It seems just yesterday that pioneering products such as the Nest and Philips Hue were tying household objects that we take for granted to the smartphone for some concrete benefits. But now the adding of connectivity has become somewhat mundane.
Take, for example, the Smart Iron. While most products have an accelerometer to detect when they move, the smart iron uses it to detect when it’s stopped moving to start off a countdown to automatic shut off.
Smartphone users can also use its companion app to set the iron’s temperature and be notified when the iron reaches it. If that doesn’t seem like world-beating features, consider that the product is something of a proof of concept for Meta Innovation’s Meta Box platform, which the company plans to integrate into a range of similarly simple appliances.
The Indian team behind the Smart Iron wants only $3,000 by May 21st and the smart iron will go for only $29. It should be available by August.
There aren’t too many benefits that the smart iron offers. It’s an iron and it’s (slightly) smart. On the other hand, it’s not too different from the several remote grill thermometers that have achieved a degree of popularity. We may not yet live in a world of smart apparel, but at least the apparel we have can be wrinkle-free based on smartphone-dictated temperature.