Motorola Share Updates On Their Moto Mod Hackathons

LG have apparently given up on their “Friends” concept for the short-lived modular phone, the G5. For Lenovo and Motorola though their modular concept seems to be gaining steam, and rightfully so. Today Motorola have released via their blog an update on the progress of the Moto Mods from their Moto Mod Hackathons.

The Moto Mod concept, that we have seen in Australia attached to the Moto Z and Moto Z Play, is a seamless modular concept where the Moto Mods are attached to the back of the phone without the phone being required to turn off. At the time of release in Australia there weren’t many Moto Mods available with even fewer on the horizon. To stimulate development Motorola and Lenovo partnered with Indiegogo to bring Hackathons to the masses.

Lenovo have previously announced some results of their Moto Mod hackathons but today have released a video and greater detail of the resultant Mods. Check out the video below.

Some of these are ingenious and have real world clinical applications that I can see, assuming Motorola/Lenovo continue their success with the Moto Z series and Moto Mods. While the winner in the video was a solar-powered battery pack I see more value in the mods such as the blood glucose tracker and the breathalyzer. Motorola have listed what they see as some of the top ideas:

“Baby Care” – Gabriel Lucas Quispe Delgadillo (Buenos Aires)
Imagine a more restful environment for babies. This new Moto Mod concept provides automatic alerts when conditions aren’t ideal for a child. For example, users will see real-time indicators about whether the temperature in the room is too hot, too cold or just right.

“Moto Color” – Emanuel Lorenzo and Santiago Zoberman (Buenos Aires)
A color sensor for the visually impaired, Moto Color will emit a sound indicating whether the color being analyzed is red, blue or green. An alternative option would be for Moto Color to emit a vibration, which would vary in intensity depending on the color.

“Solar-Powered Battery Charger” – Ivan Milutimovac (San Francisco)
This Moto Mod concept allows you to charge your Moto Z in sunlight. As opposed to current battery-charging devices on the market that require cables, this one is wireless and is expected to charge the phone to 100 percent in about 10 hours.

“Simple Syrup” – Tal Golbus (San Francisco)
Monitoring blood glucose on-the-go can be a challenge. This concept tracks your blood sugar reading and was created for diabetics who need to carry large diabetes cases with them.

“ModCoholic” – Adnan Ahmed, Afif Syed, Adil Bukhari and Marzuq Khan (San Francisco)
Created by a group of four high school-aged attendees and winner of the Honorable Mention, the ModCoholic concept is a breathalyzer that detects your alcohol level when you breathe into it. If it detects that you are over the legal limit, ModCoholic automatically asks if you need a taxi.

It seems that Lenovo/Motorola are not stopping there. There is another Hackathon in Shenzen, China in mid-March followed by representatives from the winning Hackathon teams heading to Motorola headquarters in Chicago to present their ideas and discuss how to bring their Moto Mods to market. At that time the winners may also receive investment funding from Lenovo Capital.

For even more Moto Mod ideas that have been created head over to the Indiegogo “Transform the Smartphone Challenge” campaign webpage where you can crowd-fund the ones you want to see make it to market.

After using Moto Mods last year I can honestly say that this is one of the most ambitious and innovative ideas to come to the smartphone market in the past few years and I am glad to see Lenovo continuing to support it.

Anyone out there got any ideas you want to enter into the competition? Like the look of any of these mods? What has been your experience with Moto Mods?