accurate, and then instruct you to tune the guitar. 3 Monitor the humidity and humidity of the guitar and the Endurance of the strings: provide you with the appropriate maintenance reminders via app.

Bob Bean, founder of Acoustic Stream, is an elegant, middle-aged man. He said he had fallen in love with music since high school, when he formed a band called Storm, who loved singing and playing the guitar, and it's been 35 years now. Oh yes, he's also an entrepreneur who founded multiple CAD software companies.

Bob pointed to his beloved wooden guitar and said to me, "see these two cracks?" This is because the placement of the guitar is too dry, but I did not find it in time. Later found cracked to take to repair, now this guitar will never be the same as before. It made me want to do acoustic stream, I hope our instrument can use it to tell the host: I am sick, come and take care of me! ”

3 The world's smallest guitar-fretpen.

Founder Mark Roebke told me that playing the guitar was addictive, and that he wanted to help guitar lovers play with his guitar at all times, so he made this miniature plaything; "So we spend our time on the road and waiting for others." ”

Mark is not only a passionate guitarist, but also an experienced entrepreneur who has a lot of research on mobile technology and electronic sensors. He told me that Fretpen was just a little thing he was doing in his garage with a couple of good friends: the first was a few pieces of wood, a Arduino microcontroller and some circuit boards, and started fiddling with them. Later, the band saw machine and belt sander were gradually replaced by MakerBot R2 3D printer, and the Arduino microcontroller became an integrated circuit test program. "With 3D printing, it's getting easier to make a hardware model of your own," said Mark, who is more and more bang and has made a lot of cute little guitars.

Fretpen there is only one string, pressed below is a real maple finger plate, the back of the neck is an electronic sensor, by testing the position of your finger, this small guitar for you to play a wonderful music. In addition, there are 4 small buttons on the black piano to help you change the scales (you need to match the app).

By the Fretpen, besides being a guitar, it is a pen. In Mark's view, the ' pen ' is the most pervasive thing in the world, where it can be, and also useful, so why not combine it with the function of the guitar? So, there is this magical Fretpen (Fret-string; pen-pen).