We went over to Stanford to see the Cool Product Expo 2010 earlier this week.

Mainly, but not exclusively, student projects, with varying degrees of sophistication in the presentation.

The people with whom we spent the most time were Sifteo - they make little blocks with a display, motion sensor, and wireless communication. The blocks are aware of each other and interact. This is a spin out from the MIT Media Lab.
They are sorting out their initial production run, and expect to have product during 2010. We discussed some of the methods for protecting intellectual property while using contract manufacturing.

Driptech have a simple gravity driven above ground irrigation system - they have targeted it at developing countries, but it seems it'd be attractive to a lot of back yard vegetable growers in this country too.

Eliptigo looked like eccentric fun - imagine a cross between an elliptical exercise machine and a bicycle, or cross country skiing with inline wheels.

Carbon fiber was a common theme - Blackbird guitars make their instruments from it; the Stanford Solar Car body is made from it.

A useful couple of hours to get perspective on new developments.

Exhibitor list

Cunning Systems evaluates product and service ideas in computing and communications. If you would like to discuss an idea, contact us at info@cunningsystems.com Follow me on twitter at @annejohn and @vcwatch