Monday, December 11, 2006

Cache & Packets

Goodies 'n gadgets grow out of N.E. innovation

By Efrain Viscarolasaga

Let's face it, the holiday season is about a lot of things, but it's really about gifts. And in the high-tech world, that translates into gadgets.

But while many gadgets become well known for their use by consumers -- iPods, televisions, cell phones and the like -- many of them are initially conceived with more commercial uses in mind.

Take Burlington's iRobot Corp. The company got its start making robotic units for bomb disposal and other military uses. Of course, it became widely known for its automated house-cleaning products.

This year some new entries could challenge iRobot's Roomba vacuum for real estate under the Christmas tree.

For example, there is MicroOptical Corp.'s new "myvu" personal media viewer for Apple's iPod. Think Geordi La Forge's eyewear from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The viewers are futuristic eyeglasses for viewing video content from iPods. The unit also has an earpiece for related audio.

The first myvus went on sale in retail stores for the first time earlier this week, exclusively at the Tweeter in Boston. In the coming weeks, just in time for the holidays, the company plans to sell its product through additional electronics retailers in New York and Chicago, according to a company spokesperson.

But Westwood's MicroOptical wasn't always in the gadget business. The company was originally founded in 1995 by chief technology officer Mark Spitzer, former chief scientist at Taunton's Kopin Corp., to develop microdisplays for military and industrial applications.

The company still develops technologies for those uses, but the consumer applications have taken off in the past couple of years, according to Spitzer. The potential also helped the company land $11.5 million in its second round of funding last summer.

With the rise of hardware such as iPods and personal video players, and content delivery options such as iTunes, video blogging or even YouTube, the product has hit the market at the right time, said Spitzer.

"We knew this market was coming, but we didn't know when," he said

It has also attracted attention from the trend-setter set. Two weeks ago, the myvu personal video player for iPods was publicly debuted as part of the winner's gift package at the American Music Awards.

No word on whether winners Sean Paul or Kelly Clarkson kept their glasses or pawned them off on a posse member, but the bet here is that at least one member of The Red Hot Chili Peppers did a backstage impression of Geordi La Forge after the show.

Trying to find the time

MIT is no stranger to gadget development, but Guardi Nanda, who received her master's from the MIT Media Lab, may have developed the only MIT technology that could literally be described as "fuzzy."

As a graduate student last year, Guardi wrote her master's thesis on electronics-embedded clothing. In her spare time, however, she developed "Clocky," a robotic alarm clock that rolls off the nightstand and hides once the snooze is hit, forcing its groggy-eyed owner to search for it upon its next alarm.

Clocky will come in two versions, a rugged plastic-based unit and one covered in simulated fur -- a shaggy Clocky, if you will.

The product became a curiosity last year, when Nanda was still a student, but this year the product could be available for general purchase.

Early in the year Nanda launched her own company, not so coincidentally named Nanda LLC, to develop such unique products. Clocky will be the company's first effort, and Nanda is pushing hard to have it available online before the holidays.

Nanda is developing other products, but she is hesitant to release the details before they are ready.