The Urban-X investors showcase is a closed-door event that shows off eight different incubated startups to potential investors and press. I stopped by earlier this week to see what the fuss was about.
Of the eight companies in Urban-X’s 02 cohort[1], I picked four that tackled problems relating to pollution, the visually impaired, urban deliveries and maintaining public cleanliness: O2O2 Facewear, WearWorks, Upcycles and Sencity, respectively.
Haptic navigation for the blind
Perhaps the potentially life-changing of the products and services demoed at the Urban-X showcase is by WearWorks[2]. Their prototype wristband is a proposed solution to GPS-based navigation for the blind and visually impaired.
Using haptic feedback, the WayBand uses a powerful motor to give you tactile sensations about where you are and what direction to walk in.
WearWorks has been working with a number of visually impaired individuals to test the Wayband, including an ultra marathon runner who will be competing in this year’s NYC marathon.
If the marathon test proves successful, WearWorks will begin seeding more devices to early adopters before moving forward with a public launch.
Modernizing the face mask
Modern facewear company O2O2 [3]is capitalizing on what they’re calling a “multi-billion dollar industry”. They’re focusing first on cities like Beijing, where pollution and air quality is among the worst of the world’s major cities.
Oddly, O2O2 didn’t allow attendees to try on the mask (claiming that it was only formulated for the creators’ facial structures for now). However, O2O2 is promising four different facial molds at launch with customizeable modules (the unit you see above is an engineering prototype) that include the sensors, filters and batteries.
The coolest feature about the mask is that it’s possible to...