It seems everything is getting smart these days: your phone, your watch, and your home appliances too.
And now even jewelry is getting the “smart” treatment.
A new Ukrainian device, Senstone, promises to ease notetaking by recording and organizing voice memos, without any fiddling around with a smartphone.
“We started Senstone because we were forgetting things,” co-founder of the startup Markiyan Matsekh said, pitching the idea during the Lviv IT Arena Conference 2016 on Oct. 2.
“We have a lot of ideas and we can’t keep them all in our heads. And we don’t always have a chance to write them down, because a phone may not be around, or our hands are busy, or we get distracted, so they just disappear.”
The size of a bottle cap, the recorder can take three forms: a pendant, clip or bracelet. Recording starts with one tap on the wearable. Voice notes are stored on a paired smartphone and backed up on a cloud service.
The Cloud software platform also converts voice memos into text and extracts keywords. The text later appears in the Senstone application or in the popular third party app of your choice, like Evernote or Trello.
The idea seems to appeal to a lot of people, as once on Kickstarter the startup reached its goal of $50,000 in just 36 hours, with 36 days left to go. And after 13 days of the crowdfunding campaign, the startup is 273 percent funded.
Though the success of the campaign seemed to come overnight, the founder and CEO of Senstone, Nazar Fedorchuk, said it came thanks to long hours of careful preparation and the involvement of good specialists in the project.
He also emphasized that a personal touch is important to stand out from other projects: “Be yourself – backers like to see real people behind projects – not corporations or faceless entities. So take time to respond – write messages and comments to your backers,” Fedorchuk told the Kyiv Post on Feb. 17.
The gadget now works in 11 languages and promises at least 95 percent accuracy in text transcription. The founders say the pendant or clip is the best way to wear the gadget for higher audio quality. The device also works when it is not connected to a smartphone – it is able to record up to two-and-a-half hours of audio when offline.
In addition to embracing new languages, Senstone plans to improve its artificial intelligence based platform. The features to be added will include automatic punctuation, an intonation analysis, productivity tips, noise and context analyses, and integration with various software.
The first shipment to Kickstarter backers is planned for July 2017, while the AI software rollout is to come in October 2017.
Designed as a piece of jewelry, the device should also attract fashionistas. Its minimalistic form is inspired by intersecting voice waves. Being in the intersection of fashion and functionality, the wearable was presented not only at IT-related events like CES 2016, but also during Ukrainian Fashion Week 2016, where Ukrainian singer Jamala and former Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko tried it out.
Kyiv Post social media editor Iryna Savchuk can be reached at [email protected].
