Firefly

Remember warm summer evenings as a child, seeing flashes of light flutter around you, illuminating the night sky and capturing your attention and imagination? Recapture those magical moments with the Firefly social illuminated band.  Firefly allows you to start conversations and keeps the social atmosphere interesting. (Video)

 

 

As you walk down a crowded street or eat at a local restaurant, new faces surround you. You can be like that Firefly fluttering magical light as you move about your night. Looking for an icebreaker for the person sitting next to you? Wouldn’t it be nice to put a name with a face?  For many people, socializing can sometimes be challenging or awkward, but Firefly is a game changer. With a flutter of light, two individuals are introduced immediately. You now have a visual cue that can help you start a conversation.

Firefly is a sporty and simple wristband that includes two multicolored LED’s and a Bluetooth module.  Whether you are at work or play, the Firefly is sending “Flutter” messages to other Fireflies. After linking to Facebook, these Flutters contain information you want to share, but equally you can discover information about others. When set, you can limit your illumination to only those with common interests.

Firefly is also helpful with mobile device notifications. Today seemingly everyone is connected either through Facebook, Twitter, texts, and emails and we have become slaves to our phone.  Checking for new messages consumes our downtime. With Firefly, you can keep that phone in your pocket but still be alerted to predetermined messages.

How Firefly works:

Firefly works by communicating with your smart phone through a Bluetooth BLE 4.0 compliant module. Firefly pairs with your smart phone allowing for setup, configuration and other information to be passed from your phone to Firefly and vice versa. The Firefly Bluetooth module “Flutters” your encoded Facebook ID along with your interests. In addition to fluttering, the Firefly is also scanning for other available Firefly messages. The app connects to Facebook and uses the received Facebook profile to obtain information and display it on your smart phone. When a Firefly user matches a common category or hash-tag/phrase (configured from the Firefly app) the Firefly will illuminate with a universal color pattern. The universal color pattern of flashing red/white/blue will be your visual cue that someone near you has a common interest.

In addition to lighting up due to common Flutters, the Firefly will also illuminate when your smart phone receives phone notifications.

Firefly is a wearable band that:

1) Fireflies communicate by “fluttering” common interests. For example, if you’re out grabbing dinner and a person seated nearby happens to have a matching hash-tag, such as #RedSox, then both of your Fireflies will light up with a universal color pattern. This provides an instant opportunity to start a friendly conversation, “How about those Red Sox?”

Firefly is always receiving “Flutters” from other Fireflies. This means even if you don’t light up, you can still see who’s around you by viewing received “Flutters” under the “Flutter” tab in the Firefly app. You will be provided a link to that person’s Facebook page to see available information.

Additionally, you don’t need to be connected to a mobile device to receive flutters.  If you prefer to be phone free, but still want to know if others around you have a common interest, fear not, Firefly still works. The information is also saved for later viewing on your smart phone.

2) Firefly provides visual (LED) notifications when you receive new texts, emails, phone calls, alerts, etc. This is useful if you’re in a loud area and your cell phone is in your pocket or purse.

3) Firefly has a built in Nightlight feature that allows you to use the Firefly as a light that can be dimmed.  If you are staying at a hotel or place you are not familiar with you can use the Nightlight feature to guide you through the darkness.

4) Firefly will notify you when your cell phone is out of range. This is useful as a reminder that your phone is not with you.

5) “Firefly Alert” is a built in feature to allow the user to post to Facebook or send an email/text of your current location asking for someone to check on you.  With 5 discrete taps of the button, Firefly does its magic.

Via Kickstarter