An assortment of products using Zigbee.
My favorite find at this booth is this light switch: it harvests enough energy from the motion of the switch to send the signal to the receiver with no internal battery whatsoever!
Category Archives: Connected Home
Withings Aura Smart Sleep System
If you don’t want to wear a fitness band to bed, you can outfit your bedroom to do the sleep monitoring for you. This product marks a shift from multifunctional devices to single function systems.
The mat is placed under the bed to monitor movement, while light and sound is used to help the user fall asleep or wake up.
Netatmo – Home Thermostat
A more elegant competitor to the Nest, this home thermostat is made for smartphone control, and blends with typical home wall colors.
Also in their lineup is a home air quality system.
iGrill – App Enabled Grilling
At first I thought this was silly, but using a tablet to learn about the correct food temperatures then having it tell you when it’s right? That actually makes a lot of sense.
http://idevicesinc.com/igrill/
WeMo: Home Automation System
The WeMo system of connected hardware to automate your home. WeMo plans to release a maker-accessible version to add to their system later this year!
Eton speaker, charger, generator
It’s a solar powered generator collecting power not only for it’s built in speaker, but also for whatever you connect via USB. It’s the perfect travel-outdoors-energy system, complete with a handle to carry it.
ETON
WD My Cloud – Personal Cloud Storage
Save everything, access anywhere.
Hey data security fearers… does keeping your cloud at home make you feel more or less safe?
Sonte Smart Film App Enabled Windowshades
Controlling the opacity of your windows with your smartphone is the ultimate solution to effortless shades. I need to get my hands on this stuff — I want to see what the vinyl cutter can do with it!
Otter Smart Chairs
This chair was simply fantastic. For about the price of a high-end massage chair from Brookstone, you can have this Otter Smart Chair packed with better features and comfort.
- iPad Controlled
- Health Sensors
- Speakers
- Comfort
- Exercise
This chair was the most comfortable chair I’ve sat in- ever. It incorporates health sensors like a scale, blood pressure, blood oxygen and heart rate that I’d actually use while I’m there enjoying an amazing massage. Plus, the surround sound speakers can play music from the iPad or natural sounds to sooth you to sleep. The chair also recommends exercise based on your health and guides thru t’ai chi.
If this chair looked more like a comfy couch than a video gaming chair, I’d be ready to buy one – it’s that good.
Parrot Plant Health System
I like the product design of this plant tracking device. The app is beautiful as well, and it lets you input the placement and type of plants to recommend care.
Kids Skype-enabled Webcam
This webcam is styled to fit in nicely on a kid’s shelf, rotates 360 and tilts up and down, and integrates with Skype – something the user hopefully is already familiar with. Plus, it’s adorable when it moves around.
Petzilla: Watch & Treat your pet
I’m so happy to have found this product! It’s a pet cam paired with a treat dispenser that you can view/activate from your smartphone. I was going to make one of these, but was dreading finding a mechanism for the treats. I hope they come out with just the treat dispenser part, and I’ll buy it in a second!
Connecting the Unconnected: Keynote
“Cisco CEO John Chambers shares the Cisco vision for the Internet of Everything (IoE), which is the networked connection of people, processes, data and things. Learn about a world where the Internet is always easily accessible, in everything we do and everywhere we go. The IoE is changing how we live, creating smarter cities. It allows our alarm clock to wake us up 10 minutes earlier when it receives reports of traffic congestion. It helps our home automatically adjust its temperature based on weather forecasts. John demonstrates what’s possible with the IoE, and how your company can take advantage of this new connected world.”
Watch here. (Free once you sign in)
Quality of life is the goal – technology makes it happen even when people don’t know that it’s tech that does it for them — and they don’t need to know.
The Connected Home @ 30:40
In he home of the future millennials Expect a screen as the primary interface Check smartphone before bed and after wake Office can be anywhere – work hard play hard Expect Access to Information First Generation that has grown up with a screen in front of them.
Internet of Everything (IOE) enables:
Just in time data Just in time arrival at location Just in time to the right device Just in time to the right person For them to make the right decision
AT&T
IOE causes people to change Problem: Crime- packages stolen Solution: Camera with motion detection – Nabbed the burglar Automotive connectivity – transfer to any screen – AT&T drive for connected cars – car talks to the house – AT&T store – focus on selling experience and outcomes – health – home – sell solutions All digital and all wireless home security system
Successful IOE will be:
- Simple
- Secure
- Quick
- Seamless
Video is the key application at home
- Video will be a key way of interacting with the IOE
- “Snowflake” – User Interface with flexibility
- Works with IOE appliances like Home Locks, Lights, Thermostat, Speakers
- Set – “cinema mode” lights dim, doors locked, thermostat warmer
- So, the Main TV becomes the home hub
Rick Smolan – Photographer
- Big Data “We’ve all became human sensors”
- “It’s like watching the planet develop a nervous system”
“Quake-catcher” – uses computer accelerometers- if all go off at once it senses earthquake in real time
The human face of big data – app – Free for January 2014!
Imagine what is possible Remember where you were a year ago and how much has changed Think about how people with process with data will make better decisions Tying applications together – the power is much more than adding it’s parts
- Looking at the Internet from the date of it’s inception to today, The IOE will have 5 to 10 times that impact.
- Next year – Healthcare is the next frontier & Digital Countries will be ready to evolve.
Revolv – Life & Smart Home Awesomation
I didn’t get to check out their booth, but I had to post about this amazing solution to the missing link in home automation. It combines most home automation brands into a single control center – exponentially empowering your connected home experience.
Tom Igoe found them at the show which he mentions on his blog.
Pinoccio – Wireless microcontroller for the web
These cool cats think that interaction designers shouldn’t have to go thru so much trouble to get their hardware and sensors online. So they created this amazing web based programmable board. Looks great to me, and they were super nice. Totally signed up for their beta test.
Mother – Watches over your internet of things
Mother is a hub for a series of connected pill shaped accelerometers. An app collects data and can be set for alerts. My question is: If the hub wasn’t a hub, would you want something that looked like Mother in your house?
Smart Pill Box
This pill box not only helps you remember to take your medicine, but it tracks the exact time of each seal being broken, so it knows that you took it, and that you took the right one. This data can be shared with your doctor or loved ones helping you take the medicine.
The pharmacist prepares the doses into each container, and the app tracks that you’ve filled up. Lights or a text message alert you when you need to take a dose, and the appropriate pill container lights up as well. Then you can take notes and share with others at the same point in treatment.
Voice Activation for Electronics
This voice activation platform claims reliability by restricting the words needed to control a device, and listening for meaning from these key words. 
Whirlpool
Vision of the future of kitchen surfaces:
Cute, personalized designs
Pop corn setting “Accupop” that uses a microphone to listen for the pops to know when it’s done (always thought that was the way it did it, but apparently is typically a timer when you hit popcorn.)
What Can We Make Possible with the Internet of Everything?
Description:
What happens when we wake the world up and start connecting the 99 percent of everything that is not yet connected? What is the future effect of this immense amount of connectedness? This session will challenge you to imagine what the outcome could be and how to make it possible.
David Evans, Cisco Chief Futurist, Cisco Consulting Services
Cisco
We attended this fantastic workshop in which we were teamed up with 7 other attendees to brainstorm the future of connected devices. Each group was given two industries and asked to imagine how they could be connected and enhanced in the age of the internet of everything.
We were group 6! Our challenge was to enhance Energy and Retail:
The winning presentation:
VeriStride has a nice prototype that could be repurposed to meet this teams vision.
Moneual: auto vacuums
… Me getting sucked into the giant suction display!
Cisco: Internet of Everything
Cisco is positioning themselves as the leader of infrastructure of the internet of everything.
Yahoo! Invades your Television
Yahoo!’s doing a Smart TV guide for some new TV’s, in case anyone wants to browse the web and watch TV at the same time on the same screen.
SAMSUNG – Connected Home & Amazing Displays
Samsung’s connected refrigerator and washing machines are so close to the dream! I can’t wait for my fridge to be integrated with Fresh Direct so that the whole food acquiring process is easier!
One of the most awaited features now came true: the fridge screen will allow you to *manually input the food contents to alert you when the food is spoiled and/or you need more. It will even concoct a recipe using available ingredients.
* come on, manually? Bar code & NFC tag ITP thesis anyone?
Nonetheless, iWant!
TiVo
TiVo now has smaller pod TiVo’s for multiple rooms.
Mommy Tech – Link
Future Moms
Speakers: Adam Sager, Andrea Smith, Beth Blecherman, Elizabeth Hamren, Monica Clark, Oren Boiman
Description:
Lost keys, dirty laundry, messy floors, and a long to-do list. The mundane world of domestic life will be turned on its head thanks to home automation, the Internet of Things and new mobility.
Adam Sager, CEO and Co-Founder
Canary
Andrea Smith, Producer/Journalist
Living in Digital Times
Beth Blecherman, Founder
TechMamas.com
Elizabeth Hamren, Vice President of Marketing
Dropcam
Monica Clark, Senior Manager, PR & Brand Experience
Whirlpool Corporation
Oren Boiman, Co-founder and CEO
Magisto
ATT Unite – if the internet of things grows to the size predicted – we sure need connection to the internet! Has battery boost as well. Mobile, Secure, Wifi Hotspot – moms loving the secure network.
Tastemaker Mom – moms are looking forward to:
- ultra hd tv’s
- wearable fitness devices
- home remote controls
Whirlpool – Appliances represent!
- innovation – products will anticipate consumer needs
- appliances will begin to have expression – feel more lighthearted
- connection – merge social and functional needs
Fully connected appliances – inventory fridge!!! Finally! And they’re doing a recipe suggester for food in your inventory!
Inventory of materials in fabrics of clothes to suggest care-takeing for your washer- nice.
DropCam –
- Designed for easy setup — (I agree! It was the best one, hands down!)
- HD quality video
- Cloud service – thought of the product “as a service” connect from anywhere
Next up: video analysis – it will try to find the moments you would want to save – you don’t have to be behind the video camera the whole time, you just save the moments you need after the face since it’s recording all the time.
Bluetooth LE in DropCam Pro! The vision is that the video camera will be the hub of the connected home.
Security: Encrypted on the device BEFORE it’s sent to the cloud.
Magisto – a site to help you tell stories with your video
- The software parses the video for the interesting parts and automatically edits videos together.
- In addition, starts to use face recognition and suggests better camera angles
- Featured in the Qualcomm Booth
Canary – single unit home security system
- Security – all inclusive – connects to the phone
- Patterns of behavior
When are they all going to be able to talk to one another?
- Dropcam – What is the problem that we’re solving today? Looking into products that will enhance or improve their own products experience
- Canary – doesn’t really care to cater to collaborating
- Whirlpool – connecting the dots is what everyone is working on now.
Can there be one app to control them all?
- Whirlpool – appliances want to be one stop shop for all
- Universal remotes are also a hot new company
- Bluetooth may be the best way so that the devices talk to one another not necessarily all talk to us.
- One dashboard controller
- Canary guy thinks that people only want one thing or are trying to solve a specific problem
iSmartAlarm
ISmartAlarm has some neat new additions to their collection
- A glass breaking sensor alerts to the sound of glass breaking
- A webcam, led, infrared led, and speaker doorbell
- We-Mote style outlet
The Maker Mentality
Description:
We call kids constructivist constructors. They learn best by tinkering, creating and exploring. Makers embrace some of the most exciting products of the season: robotics, action toys, construction set, and creative tool kits. The opportunities to blend traditional kids play with the maker mentality are astounding.
Ayah Bdeir, CEO
LittleBits
David Merrill, President
SifteoMichael Colombo, Online Editor
Maker MediaPaul Hoover, Design Director
ArtefactStuart Gannes, Founder and CEO
GoCast.itVikas Gupta, Founder and CEO
Play-i
Maker Faire Creator – Moderator
Little Bits – making the product gender neutral – elevate the abilities, not dumb them down for kids, encourage higher level discussions
ArtefactGroup.com – focused on interaction between tech and education – bringing up the next generation of makers
- Fiber optic repeater for top of iPad so that the face shows thru the toy – physical output for digital input
- Class that all draws characters that he puts into a game – each kid does a level
Sifteo Cubes – Understand their relationship with each other and are physical interactive screens
- Game system inspired by the most timeless play thing – blocks!
- Emerged from the maker community, arduino, sparkfun, etc.
- SDK & Game developer tool to create games without programming
Play-i – Desire to have children program at a young age
- Robot toy that kids can design
- All skills of the robot are editable and controllable by a child
Hopscotch – Kids programming software like scratch – but on an iPad!
- Use “blocks” of software to build games and applications
- Consumer devices are closed box so the software needs to open it
- Helping kids realize that these devices are something they could make
Open vs Closed Source
The things that kids can make are actually quite comparable with products that you can buy off the shelf.
There is a notion of a “platform” that the users complete
Makers have been around forever but the fact that they can connect and share their creations so easily and share their resources makes all the difference.
These products have successfully bridged the gab between hardware and configurability.
Makers are independent activists
What you need may not be big enough for a market, so you have to make it yourself.
So the maker movement is really a revolution
“It’s great to be here at CES where everything is so closed, and we’re here to be open.”
Maker / Constructivism / The child constructing their own knowledge is more valuable than any
Challenges
LittleBits – Cost – Electronics is still a pricing game
Little Bits wasn’t originally conceived for kids – Child safety? Parts are low voltage, etc. but the regulations needed for a kids product was a big challenge. For example, lead-free solder is required but doesn’t exist but they don’t check for things that may cause fire.
Play-i – Software – how will it scale? What should be closed and open? Modularity (each piece can stand alone or become a part of a system of others) means each piece becomes expensive. So cost is an issue here too.
Motion Sensor on lightbulb
I just like this – one appliance, nothing fancy, doesn’t need to take up a wall outlet.
CES 2014 