kickstarter

Do you drum your steering wheel in traffic jams and at all the red lights? What if it could make drum sounds instead of dull thumps?

The ridiculously named Re-Inventing The Wheel (RITW) is an electronic drum pad that covers your steering wheel and links wirelessly with your car speakers and your iPhone.

The gizmo, which is the focus of a Kickstarter campaign, emits drum sounds through the car stereo via an FM transmitter or line-in jack as you rock along to your favorite tunes on your iPhone.

RITW has eight sensors that can be set to trigger a snare, tom, cowbell, or any drum sound you like, or effects like dog barks or even Chewbacca's howl. You also can hear your drumming -- solo or with background music -- through earphones or mini speakers. … Read more

What would happen if you could take "The A-Team" and "Storm Chasers" and put them together in a blender? You'd get something like Tornado Junkies.

As their name suggests, this trio of young men are crazy about tornadoes. So crazy they think they can build a tornado-proof van.

Yes, this $5,000 Kickstarter project wants your money to build an armor-plated Ford to carry these Des Moines dudes down Tornado Alley chasing twisters. … Read more

Technology luminaries have once again found a home in Time's "100 Most Influential People In the World" series.

The list, which this year includes everyone from artist Jay-Z to Pope Francis, is filled with technology big shots including Jens Bergensten and Markus Persson, the creators of wildly popular PC title Minecraft; Perry Chen, CEO and co-founder of Kickstarter; and Google Ideas director Jared Cohen.

Technology leaders have always been staples on the Most Influential list, and such giants as Steve Jobs have made their way into the listing. This year's selection, however, appears to be a … Read more

Head underwater at the Great Barrier Reef with Google Maps, and you'll notice something deeply saddening: instead of the vividly colored corals you would expect, vast swathes of the reef are dull brown -- dying, thanks to pollution, fishing, and climate change. This is a situation repeated the world over, with 20 percent of the world's reefs dead, and another 50 percent under immediate threat.

Although coral reefs, when left alone, can regenerate, those closer to human habitation aren't so lucky. It seems hopeless; short of drastic intervention, such as the cessation of fishing and dropping waste into the sea, how on earth could we combat this?

Humans have been trying to help. Fragments of Hope is a coral nursery in Belize that sends divers down to plant pieces of healthy coral in the dying reefs to speed up the recovery process. This work is painstaking and slow, however, and -- perhaps most pertinently -- subject to the limitations of the human body. There are places where humans cannot dive, and human endurance has a limit.

The Coral-bot Team from the U.K. has proposed that robots go where humans can't tread. The team has designed and built a series of robots that could autonomously navigate the depths and continue the work of planting coral. … Read more

While NASA has been busy sending friendly messages out into space, it's overlooked one important issue. What if the aliens aren't friendly? Haven't the folks at NASA watched the "Alien" movies? A Kickstarter project is aiming to counteract NASA's open-arms policy by blasting a satellite into space with a less likeable version of humanity onboard.

In the 1970s, NASA sent two Pioneer spacecraft out into the universe bearing plaques with directions to Earth and illustrations of naked humans to show what extraterrestrial visitors could expect upon arrival at our humble planet. Ridiculo.us, creators of the Your Face in Space Kickstarter, is more concerned about warding off hostile invasion forces from beyond our solar system.… Read more

In the tech world, crowdfunding is most associated with Kickstarter and raising money for technology-centered projects like the Ouya gaming console, the Elevation Dock, and the Pebble smartwatch. But, the concept has a far wider reach than just consumer devices.

Global crowdfunding raised nearly $2.7 billion for more than 1 million campaigns in 2012, according to a new report by Massolution. This means that the crowdfunding market grew by 81 percent over the year prior.

"While lending-, donation-, and reward-based crowdfunding have thus far been leading this global financial revolution," CEO of Massolution Carl Esposti said in … Read more

If you're missing a hand, getting a replacement isn't exactly cheap. The BeBionic -- which is, admittedly, a higher-end model -- can cost up to $35,000. We imagine that's a little out of the price range of many amputees.

It's unsurprising, then, that some have taken it upon themselves to find a more accessible solution. Robohand, for example, has been creating 3D-printed robotic hands for children, with a free, open-source 3D-printing pattern available on Thingiverse for people who wish to make their own.

Christopher Chappell of the U.K. wants to do something similar. He'… Read more

There's no denying that the ZeitEco scooter looks weird, like the love child of a Yamaha and a Klondike bar. If you want to blend into a crowd, this isn't the vehicle for you. The name stands for "zero-emission individual transport." The result is an electric scooter that can fit in the back of many vehicles.

The ZeitEco handlebars and foot rests fold away so you can pack it into small spaces. It's also ready to handle your gadgets with a built-in sound system and the ability to charge them up. It's kind of like a boom box on wheels.… Read more

You know what they say... keep your friends close, and your batteries closer.

A Washington-based accessory maker has just created a Kickstarter project for its latest product, the Rhino Battery Holster. As the name suggests, the contraption allows you to holster your camera battery like a gunslinger in an old Western.

Capable of holding two Canon 2 LP-E6 juice packs, the battery holster has an integrated belt clip that lets you attach the holster to your belt, camera strap, or camera carrier. Alternately, there are brass inserts at the rear of the belt clip that let you secure the holster to anything using a carabiner. … Read more