Indiegogo is one of a number of crowdfunding type sites on the web today. Groups or individuals with crazy ideas can turn them into a project and request funding to help turn their dreams into reality. Needless to say, some of the ideas you find here are blue-sky, haven't-got-a-prayer fantasies, but some of them are truly exceptional. If you've been wracking your brain trying to come up with the next big thing for your company, here are a cross section of projects to inspire you.
DrinkPure Water Filtration System
With 780 million people in the world lacking reliable access to clean water, this project can certainly lay claim to a very large market. Even among those of who enjoy easy and cheap access to clean drinking water there are still survivalists and legions of outdoor enthusiasts who would be keenly interested in such a device as the one invented by this group. Best of all, they've been able to construct it in their garage, using a 3d printer and other fairly basic tools that are now becoming mainstream. In the not so distant past, the only way they'd have been able to make an affordable prototype would have been to work with a Chinese manufacturer and have each version shipped over for evaluation. A slow, tedious process that would have made the project a lesson in frustration.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/drinkpure-a-novel-water-filtration-device
TouchPico
This is one of those ideas that when you read about it, you find yourself wondering why someone hasn't come up with this already. It just makes sense. It's a miniature projector that can turn any surface into an interactive, 80” touch screen.
The moment you read those words, you probably thought of about three dozen different uses for it, and if you did, you're not alone. At the time of this writing, the project still has 17 days of funding time left, and has reached 837% of its funding goals. Everyone seems to agree, this is a product that nobody realized they needed until someone made it available. Great stuff.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/touchpico-turn-any-surface-into-a-touch-screen/
ChargeAll
Billed as the world's first portable wall outlet, this is another one of those “Why didn't someone think of that years go?” concepts. It's an amazing idea and a lesson in simplicity. It's a battery. It's a wall outlet. It's portable. It's about as close to perfection as an idea can get. The team identified a problem and invented a simple solution.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/chargeall-world-s-smallest-portable-power-outlet
Ritot
The world's first projection watch is a band that slips around your wrist and looks more like a bracelet than a watch. At the touch of a button, the time, and/or other information can be displayed projected across the back of your hand. Given that smart watches are now back in fashion, it's easy to see the appeal in this technology. It's also easy to see why they've currently received more than 1600% of the funding they requested for the project. It's a solid idea, and one need only use a little imagination to combine this tech with the TouchPico tech above to extend the possibilities of the Ritot to something close to infinity.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ritot-the-first-projection-watch
JiboJibo
This is a robotics project that seeks to take advantage of the new renaissance in robotics, and create a low cost package by combining facial recognition, the latest in AI learning algorithms, and emotive speech patterns to create a robot that can recognize every member of your household, greet them by name, help around the house by being a storyteller for the kids, or a messenger, and more.
It's an ambitious project that has raised a million and a half dollars so far, and captured the imaginations of thousands. This is proof positive that you don't have to be a tech giant in order to make a real, tangible difference, even in an industry like robotics.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jibo-the-world-s-first-family-robot
