Jacksonville, Florida’s huge crowdsourcing event for inventors, innovators and creative dreamers has come and gone, leaving me to showcase the most popular ideas of the One Spark event.
Hundreds of innovators gathered downtown from April 17th through the 23rd to demonstrate to the crowd why their ideas deserved the largest share of the $250,000 in crowdfunded money to make their creative thoughts into reality.
The third annual One Spark has ended, the votes have been tallied, and it’s time to see which brilliant inventions raked in the most cash:
Tiger Trail – $4,183.94
My personal favorite One Spark idea also happened to be the most popular invention as well! Tiger Trail is an upcoming addition to the Jacksonville Zoo’s Asian themed area, where tigers will be able to more freely between large sections of their enclosure via reinforced trails. Think “hamster tubes for tigers” and you’re not too far off! The zoo is hoping to finish the new exhibit, which will include hornbills and wild pigs, by March 2014.
Urban Container Farm – $2,434.38
Here’s an interesting one: These urban farmers are planning on recycling old shipping units into miniature hydroponic farms that will use up to 90% less water than traditional farms and will be able to produce a new crop every week or two. Organic, pesticide-free, and abundant home-grown food is even more exciting when you learn that these container-farms are easily managed via smartphone. Temperature, PH levels, and watering crops? They’ve got an app for that!
The Forge – $2,265.52
The Forge is hoping to become Jacksonville’s number one place for scanning and modeling services via their state of the art 3D printers. The Forge Team is hoping to make their “CUSTOMers” happy by making 3D product manufacturing simple and fun. I’ve always wanted to make some cool stuff via 3D printing, so I’ll be sure to share if I’m ever one of The Forge’s CUSTOMers.
Keep an eye out for Jacksonville’s inventors; they’ve got the innovative spark and the money to back it up! Don’t forget to tell us what you think about this trio of crowd-supported ideas in the comments below!
Source: One Spark
