Getting lash extensions can be an uncomfortable process, involving lying with tape under your eyes on a bed for two hours. Chief technology officer Nathan Harding co-founded Luum Lash when he realized it could be improved by using robots. Luum swaps sharp application instruments for soft-tipped plastic tools, uses a safety mechanism to detach instruments from the machine before they poke a client, and employs machine learning to apply lashes more efficiently and precisely. An appointment that usually takes two to three hours takes one and a half with Luum. Luum lash artists, primarily working from the Lash Lab in Oakland, Calif., can see “up to four times the clients” daily as they could operate without the robot, says CEO Jo Lawson. So far, Luum has applied more than 160,000 eyelash extensions, charging $170 for a full set. Luum has secured 51 patents in 25 countries and plans to launch at Nordstrom’s Westfield Valley Fair Store in California in November.
Learn More at Luum Precision Lash
NuFace’s facial toning devices have been gaining popularity in recent years, but the latest model, the Trinity+ Complete, offers the combination of microcurrent and red light therapy, a hugely popular and study-backed skincare treatment. The handheld facial device has three magnetized attachments that promise to tighten facial muscles and smooth wrinkles. “As we get older, we need to exercise more to keep our bodies toned and tight,” says NuFace co-founder and CEO Tera Peterson. “The same concept goes for delicate facial muscles.” Thirty-six concentrated red LED lights are designed to smooth skin, while two attachments for administering microcurrents (one for targeting around the eyes) use up to 425 microamps to increase cellular adenosine triphosphate, providing a nearly instant, at-home facelift. The device prioritizes safety by shutting off after 20 minutes.
“If you cut yourself, what’s the first responder?” says Rion Aesthetics CEO Alisa Lask. “Platelets—your blood.” Going off that premise, creators of Rion’s Plated Intense Serum purchase platelets from a blood bank to harness the type of exosome—an inter-cellular messenger—responsible for signaling cell renewal. With billions of exosomes per two-pump dose, Plated uses its Renewosome technology to decrease facial redness and maintain shelf stability of the serum—a challenge for stem cell-containing products. The company has the medical credentials: Rion was founded by Mayo Clinic physicians at the Van Cleve Cardiac Regenerative Medicine Program, where they discovered that exosomes play a key role in healing. The company now produces platelet-derived exosome products currently in clinical trials for wound healing, cardiology, and orthopedics, while Lask’s spinoff focuses on aesthetic applications. A 2023 clinical study found that “all patients experienced improvement in redness, skin irritation, skin tone, texture, and smoothness” with nine weeks of Plated use.
Buy Now: INTENSE Serum on Plated SkinScience
Keratin has been part of hair care routines since Brazilians popularized use of the smoothing protein. But the time-consuming treatment process is a short-term solution. “We created Virtue’s Damage Reverse Serum to actually reverse and prevent future damage as opposed to just patching it up temporarily,” says Virtue Labs CEO Jose Luis Palacios. The lightweight cream-to-serum formula contains the company’s proprietary protein, Alpha Keratin 60ku, which it claims has been shown to re-seal hair’s split ends. An independent study conducted by TRI Princeton found the serum sealed 98% of split ends after one use.
Buy Now: Virtue Damage Reverse Serum on Virtue Labs | Amazon | Sephora | Dermstore
Around 22 million Americans are exposed to loud noises during the workday. Ear protectors help, but block out conversations, too. To address that issue, 3M has developed the world’s first self-charging protective communications headset, the Peltor WS Alert XPV Headset. The headset blocks outside noise but includes headphones and a microphone so workers can hear each other via Bluetooth, and it never runs out of power. Using a patented solar cell technology called Powerfoyle, it “converts outdoor and indoor light into clean, continuous energy” to charge a lithium-ion battery, says Chris Goralski, group president of 3M’s safety and industrial business group. 3M reports it sold $1 million of the headsets in their first month on the market.
Buy Now: 3M Peltor WS Alert XPV Headset on Conrad
Imagine a conference room with a dozen people, plus more joining remotely on a video call. It’s awkward. Eye contact is tough and if you’re on video, it’s hard to see everyone clearly. Logitech Sight combines a tabletop device with a multi-camera system and AI to automatically snap the focus onto whoever’s speaking (and center them in-frame), creating a more natural conversation for video conferences on a range of platforms. Up to four speakers can be shown in split-screen, which looks like a slick TV news production—and that was precisely the inspiration. Logitech’s VP of Product, Henry Levak, calls the solution “a little bit of Hollywood and a little bit of Silicon Valley.”
Buy Now: Logitech Sight on Logitech | Amazon | B&H Photo Video
Want to discuss A Room with a View with Lena Dunham? Or hear Roxane Gay talking through Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence? Now you can, thanks to publishing outfit Rebind. The company was founded by John Dubuque, who hired a professor at Corpus Christi College, at the University of Oxford, to teach him the philosophical tome Being and Time. With Rebind, AI provides expert conversational commentary about a book in response to user questions. So far, 10 books are available to the 1,000 users in the open beta, with two more books added each month, once the 10,000-strong waitlist opens. “The goal is to make this encounter with deeply meaningful texts possible for many more people,” says Dubuque.
Learn More at Rebind
Worldwide, 2.6 billion people don’t have an internet connection. The mission of Taara, which sits within X, Alphabet’s moonshot factory, is to bridge that gap. Taara uses beams of light to transmit data between small terminals, offering an alternative to traditional fiber optic cables in places where installing ground-based systems is tricky. The beams can reach over 20 kilometers, delivering speeds up to 20 gigabits per second. The tech has been installed in 13 countries, including India, Kenya, Fiji, and even the U.S. (in rural areas and at events like Coachella). Most recently, in Ghana, 20,000 new users and 320 businesses have come online thanks to Taara. “Think of it like fiber, but without having to run any fiber—it’s just over the air,” says Mahesh Krishnaswamy, general manager of the project.
Learn More at X Taara
Bimotal Elevate turns a pedal bike into an e-bike with just a cellphone-sized device. Toby Ricco developed the product so he could keep mountain biking after he recovered from tearing cartilage in his left knee. Elevate is a $1,995 palm-sized motor with 750 watts of power—enough to produce 75 Newton-meters of torque—that clips onto the wheel of a regular bike. While still in its infancy—around 100 of Elevate’s 400 pre-ordered units have shipped since March—Ricco has big plans for the product. “Our beachhead market is electrifying bikes,” he says, but search and rescue teams are also using it to motorize gurneys to tackle tough terrain.
Buy Now: Elevate Ebike Motor System at Bimotal
Traditionally, slacklining is for daredevils: You try to balance yourself on what looks like a not-so-tight tightrope, often slung between trees. The problem, of course, is that you can fall. So the Germany-based Gibbon created a super short and low slackline, attaching just over three feet of webbing to a wooden board. The wood’s natural springiness gives the line its “slack,” and the line itself is only three inches from the ground, which allows for low-risk balance training. “It’s great for focusing,” says Robert Kaeding, CEO and founder of Gibbon. It also allows for tricks, which were on display at the first-ever GiBoard Cup championship, in Stuttgart, earlier this year.
When you set up a Haikubox in your backyard, it automatically listens for birds, records their songs, identifies the species (using AI-powered audio pattern recognition), and then, via Wi-Fi, shares this information to a website for bird-watching enthusiasts. The corded device gives birdwatchers a handy tool to keep track of every bird that nears their home. Plus, the cumulative data being collected can give new clarity on bird migrations. Scientists working with Haikubox found that during the darkness of the April 2024 solar eclipse, many birds stopped singing. “We could look to see on a minute-by-minute basis how birds were responding,” as the eclipse moved along its path, says David Mann, Haikubox founder and inventor. A detailed study of the effect of the eclipse on birds is forthcoming.
Traditional posture monitors use a gyroscope to track the position you’re holding your body in while sitting, but they’re unable to assess dynamic form during exercise. The BackAware Belt, on the other hand, can handle motion. The wearable tech uses two sensors that calibrate to your spine; a one-time setup recognizes your starting posture, then tracks how your spine flexes and changes while in motion during activities like Pilates and deadlifts. BackAware gives real-time feedback on your form, via vibrations on the belt and visual cues on your phone, ensuring proper posture to avoid injuries.
Buy Now: The BackAware Belt™ on BackAware Belt
Dental X-rays can be tricky for patients—especially kids—to understand, as the gray blobs of a cavity can look similar to the gray blobs of a healthy tooth. And if the patient is confused, then complying with the dentist’s instructions (like wearing a mouthguard) is less likely. So the FDA-cleared Overjet uses AI to create a visual overlay of images that dentists can show young patients, clearly marking cavities in red, exposed nerves in purple, and so on. (The system also makes it easier for dentists to spot problems.) “You see a lot of crowns on children that could be avoided,” says Wardah Inam, CEO of Overjet. “The communication bit is key.”
Over 250,000 people in the U.S. alone live with spinal cord injuries. To help patients regain sensation and strength in their hands and arms, Onward Medical’s ARC-EX therapy uses electrical stimulation—applied externally with electrodes—to effectively boost the brain’s signals. A study in Nature showed that nine out of 10 patients using ARC-EX recovered some strength or functionality; it also found that the treatment can be effective for patients who had injuries decades earlier. “For most people with a spinal cord injury, there’s some [brain signal] conduction making it through the block, but not enough for movement,” says Dave Marver, CEO of Onward. “This device serves as an amplifier.”
Most snowboards are made, in part, from a plastic called polyethylene, which comes from petroleum. So to demonstrate that they could be made more sustainably, Wndr designed the first snowboard made from microalgae—an oil produced through fermentation. On top of being eco-friendly, the microalgae was engineered to improve the Alpine Shepherd’s “damping,” meaning its ability to reduce vibrations. The larger unlock is that if biomaterials can be used in extreme outdoors—where safety is critical—then it could be scaled across other industries. “What’s really cool about winter sports is that it’s an amazing proof-point for materials innovation,” says Xan Marshland, co-founder of Wndr Alpine. “In the mountains, materials matter.
Buy Now: Shepherd on Wonder Alpine
Cats can be stoical, hiding their health problems until it gets serious. But their urine can provide clues: When your cat goes in the Smart Box Health Monitoring Cat Litter, the pellets will change color as a warning sign that something’s wrong, such as a urinary tract infection or kidney problem. Other color-changing litter uses silica crystal to achieve health-monitoring—essentially plastic that gets dumped in landfills—but the Smart Box litter is fully biodegradable, says Alistair King, co-founder of Rhodes Pet Science, who calls the litter “health monitoring in a natural format.”
Buy Now: Smart Box Health Monitoring Cat Litter on Walmart
Darli acts as a regenerative farming mentor for small farmers around the globe, using AI to translate local languages—predominantly in Africa, Asia, and South America—and instantly give solutions to common problems. Using WhatsApp, a farmer in Uganda, for example, can text or speak with a chatbot about fertilizer, harvesting, crop rotations, how to truck the food to market, or even send a photo of discolored yams to ask if they’re diseased. Since launching in March 2024, Darli has been used by 110,000 farmers in 27 languages, including Twi, Swahili, and Yoruba. “There are millions of farmers in rural areas that speak languages not often supported by the global tech companies,” says Alloysius Attah, co-founder and CEO of Farmerline Group. “Darli is democratizing access to regenerative farming.”
Traditional air fryers risk dehydrating meat as it cooks, so what you get in convenience you lose in tenderness. To combat this, the Dreo ChefMaker employs a “water atomization system” that sprays the food with tiny particles of water throughout the cooking process, using a probe to ensure it remains at the optimal level of hydration. The “Precision CombiCook” mode allows for automatic tweaks in temperature at just the right time, such as searing a steak at the end. As Jamie Wang, head of the kitchen product line at Dreo says, “We mimic the science of how a chef cooks, but without a lot of effort.”
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