Tag: smart home

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Smart Home

Smart control kit lifts the difficulty in controlling window blinds

One of the biggest hurdles that home automation faces is the cost and complexity of installing devices for every small or mundane aspect of a house.

Tilt My Blinds thinks that smart blinds are a great addition to any home, and wants to make the process simple for anyone. Working with virtually any kind of existing blinds, Tilt My Blinds is a simple device that takes less than 15 minutes to install on each set of blinds and allows for scheduled opening and closing of the blinds as well as control via Bluetooth devices or wireless switches. The blinds are powered by a battery which can be charged using any USB outlet or with an optional solar panel to save even more time and energy. It’s going to take $50,000 to make a properly-funded endeavor. A Tilt My Blinds retrofit kit will cost backers $75 and arrive in February 2015.

For those automating their home piece by piece, Tilt My Blinds is a great way to add some futurism into even the most quaint of dwellings. The solar panel is  great for taking even more effort away from managing the blinds, and the TV plug add-on to reduce viewing glare demonstrates the kind of foresight that should make this product successful.

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Connected Objects Safety

Haven is a brace on Earth to complement your deadbolt

Smart locks may have made a splash and added convenience to many people’s home lives, but the fact still remains that they rely on deadbolts to protect your home. It has been proven that deadbolts are an outdated form of protection because with enough force, the blunt end of a hammer and a bump key, or just simply a credit card, those who want access to your home will most certainly get it.

HAVEN is a smart lock that works by being installed at the base of a door and using the house’s own frame as the deterrent rather than a deadlock. Being made from glass reinforced nylon, aluminum and steel allows for far more protection versus other deadlock-dependent solutions, with a door in the campaign shown withstanding brute force kicks, sledgehammers and axes. When excessive force is recognized, HAVEN can turn on other connected parts of your home through Nest and Apple HomeKit compatibility and send alerts to mobile devices in response. When there isn’t trouble brewing, the product’s wi-fi and Bluetooth connectivity allow users to digitally share keys and either locally or remotely lock their doors using their iOS or Android smartphone. Lost your phone? An online access portal can help you maintain access of your home. The people behind the HAVEN Smart Lock are looking for $150,00o to make their goal a reality, with significant stretch goals which include an A/C power add-on and wearable gesture support, to entice would-be backers. Interested people can protect their home by pledging $249 or more.

HAVEN is an shot in the arm for the smart lock market. Its robustness in protecting the home along with its connectivity and control options make its involved installation easier to bear. Other smart locks, like the August and the Goji, emphasize the social aspect rather actually protecting the home — HAVEN tells them to put their money where their mouths are.

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Cell Phone Accessories

Gyzmo is another Bluetooth button to remotely control your smartphone

For decades, senior citizens with medical conditions have counted on emergency paging necklaces to notify medical responders of an emergency. Gyzmo operates primarily as a wireless panic button that can be used to contact emergency contacts with precise GPS location by activating the functions programmed into a smartphone. This way, trusted and reliable friends and family members will know where the Gyzmo owner is, and that something is wrong. Additionally, Gyzmo can be used to activate functions on any smart device wirelessly, by again using one of three pressed buttons to activate features set up through the owner’s smartphone.

The Gyzmo battery lasts up to six months, ensuring that it won’t go out in the middle of an emergency if properly managed. Stadson Technology, creators of the Gyzmo, are looking for $75,000 to develop the app, test, and go through production. Buyers can pick one up for $49, having it delivered in April 2015. As just a panic button, Gyzmo is a pretty solid idea and device that could potentially save lives. Trying to market it as a smart home controller seems a little far-fetched, as it still has to be routed through a smartphone, and most smart devices already have companion apps for wireless control.

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Sensors/IoT Smart Home

Notion can sense just about anything around your home

There are a wealth of different smart home solutions available to tackle specific tasks or watch certain parts of the home. From home intrusion tags on windows and doors to humidity sensors that can detect potentially dangerous conditions for collectibles, having a home that does all of this requires a lot of products, not to mention a lot of money.

Notion is a smart home sensor that prefers to do a lot with a little. The small adhesive pucks that Notion uses for sensors can be placed on any surface or device and programmed to monitor multiple different kinds of data, or just do one specific task. From detecting water leaks to safeguarding valuable or dangerous materials, when one of Notion’s built-in sensors is tripped, it sends a notification to the user’s phone, as well as to any approved contacts if the homeowner is not in a position to respond quickly to urgent matters.

Notion can sense eight different kinds of stimuli: acceleration, light, sound, proximity, temperature, orientation, water leaks, and natural frequency. Whether a window is left open upon leaving the house or if a smoke alarm is going off, Notion promptly reports it. Loop Labs, Inc., maker of the Notion, needs $50,000 for testing, design, and production. The base kit including one hub and one sensor puck is priced at $129 and will launch in July 2015.

Notion isn’t the first all-in-one smart home super-sensor, nor will it be the last. But as the smart home grows and develops, and companies try to tackle the functions of the ideal smart home one at a time, it’s refreshing to be able to invest in a product that pulls its own weight in every room of the house.

 

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Connected Objects Sensors/IoT

VERVE2 lets you assemble your own Internet of Things like LEGOs

The Premise. The Internet of Things is garnering a lot of attention and excitement, and rightfully so. Just as getting people connected online revolutionized communication and information, connecting objects online stands poised to change what people expect from their appliances and tools.

The Product. VERVE2 is an easily programmable, highly customizable family of sensors that allow users to give any item a degree of online functionality. Detecting touch, light, heat, or motion, VERVE2 can be clipped or affixed to anything and then programmed to interact with computer programs or Web sites to create new and exciting functions.

The Pitch. The very first words for the VERVE2 campaign call it the “LEGOs of the future,” and this sort of do-anything approach is what the video and campaign material strive to portray. In the video, viewers see everything from a DIY burglar alarm to a greeting card turned into an automatic tweet whenever someone is thinking of a loved one and touches the card. VERVE2 creators inXus interactive are hoping to raise $10,000 for manufacturing and assembly. At $50,000 dollars, backers who get at least 7 sensors will also receive a sheet of Velostat to make touch panels of any shape or size.

The Perks. Getting started with VERVE2 only takes a pledge of $45 to get one connecter cable, the hub, a light sensor, and a flash drive with the required software. A pack with seven sensors goes for $89, with a light sensor, button, touch sensor, turn sensor, motion sensor, DIY sensor, and magnetic sensor. Finally, the $160 tier level includes 2 of each of the aforementioned sensors, plus temperature sensors, force sensors, and loudness sensors. All perks are expected to deliver out in November.

The Potential. Just by how easy the VERVE2 system is to set up and tweak to accomplish different tasks, it’s an incredible way to bring the power of connecting objects to the Internet to even the most average end user. That being said, from a practicality standpoint, the system may not be as flexible as promised, offering a lot of options to use, but not a lot of outstanding features that would be intuitive to many. The creative and curious will derive a great sense of joy from getting their hands (and fingers, and voices, and lights) on VERVE2, but for the person who just wants something they can plug in and use to make their lives easier, VERVE2 might not be the right buy. This sort of real-world physical programming has been put out before with products like Ninja Blocks, but being able to turn any object into computer input is what makes VERVE2 an exciting alternative.

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Cell Phone Accessories

AnyMote Home makes your mobile a universal remote

The Premise. After setting up the perfect home theater system, most customers are left with a few more remotes than were expected, and scarcely an idea of how to use most of them. The universal remote has been around for decades to solve this problem but often creates more in its wake.

The Product. AnyMote Home is designed to take the core idea of a universal remote, eliminating the need for multiple confusing and similar remote controls and condensing them down to a single device, and pairs it with modern technological sensibilities. AnyMote Home is a simple Bluetooth LE hub that takes phone or tablet inputs and converts them into IR signals that can control almost any device, with thousands of devices supported already and updates constantly rolling out.

The Pitch. Anyone who rolls their eyes at TV infomercials starring actors who manage to mess up everything from sorting closet space to cooking pasta might be put off by the beginning of the AnyMote Home pitch video. Viewers meet Jason, a stylish young man who wants to relax after work but gets annoyed with how many remotes he has to pick up and use to watch television. Seriously. Aside from that, the presentation made by Color Tiger is clean and informative, going over the myriad ways AnyMote Home does more than just simulate a remote control. Color Tiger is aiming for raising $50,000 for manufacturing, tooling, and certification.

The Perks. An AnyMote Home hub will cost backers $70, with a delivery date of June 2015. Developers who want to do more with the AnyMote system can get the SDK along with the device for $250 in January, and anyone who can’t wait any longer without having this piece of tech in their home can also pay $250 to get an Arduino prototype as early as October 2014.

The Potential. AnyMote definitely has a strong degree of adoption possibility because of the way that it combines home automation with the familiar button layouts of existing remotes on a touch screen device. Because AnyMote supports over 800,000 remotes (really!) and is already up on Google Play with functionality on certain model phones, some customers are accustomed already to using the AnyMote system, and the Home hub will just make it even more convenient.

Still, the universal remote never found favor beyond the technologically challenged for the lack of precise control and features. If AnyMote doesn’t offer complete 1:1 remote simulation, there will always be a need for the familiar feel of the plastic wand that makes the entertainment magic of the living room a possibility.

Categories
Sensors/IoT Smart Home

Eve smart irrigation system gives plants what they crave

The Premise. Why should the indoors reap all the benefits of automated smart home technology? What homeowners can also use is something that makes their lives easier when it comes to home and garden maintenance, while also cutting back on utility bill costs.

The Product. Eve is a smart yard system that uses real-time data to determine when to water a lawn or plants. The Eve itself is a control panel that can control smart sprinkler systems and monitors weather forecasts to make a decision on whether to water or let mother nature handle the job. Eve’s field operatives are little green ground pegs called Adam sensors, which can be pushed into soil at any location and will monitor soil moisture both at the surface and at the level where a plant’s roots will be. In combination with Eve’s eye on the weather, the Adam sensors report back to Eve to let the system know when a watering is needed. Better still, Adam sensors have a battery life up to one full year without being changed.

The Pitch. Eve comes right out and points out the shortcomings of other outdoor smart watering systems as little more than glorified timers. Getting into further detail about the Zigbee and SmartThings systems that Eve runs on, developer Plaid Systems makes a strong argument for why their product stands as the first truly smart irrigation system. Plaid Systems is raising $75,000 to finance molding and production.

The Perks. Adam sensors start at $55 with $50 added for each additional sensor. The Eve controller can be picked up to support as many as 16 zones for $100, but both Adam and Eve require a SmartThings Hub. To get everything required, the $295 tier bundles an Eve, 1 Adam sensor, and a SmartThings Hub, with the hub arriving in October and the Adam and Eve arriving later in March 2015. Multiple tiers are available offering varying multiples of each product.

The Potential. As the campaign points out immediately, this feels like one of the first smart yard systems, offering a combination of weather data and soil moisture to determine when to water and how much instead of just controlling timers with a smartphone. The requirement of a SmartThings Hub feels more like a setback for most homeowners, save those who are already using the platform and other Zigbee devices in their smart home. The devices can work without the trio assembled, but lack a strong degree of the functionality that will sell people upon looking into Eve and its campaign.

Categories
Connected Objects Smart Home

Dorr drives into the crowded connected garage door space

The Premise. Automated garage doors sure are useful, but not when you spend the beginning of every drive wondering whether or not it was left open. This usually happens when you’re already pretty far from your home, forcing most to waste time returning just to make sure. 

The Product. Dorr is an extremely straightforward product from Buelgo that comes in the form of a sensor that attaches to your garage door. In exchange for its new permanent home, it determines whether or not said door is open using its built-in accelerometer. Most importantly, Dorr uses your own wi-fi network to communicate with your smartphone to let you know if you need to open or close your garage door from wherever you are. Password protect Dorr with 128-AES level encryption to prevent unauthorized access, or just the chubby fingers of a little one. 

The Pitch. The campaign is as straightworward as the product itself, with the featured 43 second video introducing the inventor and showing off Dorr in all its authoritarian garage door glory. As with the doors it opens, backers won’t have to have to wait too long if they spring for one: Dorr has a February 2015 delivery date. 

The Perks. Buelgo is offering single worthwhile perk in the form of a Dorr unit for $75 — unless you really, really want a T-shirt that tells the world about your backer status for $25. 

The Potential. Smartphone-enabled garage door openers have been a thing for quite some time. Many companies currently offer their very own take on the product that frankly have far more functionality than Dorr. Products from companies like Open-Me, Craftsman, Garageio, BTmate, and Liftmaster offer features like shared access between more than one user and responsive design that detects when you’re near. Dorr is extremely basic compared to some of these more sophisticated solutions and really offers nothing new to the space. Its price isn’t even all that attractive considering that BTmate in particular can be had for as little as $30. Smartphone-enabled garage doors may not be a huge industry right now, and products like Dorr certainly aren’t going to make it much bigger.

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Home Smart Home

Qhome runs your home, doesn’t need to get paid

The Premise. Smart home systems are cropping up everywhere, but tend to specialize in one particular concept or feature, whether it’s energy-saving, security, or climate control. These devices give the illusion of a smart home while leaving several components woefully unconnected.

The Product. Qhome is a smart home hub that offers a greater degree of functionality than the partial smart home devices that have shown up to swell the market. Operating through a series of distinct modes as well as individual customization, Qhome can open curtains, close windows, keep a running grocery list as things are removed from the fridge, and send cleaning robots out as needed to keep things tidy, all from a smartphone or through its own programming.

The Pitch. Developer Quatanium introduces viewers to Qhome by showing a young professional who can only focus so well on his job because his home monitors and operates itself. From getting him up in the morning all the way to notifying him that there’s no more jam in the fridge, Qhome steers the video’s hero through all the aspects of his home life right up to his date that night. Unfortunately, as viewers ask how all of this might be possible, the campaign page itself has no follow-through, focusing more on general discussion of the history of smart home technology and how it functions rather than explaining how the product itself works. Backers might be interested in helping Quatanium reach its huge $500,000, but will have to do so with several questions still in their minds.

The Perks. Getting started with a Qhome system costs as little as $99, to get the app and control components for two devices. A more complete system with a hub, 5 components, and a wireless music player costs $249. Those who are more concerned with security can add an extra 5 control components and a wireless security camera to their system at the $599, while anyone who wants their system designed to maximize effectiveness in their home can get a personalized system built for $1,999. All tiers except the personalized system will ship by March 2015, with the latter shipping in July 2015.

The Potential. When it comes to potential, the idea behind Qhome has an awful lot of it. However, without more details and more explanation, it’s easy to get the impression that nothing may ever come of all that potential. Qhome makes a lot of bold claims and is fairly cost-effective. Now, all that remains to be seen is if it can back up all of its talk.

Categories
Smart Home

Monolyth may not be full of stars, but it can learn how you use air conditioning

The Premise. The smart home may not be as smart as inventors have led people to believe. Sure, it can detect various data and respond to it whether it’s temperature, motion, light, or network connectivity, but are these devices really learning, or are they just trained? The real smart home revolution is about to begin, and it’s starting with a clever bit of climate control.

The Product. The aptly-named Monolyth is a device that can control air conditioning units based on set times, temperature and humidity sensors, air quality, or manual control over Wi-Fi or infrared. What makes the Monolyth different is that it detects the presence of users and begins to build its own schedule around what it learns, turning on based on thermostat levels to keep the air cool, but setting the appropriate temperatures based on if anyone is around to enjoy it or how cold they want it.

The Pitch. The first look at Monolyth gives a strong first impression based on what it’s capable of. With its own sense of personal style and ability to learn, the excitement for this device carries through to its campaign as well. Monolyth wants to raise $50,000 for tooling, components, and packaging.

The Perks. The Monolyth system can be picked up for just $79 and will arrive in January 2015, which is great news for those in the Southern hemisphere and in the middle of summer. Higher tiers include multiple units to control additional air conditioners.

The Potential. We’ve already looked at a few smart air conditioning units in the past, like Sensibo and tado°, but Monolyth really challenges the idea of what a smart device should be. By learning usage patterns and building an automated schedule, Monolyth does more than just look for a phone or tablet within range before starting up, it adapts to its users and expends only the energy it needs to in order to create a climate control system tailored specifically to its users. Sure, it can be overridden as needed, but the idea of a device that anticipates a customer’s needs rather than react to them is something that could really push the entire smart home market forward and will no doubt be picked up by complements and competitors moving forward.