Gemio hits Kickstarter aiming to be your next festival accessory

With a celeb charity tie-in to boot
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Gemio, the smart bracelet that lights up when friends are nearby, has launched on Kickstarter today, aiming to expand the social wearable's features and increase the customisation.

The bracelet is available to pre-order for $49 for the band (super early bird) rising to $69 (Kickstarter special) and $12 for each module - now called Tiles. That's cheaper than when it originally launched late last year. There's a tweaked design of the Band as well as a shift in focus for the LED light pattern features.

Read this: The best smart jewellery so far

Initially, Gemio was billed as a social tech accessory for teen girls but the startup has clearly been pushing the tech as an interactive band for events, concerts and festivals, perhaps similar to Coldplay's wearable tech experiment at Glastonbury.

"Turn control of your band over to a DJ or performer to become part of the light show", the latest release reads. The MyGemio app will include Channels to join so for instance you could get a light signal when a sports team scores or a charity you care about sends out an alert.

To get these interactions started, it's partnering with the Love Is Louder nonprofit (founded by actress Brittany Snow who has directed a Gemio video) to create a Channel, though the purpose - light signals to remind us we are connected - does sound vague. There's also a Tile set designed by Snow herself.

When we went hands on with Gemio at CES, CEO Michael Bettua was referring to "gemsets" but now Tiles are more customisable in terms of print, textures and gems. Fresh styles for these will be released monthly and the ability to design your own is due by the end of the year. If you pre-order a bracelet from the campaign, which is looking for $50,000 you'll get it by November 2016.

Gemio hits Kickstarter aiming to be your next festival accessory

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