Does crowdsourcing actually work?
The creative
types at Bare Conductive would answer with a resounding "yes!".
A couple of weeks ago they launched their latest project, an interactive prototyping platform called Touch Board. They hoped to raise pledges worth £15,000 on the creative fundraising website Kickstarter, to enable the London-based company the chance to put the board into production. Within a few days, however, their target had been reached. The money continued to flood in and at the time of writing they had raised over £60,000, with two weeks of the funding period still to run – giving Bare Conductive the opportunity to invest in other areas.
A couple of weeks ago they launched their latest project, an interactive prototyping platform called Touch Board. They hoped to raise pledges worth £15,000 on the creative fundraising website Kickstarter, to enable the London-based company the chance to put the board into production. Within a few days, however, their target had been reached. The money continued to flood in and at the time of writing they had raised over £60,000, with two weeks of the funding period still to run – giving Bare Conductive the opportunity to invest in other areas.
What
does their success prove? That the right product, marketed well, will always find
willing investors. It also shows that
this small Spitalfields start-up, founded by four Royal College of Art graduates
in 2010, have a knack for developing products with the popular touch.
At the
heart of all Bare Conductive products is the unique electric paint – a material
which was born not in a lab, but online. None of Bare’s co-founders Matt
Johnson, Isabel Lizardi, Bibi Nelson and Becky Pilditch are chemists by
background and incredibly did much of their research and development on Wikipedia.
It is all the more remarkable then that what they were able to create.
A kind
of user-friendly, heat-free solder, this ingenious substance can simply be
drawn onto paper or card like liquid wire, creating simple circuits between
components like batteries, resistors and LEDs.
Children,
crafters and hobbyists with no soldering experience can use conductive paint to
create 2 or 3-D projects with basic electronic effects. Bare have produced a
range of kits catering mainly for the schools market, enabling kids to make
flashing greetings cards or illuminated model houses.
The key
to the company’s success so far has been the versatility and extreme usability
of conductive paint. The way it has been embraced by the design, engineering
and artistic community, and played its part in countless projects, works and
installations, can be seen on the Bare Conductive Community page. Some hobbyists and model
railway enthusiasts even prefer it to solder. And it is the way the team are
adapting the technology and taking it into different areas that is currently so
exciting about Bare Conductive.
So what
will you be able to do with the Touch Board? What won’t you be able to do with
it!
The
paint can be used as a sensor or a switch, linked to the board so that
particular sounds or effects can be created whenever you touch the painted
area. Simply by connecting a battery, a speaker and an SD card to the
Arduino-compatible device, you could bring sounds to your children’s book,
create audio in your art project, play instruments you have painted, draw a
light switch or a security system. As with most Internet of Things projects,
the only real limits are your own imagination.
As Matt Johnson says: "Devices no
longer have to look high tech to be high tech. Our goal is to put interactivity
onto objects you don't expect."
A range of Bare Conductive products are are available at Rapid, including the seasonal Merry Resistivities kit.
A range of Bare Conductive products are are available at Rapid, including the seasonal Merry Resistivities kit.
