PLUGHITZ Live Presents (Video)

In the world of cosplay, there are innumerable characters to portray. We would like you to meet Starlight Darling Cosplay. She is a very enthusiastic participant in the Gulf Coast Comic and Maker Con in Seminole, FL and was honored last year and this year to be a judge. Her favorite character is Rin Tohsaka from Fate-stay night.

After doing this for 6 years, she makes all her own costumes and has taught herself to sew in order to do so. It was a challenge at first because she had to keep at it until she got it right. She absolutely loves doing this and recommends picking out a character that you love and can relate to and just sticking to it. She likes her costumes to be big and poofy with lots of sparkle. Needless to say a problem arises when she has to travel to her cons, especially when she has to fly. That's where she has to get really creative!

She says it takes her about 150 hours on average to complete one costume. A more complicated costume can take much more time and she has been known to knock one out in a weekend. She has made probably 30 of them. With having an outside job from 9-5, her free time is totally taken up with her passion for creating her perfect costume. It is very important to her for positive feedback on her efforts, as it is for all participants.

She has been at the event since it started and attends probably 6 cons a year. She has trimmed it down from a larger number in order to put more focus on doing better job on the ones she attends, making it quality not quantity.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

One of the first makers we ever interviewed was Ana Mailer from Gypsy's Weavings, and remains one of the most unique. Ana creates something that is fairly uncommon in modern life: chainmail. She got started in the Renaissance Festival scene making chainmail for costumes and competitions. Eventually she discovered that people were interested in her craft and began making items for others.

One of the things that keeps her skills sharp is that every year, she takes on a challenge to learn a new aspect of the craft. While she initially learned the modern loop mail, over the years she has taken on the challenge to learn other styles and fastenings. The last time we spoke, she was learning scalemail, while is similar to standard chainmail, with the addition of dragon-like scales. Ana is wearing a scalemail top during her interview.

This year, her personal challenge has been to learn the more traditional style of chainmail fastening. Unlike the modern, where the loop is opened and closed, the traditional method involves closing rivets with special tools, including an anvil. Obviously, this method is not as convenient as the modern method, which only really requires plyers to open and close loops. It requires the special tools, but is also far louder than the modern style, with hammers and anvils ringing with each loop being closed.

Ana doesn't just take these challenges on for her personal experience. In the case of the traditional chainmail, she has done it to experience the history of the trade. She has even joined a competition that evaluates the accuracy of the process and the end product. She hopes that her annual challenge will pay off in this competition, whose prize is one of recognition among her peers.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

Cosplaying is a key element in all great conventions and that does not exclude Gulf Coast Maker and Comic Con 2018. Aaron Knowles from Better Actions Cosplay visited us to specifically discuss the importance of cosplay and explain his passion for bringing fictional armor, weapons and props to the real world. He lets his creativity flow by learning about how he can bring that passion to life.

Aaron uses a plethora of crafts and materials that are mostly self taught and he continues to better his abilities. One important message that he told the PLuGHiTz crew was "every time you make one thing, you level up and gain experience and you make it to that next level." Aaron strives to be a positive influence for new cosplayers and he finds importance in supporting them in their future projects to gain that new experience.

Aaron brought with him 3 props to show his craft. The first is a replica of Thor's hammer Mjolnir, nearly entirely 3D printed. The hammer was printed in several parts because of its overall size. The pieces were then attached together, painted and the detail items, such as the leather handle, were added afterward. He also showed off a super sledge from the Fallout series. This piece required a different set of skills, as it is made of a variety of materials, including 3D printing, pipe and thick gauge wire. Finally, he showed off a bazooka from a custom character: GI Joker. This piece is made of foam and PVC pipe and weighs far less than it looks like it should.

Better Actions Cosplay is the outlet Aaron uses to support anyone looking to create and design costumes and props to bring the wildest idea to life. Anyone is welcome to contact him through Facebook and Instagram using the same handle: @BetterActionsCosplay.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

Gulf Coast Maker and Comic Con welcomes makers of all forms, including inventors. Electrical engineer Joe Nahum is prototyping a solution to clean air after serving our country as part of the US Army in Desert Storm. He noticed air pollution in the Middle East and he decided in that moment that he wants to solve that issue. He returned to the United States and became an electrical engineer to help him with his journey.

Joe's vision, EASY-AIR, is supposed to convert carbon dioxide into pure oxygen. While the prototype is small and designed to be used in a consumer-type scenario, Nahum says the technology could be scaled to any size. While the first thought might be about the carbon offset of cleaning the air while using power, Nahum has an answer for this as well. He imagines placing a larger implementation on the device at the top of the chimney stack at the power plant, cleaning the air as the power is produced.

In addition to the conversion, it also acts as an ionizer. Similar to the process that occurs as water hits at the bottom of a waterfall, as the air flows through the device, it is energized. This is not an unfamiliar technology for many, as both Sharper Image and RadioShack had made the technology popular in the mid 2000s. Sharper Image offered the Ionic Breeze and RadioShack offered the Environizer for several years. This device combines the once popular tech with the carbon dioxide converter into a single product.

Nahum is currently in the prototype phase and came to GCMCC 2018 to gain recognition and funding for his project. He is hoping to be able to run clinical trials to verify the results as well as bring the product to market.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

Encrypted external hard drives and USB memory sticks have been around for at least a decade, but most of the time it's either locked or unlocked: if you have the password, you're in. SecureDrive has a solution that changes this binary reality, and makes the security better and more nuanced. Nuanced security means that, even if you have the password, you may not be able to access the device.

SecureDrive specialize in hardware encrypted data storage. They've three product ranges with varying capacity (1 - 5 TB) to address different security and storage requirements.

• SecureDrive BT, which uses Bluetooth and an app for authentication
• SecureDrive KP, which uses keypad authentication
• BackupDrive, which backs up files and encrypts them with built-in anti-malware

For the rapid transfer of large files, all the devices use USB 3.0, and for security, it's pending FIPS 140-2 level 3. That's pretty secure.

The unique part of the SecureDrive solution focuses on the BT model, which uses Bluetooth and an authentication app. Instead of the drive only being locked or unlocked, the solution allows additional controls for geofencing and time schedules. For example, the SecureDrive BT can be set to only unlock between 9-5 M-F or only if the unit is physically within company premises. In addition, there's remote management so authorizations can be revoked and the drive remotely wiped.

The drives are assembled in Ohio, USA, and they're available for purchase priced at $299-$499. The remote management feature is a subscription service.

Interview by Scott Ertz of F5 Live: Refreshing Technology.

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

Although Michele has worked in the banking industry full time for many years, she originally went to school with a concentration in communications, advertising and marketing. She began her career in sales and retail management, selling electronics and computers. Her love of all things tech eventually brought her back into the electronics arena three years ago when she started with PLuGHiTz Corporation to help with special events as a Production Assistant. Soon she began to dabble with the audio and video and is loving her role as Producer. She's also one of our content writers and assists with product reviews. Looking forward, she is excited to expand her skill set into editing and helping the company continue to grow.

Think about all the things you touch in a day. You might use a grocery cart, push an elevator button, open a door knob, or shake hands with a co-worker. All of these things can put bacteria onto your hands. Next, you touch your smartphone and transfer bacteria onto it. PhoneSoap can sanitize your smartphone, tablet, and more.

PhoneSoap is a UV sanitizer for devices like phones and tablets. It uses UV light, similar to what hospitals use to sanitize devices. Put your smartphone into the device. Once you close the device, the light comes on. The UV light will stay on for about ten minutes. At that point, your smartphone is sanitized. The UV light will sanitize up to 99.9%.

PhoneSoap also works as a charger, so you can charge your phone while it is being sanitized. It is priced at $59.95. There is also a PhoneSoap Wireless that is priced at $99.95. PhoneSoap XL is priced at $119.95. It can sanitize tablets and other objects that will fit inside it.

Check out these models that are available at Amazon:

PhoneSoap 3: https://amzn.to/2HMiEHf

PhoneSoap 2: https://amzn.to/2qLNK9L

Interview by Daniele Mendez of The New Product Launchpad.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

Your privacy is important. Posting your photo, or other personal data, online can be an uncomfortable experience. How will that company use your likeness and information? Deep Force uses artificial intelligence to keep your personal information private.

Deep Force powers artificial intelligence on our most favorite devices, our smartphones. They do this by leveraging deep learning, which is the most advanced AI available. Their face recognition accuracy is over 99.9 percent. Deep Force takes that model and uses it for heterogeneous computing. This process helps all the different parts inside a smartphone to work together more efficiently, which creates more computational powers within the device.

Instead of requiring users to send their photos, videos, and audio over the internet, Deep Force enables smartphones to process all the information on the device itself. It works even if you are in a place that does not have Wi-Fi. Deep Force makes an app that their partners can use in their products. The app is not sold directly to individual consumers.

Interview by Daniele Mendez of The New Product Launchpad.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.

Although Michele has worked in the banking industry full time for many years, she originally went to school with a concentration in communications, advertising and marketing. She began her career in sales and retail management, selling electronics and computers. Her love of all things tech eventually brought her back into the electronics arena three years ago when she started with PLuGHiTz Corporation to help with special events as a Production Assistant. Soon she began to dabble with the audio and video and is loving her role as Producer. She's also one of our content writers and assists with product reviews. Looking forward, she is excited to expand her skill set into editing and helping the company continue to grow.

Tracking environmental conditions is important for many industries. This is particularly the case with food & drink and pharmaceutical companies. Often products have to be kept below a certain temperature and any deviation above this means that the product is not longer deemed safe for consumption. French firm Yes It Is is working hard to provide a continuous unbroken record of the environment surrounding these types of goods.

Traditionally the recording of environmental conditions is done by equipment installed in the building or the refrigerator. To match the data to a particular product means that the time in and out needs to be recorded so that relevant periods can be checked. Wouldn't it be better if the sensor was small enough and battery powered so that it could be packaged in with the product? There would then be a complete and unbroken record of the environmental conditions from production to use.

The folks at Yes It Is are working hard on this problem and are developing tags that have a year's worth of battery life, record the environmental data and can be scanned by a smartphone to retrieve the data. The plan is to have the tag small enough to fit in a label within a year!

Interview by Allante Sparks of PLuGHiTz Live Special Events.

Allante - also well known as Wolff - is the newest member and co-host for PLuGHiTz Live! Radio. A gifted artist, he is usually found drawing up a character or two or sketching up whatever comes to mind. Do not think that he is not a hardcore gamer because he is about as hardcore as it gets! His favorites range from fighting games to RPGs, adventure and even a racing game here and there. Fighting games are his forte and he relays this message for all who oppose: You mess with the Wolff and you get the fangs!

XB360 - Enigmatic Wolff

PSN - Tsukuyomi_Okami

Although Michele has worked in the banking industry full time for many years, she originally went to school with a concentration in communications, advertising and marketing. She began her career in sales and retail management, selling electronics and computers. Her love of all things tech eventually brought her back into the electronics arena three years ago when she started with PLuGHiTz Corporation to help with special events as a Production Assistant. Soon she began to dabble with the audio and video and is loving her role as Producer. She's also one of our content writers and assists with product reviews. Looking forward, she is excited to expand her skill set into editing and helping the company continue to grow.

Microbrews and local brews have become a staple of restaurants and bars across the country. Wanting to get in on the action, many people have taken to trying their own craft beers at home. It is not, however, a hands-off process, meaning that the need for assistance is usually high, which is where homebrew technologies come in.

Enter the HOPii Personal Micro-Brewery, a device designed to help make sure your home brewing experience is the best it can be. If you are a novice beer brewer, you can use HOPii's self-guided option to receive the recipe, while the device does all of the work of brewing, monitoring and letting you know when the beer is perfect to drink.

If you're more experienced, you can use the "Brewer's Mode," which is designed to allow you to be in charge. You can pick your ingredients, design your recipe and then ferment your wort, dry hops, etc., to determine the exact taste you want. Once the beer is ready, HOPii can even bring the beer to the ideal temperature of your choosing.

The company is coming off of a $382,000 Kickstarter last year, and is currently taking pre-orders through Indiegogo InDemand. For $399, you'll receive a HOPii for 33% off (the retail price will be $600), with an estimated delivery of June 2018.

Interview by Allante Sparks of PLuGHiTz Live Special Events.

Allante - also well known as Wolff - is the newest member and co-host for PLuGHiTz Live! Radio. A gifted artist, he is usually found drawing up a character or two or sketching up whatever comes to mind. Do not think that he is not a hardcore gamer because he is about as hardcore as it gets! His favorites range from fighting games to RPGs, adventure and even a racing game here and there. Fighting games are his forte and he relays this message for all who oppose: You mess with the Wolff and you get the fangs!

XB360 - Enigmatic Wolff

PSN - Tsukuyomi_Okami

Scott is a developer who has worked on projects of varying sizes, including all of the PLUGHITZ Corporation properties. He is also known in the gaming world for his time supporting the rhythm game community, through DDRLover and hosting tournaments throughout the Tampa Bay Area. Currently, when he is not working on software projects or hosting F5 Live: Refreshing Technology, Scott can often be found returning to his high school days working with the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), mentoring teams and helping with ROBOTICON Tampa Bay. He has also helped found a student software learning group, the ASCII Warriors, currently housed at AMRoC Fab Lab.

We all enjoy listening to music when we're on the go, but headphones an get so cumbersome and even earbuds can be uncomfortable - and both block out the world around you. Echo Music solves this problem with their MusicLens sunglasses that give you a stylish option to listen to your tunes.

MusicLens sunglasses let you listen to music through bone conduction technology. You don't have to wear headphones, and no one else will be able to hear that you are listening to music. Bone conduction technology is the conduction of sound to the inner ear through the bones of the skull, which can protect your eardrums while you listen to high quality music. MusicLens sunglasses use this technology to reduce the sound leak you would get from headphones.

MusicLens connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth, but unlike traditional Bluetooth headphones, the music can be stored right in the glasses. Download music from your phone, or from the Echo Music app, to the MusicLens sunglasses., and use the buttons to turn it on or off, to adjust the volume, or to have the Echo Music app autoplay. In addition, MusicLens will automatically take your phone call within five seconds.

There are several styles and colors of MusicLens to choose from. Pricing for MusicLens with prescription lenses is $88. Classic Ladies or Classic Mens styles are priced at $99. MusicLens Fashion style without storage is $120, or $199 with storage.

Interview by Daniele Mendez of The New Product Launchpad.

Daniele is a student at Florida Polytechnic University who is studying Computer Science with a concentration in Cyber Security. In High School, she was introduced to the science and technology world through the Foundation for Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), a robotics foundation where students of varying ages can compete through tasks that their robots perform. With help from mentors she met through FIRST, she became interested in programming and developing. Today, Daniele is a special events host for F5 Live: Refreshing Technology and PLuGHiTz Live Special Events and a co-host for both The New Product Launchpad and FIRST Looks.