New York State's certified business incubators have launched some amazing concepts. Here are three companies using support from incubators in the Southern Tier, Central New York and Mohawk Valley regions to turn their innovations into real products that will impact tomorrow.
A Stream-Driven Phone and Camera Charger for Hikers and Campers—Created by High School Students
When Jasper White and Hunter Hartshorne came up with the idea for a portable hydroelectric generator — small enough to carry in a backpack and strong enough to charge a cell phone or camera — they were still in high school. Now college freshmen at top schools (Hobart and William Smith Colleges and Carnegie Mellon), the pair are running their new company, Hillside Hydro with the help of Rev Ithaca StartUp Works, one of four New York State-certified incubators in the Southern Tier region. They’ve already got a turbine-spinning prototype that, when placed into a flowing stream, creates enough energy to power any electronic device via USB for eight hours. The team is marketing its finished product to climbers, backpackers, campers and sailors and transforming the way we use portable technology.
A Warmer, Gentler Transition for Amputees
Bryan Costello designed his first patented product, the Costello Heatsleeve, after losing his leg in a terrible motorcycle accident. The Liverpool resident discovered firsthand how loss of blood flow to amputated limbs creates cold and painful sensations for amputees; when he couldn’t find anything on the market to ease his discomfort, he decided to create a solution. This led to Costello developing a device that provides targeted therapeutic heat to limbs as well as to the prosthesis itself, easing pain and making the prosthetic leg or arm much more comfortable to wear. Costello Prosthetic Warmers, LLC, his medical device startup, was selected to participate in the Central New York Biotech Accelerator’s 2017 Medical Device Innovation Challenge. This annual program of the Syracuse-based incubator awards funds, equipment and creative space to inventors and fledgling companies in the early “discovery phase” of medical device creation and commercialization.
A Hollywood Rig for Every Videographer
What if you could inexpensively bring the production value of a big budget Hollywood movie to an indie documentary or corporate web video? That’s the goal of Simon Eisenbach Production’s camera rig, which allows film, corporate, brand, broadcast and indie video producers to shoot breathtaking vertical time-lapse montages – a technique where the camera takes still shots over time, giving a sense of motion to still images. Prior to Eisenbach’s prototype, which is a combination of a camera crane and motion control equipment, this vertical shot was not easily captured on a smaller budget. Working closely with Mohawk Valley's thINCubator for the past two years, the Utica-based Eisenbach is continuing to develop the rig and will soon be marketing the product.
