Julian Chow was leaning down to plug a USB cable into his desktop computer and upon standing up he bashed the back of his head. This painful reminder that USB connections are more complicated than necessary prompted him to create a connection that would work without having to worry about which side was up. Chow and his team are launching a Kickstarter campaign for ryo, a reversible USB adapter.
The Kickstarter video suggests that checking a USB connection and rotating wastes five seconds per insertion, or a full half hour per year. My standard insertion method is to push the plug toward the port and hope that the right side is facing up - even though the odds would seem to be 50/50 of a proper insertion it seems like my yield is lower.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1255122491/680183305?token=2a205ec0
Delivery for the ryo adapters is expected in September 2015. The $15,000 being raised from this Kickstarter campaign will go toward production startup costs. All of the prototypes built up to this point have been done by hand and 3d printer fabrication.
ryo has a few great design elements incorporated into its construction. Additional material is added to accommodate those of us who pull on a USB connection by the cord. I am firmly in the camp that you should never pull anything by the cord, but my kids believe differently. There's a slot molded into the base of ryo that allows you to coil up the USB cord and then nest it into the plug body.
Even though ryo bills itself as a life hack instead of a huge jump in consumer product design there's a huge deal of innovation here. USB connections are universal enough that a fundamental change to the way that the plugs are made seems unlikely. This idea is good enough that the developers at USB.org should at least consider modifications to the current design.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1255122491/680183305?token=2a205ec0