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ASk HN: Anyone working on hardware for his/her startup?
99.99 percent of startups mentioned here are working on software products . I am sure there are a few of us who are creating hardwares. Could you please come fwd if you do not mind and share your concept, challenges etc...?
- dhbradshaw 18y agoBluetooth enabled wearable thermometer. Chip design, convenience, measurement, programming for devices are some of the challenges. Anyone else in medical diagnostics?
- npk 18y agoA favorite startup of mine is bodybugg (http://www.bodybugg.com/ http://www.bodybugg.com/). They measure the flux of body heat and determine a person's caloric output. I built some MEMS devices once and was juiced about building a body calorimeter. Too bad I had my idea something like three years after bodybugg went to market :)
- tocomment 18y agoI didn't know that was possible. Is there a page that says how it works? I don't want to watch their video.
- npk 18y agoI don't know for sure. My best guess is they have a calorimeter, a device which measures the irradiance on a surface. The Bodybugg companies then does a series of calibrations to convert the irradiance into the power the body outputs. The power used per (second?) is integrated up over the course of a day, and converted into calories. Essentially, it's a fancy thermometer.
- bprater 18y agoNever heard of such a device. You really do learn something new everyday!
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- rokhayakebe 18y agoGiven the fact that the consumption of video and audio will only increase I would like to see a remote control specially made for that purpose. It should not be hard. Maybe it will be an improved mouse. I looked around, but could not find anything that would satisfy my need. I may go on and get a prototype built.
- SwellJoe 18y agoWe bought one of these: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices/3848&cl=us,en http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/keyboards/keyboard/devices... Rocks pretty good for media. Can't play serious games with it, though. (My girlfriend manages to use it for Portal.)
- augustus 18y agoWe are working on some devices for the home of the future operated through the Internet. I know a hardware guy so we are diversifying our product offerings.
- ph0rque 18y agoSomewhat similarly, my last startup (i-conserve.com) was developing a wireless sensor network to automate energy conservation.
- noel_gomez 18y agoI want to build a better set top box because everything I have seen is either tied to some service (apple, tivo, netflix), is not polished enough for mass market (too many features in Linux MCE), or is too expensive > $500. But alas I have no hardware skills so I will have to wait till someone else does it. :-)
- babul 18y agoI'm actually trying to do that too. Also trying to create internet content delivery and record viewing habits and statistics for a metrics/recommendation engine.
- cubicle67 18y agoYeah, a friend of mine is. He's built a video game console kit. hardware is complete, software mostly done, teaching material still to come. What it aims to do is take you through the steps required to build a game console, from how to get a signal on the screen, how video memory and sound etc work right up to building games.
- breily 18y agoThat sounds pretty cool - is there a url for it?
- cubicle67 18y agoNot yet. I'm trying to get him to get a blog up and running as I think a number of people here would find what he's doing pretty interesting.
- RetroGamer 18y agoOk I'll get a blog going with some screenshots/MPEGS and audio examples. If you guys are interested.
- cstejerean 18y agothat would be great.
- Jax 18y agoYeee!! Interesting stuff! Get the blog up and running soo!
- RetroGamer 18y agoOk give me till monday and I will have a Blog running with regular updates.
- toni 18y agoAre there blogs (ala TechCrunch) that cover hardware startups? It will be interesting to follow them regularly.
- DaniFong 18y agoIt's not really at a startup stage, but I'm trying to, with some friends and burning man people, see if I can build/design an extremely lightweight and cheap parabolic trough out of carbon fiber and mylar, for electric and mechanical power generation. I'm iterating through to see if wind is a blocking issue. I also had some designs for a powered wheel with two degrees of freedom, without a caster, to remove some of the angular momentum problems that classic approaches face.
- SwellJoe 18y agoMy first startup was a hardware company. I don't recommend it, unless your problem can't be solved any other way. The vast majority of hardware is a commodity, and if it isn't today, it will be in a year or two when Chinese manufacturers get it figured out. Someone else mentioned medical devices, and I definitely think that's a great area. But most folks I meet who want to do hardware are going after the consumer market, which is a hard business to enter as a startup.
- stcredzero 18y agoI heard about some ex-soviet scientists who developed a little control box to prevent backflow in big pipes (like at refineries.) They were able to sell $10 worth of hardware for something like $150,000 because of the money it would save refineries. Of course, what made it really valuable was the software in the box.
- mattmaroon 18y agoI would be if I were smart enough.
- cpr 18y agoNo, but there are still a lot of opportunities out there which require hardware. One idea struck me the other day: why not use your iPhone (or Android phone) as a home phone handset, when you're home and in Wifi range? That would require a specialized base station (perhaps running a stripped-down Asterisk) that recognized when your phone was in range, and would "ring" it on demand, let you pick up your home phone any time, etc.