Bionic Hands, Mind Control, and AI Oh My! | Techstars Disney Accelerator Class of 2015
Techstars Disney Accelerator class of 2015 was announced yesterday. The ten companies in this year’s program represent a diverse cross-section of technologies, and are inspired by their visions for the applicability of these technologies in the media space.
2 3D-Printing Companies
MakieLab lets kids bring toys to life by building their own customizable 3D-printed toys through creative games and apps.
Open Bionics is a robotics company creating affordable 3D-printed bionic hands for amputees, researchers and makers.
2 AI Companies
imperson provides an artificial intelligence platform enabling fans to have conversations with their favorite movie and TV characters.
StatMuse is developing an artificial intelligence platform to help sports fans explore data using simple, natural language.
Control Virtual & Physical Object With Your Mind!
EMOTIV is a bioinformatics company that uses electroencephalography (EEG) to track mental performance, monitor emotions, and control virtual and physical objects with thoughts.
World of VR
Littlstar aggregates industry leading virtual reality content with its device agnostic discovery and distribution platform.
Audio AMA’s (Ask Me Anything) Via Twitter
Pundit lets creators host audio Ask Me Anything (AMAs) with their Twitter network, transforming the talk radio experience for the social media age.
Advertiser Optimization
Decisive is a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform that uses real time data to enable advertisers to optimize mobile ad creative and targeting based on user engagement.
Influencer Targeting
HYP3R enables businesses and brands to identify influential customers at their locations and engage them in real time, when it matters most.
Video Engagement Platform
FEM Inc. has developed a personalized video engagement platform based on neuroscience and psychology that maps the emotional dimensions of how and why content resonates.
The participants will receive up to $120,000 in investment from Disney to develop their ideas, along with mentoring from executives. They’ll include the company’s Chairman and CEO Robert ‘Bob’ Iger and leaders from Pixar, Marvel and Lucasfilm.
Given the history of the accelerator, it’s going to be very interesting to see where they take and implement these companies in the overall vision of Disney. Perfect Example is last years robotics company Sphero. They are now building an official toy based on the rolling BB-8 droid featured in ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’
