Hong Kong’s new hardware startup meet-up StartWareHK met for the first time ever yesterday.
Hosted by active hardware startup founders Julian Lee of Ambi Climate, Jon Buford of Makible and Martin Kessler of Phonejoy, the get together was an opportunity for hardware veterans and neophytes to kick back, bond and share ideas.
Since Hong Kong is continuously praised as the ideal environment to build a hardware startup, this meet-up is only the start to a burgeoning community of like-minded builders and tinkerers. We wanted to celebrate this new development by introducing you to a few hardware startups you may, or may not heard of.
First up is Ximplar, a consumer device that aims to accurately assess the user’s hearing-print then create custom audio. Unlike other headsets that deliver generic sounds, Ximplar takes the user experience one step further by looking inward and have performed almost 7,000 cases of clinical trials on their proprietary hearing technology called ACEHearing.
Incubatees at Science Park, Ximplar has had several exciting milestones in the past few years. Along with winning the Wall Street Journal’s Asian Innovations Aware in 2011, they are also a finalist in this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in the “Best Mobile Health Product / Service” category.
(WSJ video on ACEHearing – interview with the CUHK professor and principal developer of the tech)
For those keen on (instead of being terrified of) the possibilities of aerial robots, there’s Sky Drone FPV (First Person View) – which claims to be the world’s first low-cost, low-latency consumer FPV solution. An on-board camera meant to be attached to a drone, this gadget offers a military-grade video view for people who have ever wanted to see the world from a drone’s perspective.
Cool features of the Sky Drone FPV: it supports Oculus Rift, has a 112-degree field of view lens (possible to upgrade to the 166-degree lens), HD video capabilities and can take 5 Megapixel still images during video capture. Plus, you can insert a SIM card inside the gadget to live stream your drone video feed on your smartphone using 3G/4G networks.
Next up is Able-HD, a 17-inch lightweight monitor weighing less than an iPad for users that enjoy a two screen workspace. A successful Kickstarter campaign that raised almost US $100,000 (1,994% of their original goal of $5,000) – Able-HD was featured in the popular crowdfunding site’s 50 most successful campaigns of the year.
Building on the success of their original monitor, the company has just announced early this month that it has launched the Able-HD Plus – a super slim screen that’s thinner than an iPhone 5 (7.5 mm). Claiming to be the world’s slimmest monitor, the Able-HD Plus will weigh just 750 grams with HDMI, VGA and DVA video ports.
Missed StartWareHK’s first meet-up? Stayed tuned for their next get together here.
