The Crowdfunding Charts: Smart glasses, smart mics, and a smart score-keeper

Without a set strategy, perusing websites like Indiegogo and Kickstarter can be overwhelming. Fortunately for you, we’ve done the heavy lifting and found the best crowdfunding campaigns to pay attention to this week. All you have to do is decide which one deserves your investment.

What campaigns hit crowdfunding this week

MetaWearCoin on Kickstarter

Started: June 24
Goal: $50,000
Raised as of June 26: $11,649

“Prototypes are a thing of the past,” says the MetaWearCoin team. And if prototypes are the past, MetaWearCoin is the future. It’s a coin-sized platform that can be used to develop new smart, wearable products. It comes with Bluetooth, motion sensors, a coin-cell battery, and more.

MetaWearCoin is a developer’s dream because it’s so easy to use. From the mobile SDKs to the open source coding and the sample mobile apps to draw inspiration from, MetaWearCoin has it all. The product seems to have struck a chord with crowdfunders as well. With only two days on Kickstarter, the developer board has received over 20 percent of its fundraising goal.

Vufine on Kickstarter

Started: June 22
Goal: $50,000
Raised As of June 26: $39,585

Smartglasses are a hit and miss business. Even kingpin Google was ridiculed for putting out an unfinished product in Glass. So who is the next big player in the smart eyewear world? It may well be Vufine, a startup from Sunnyvale, California. Vufine is a small virtual screen that you can place on any pair of glasses.

Vufine can do most anything. It can act as a camera lens, it can give you directions, and it can even be used as a second display for health professionals. Best of all, it’s affordable. Though the two early bird prices on Kickstarter of $99 and $129 are already sold out, donating $149 will get you your very own Vufine.

What campaigns are hot this week

Instamic on Indiegogo

Started: June 15
Goal: $50,000
Raised As of June 26: $138,068 (goal reached!)

Calling yourself the “GoPro of [insert technology here]” is a bold move, but San Francisco-based Instamic may be justified in its comparison. Instamic is the world’s smallest microphone, with high-quality audio that puts the iPhone 6 microphone to shame. It’s waterproof and uses a USB port to charge. It can also be affixed to nearly any surface thanks to its versatile mounts (tape, magnets, and velcro).

Not only the Instamic portable and easy to use, but it’s pretty inexpensive. Right now, you donate $99 – 129 on Instamic’s Indiegogo page to get your own.

Pulse Play on Indiegogo

Started: April 28
Goal: $75,000
Raised as of June 26: $77,822 (goal reached!)

Your average tennis player doesn’t have a court-side scorekeeper, so Pulse Play CEO and former professional tennis player Andy Ram built a score-keeping smartwatch for the casual athlete. It even has a “personal score announcer” with celebrity voices from Elvis to Homer Simpson.

It’s been a long time coming for Pulse Play. The product has been on Indiegogo for almost two months now, waiting to reach its goal of $75,000. Now that it has, the Pulse Play team is ready to celebrate. Watch this video of Ram being surprised with a congratulatory champagne shower.

What campaigns could use some love this week

Gogo-S on Indiegogo

Started: June 15
Goal: $50,000
Raised As of June 26: $32,683

Believe it or not, working out while wearing earbuds can actually damage them. And we all know how those pesky wires detract from you focus when they’re constantly getting tangled.

Enter Beijing’s Gogo-S: A wireless and waterproof earbud designed specifically with sports in mind. While Gogo-S has Bluetooth connectivity like any other wireless headphones, it also has 4GB of local music storage and tracks your activity via heart rate monitoring. Gogo-S really could be all you need for your next workout.