Category: Internet of Things

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In cities such as New York, energy demand skyrockets as the mercury rises. Each heat wave brings with it warnings to reduce electricity consumption. ConEd’s CoolNYC program is an effort to reduce some of this demand, while keeping customers cool.

ConEd customers that sign up for the program receive an internet connected device that controls their air conditioner. The customer can set temperatures and on/off schedules using their computer or mobile device. In extreme demand conditions, ConEd can raise the temperature on these connected thermostats a bit, citywide to reduce the amount of power needed. While CoolNYC targets the six million window air conditioners in the city, customers with central A/C can enroll in a similar program for connected thermostats.

As a side note, there’s an interesting op-ed in the NY Times about getting more customers to sign up for energy saving programs. ConEd gives customers free devices and $25 gift cards, which may not be the most effective incentives–according to the op-ed contributor’s research.

via CityLab

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Velo Bike Lock
Skylock is a solar powered, keyless bike lock–and more. Since it’s a connected device, it also acts as a sensor, which can let you know when someone is messing with your rig, or tell someone else when you get doored. Pretty slick.

The preorder price is $159, a little steep compared to other high-quality locks, but it certainly packs in the features.

Photo from Velo

via Wired Design

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Little PrinterIt’s easy to look at many IoT devices as expensive toys. While mass production will lower the cost in the future, will they ever be more than cute toys? Tim Maly uses BERG’s Little Printer as an example of where these devices are headed.

Little Printer is a good example. It has a very nice design, and the price is already coming down as the size of their production runs increase. Right now, it is essentially a content delivery device, to which they are continually adding new content options. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It’s conceivable that there will also be input devices that could be used to interact with this little printer in the near future.

Devices like this printer, and the Good Night Lamp will become more prevalent as the desire to better absorb the information around us increases. Not all information needs or should be presented on screen or behind glass. I look forward to seeing what designers and engineers create in the next few years.

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Good Night LampI’ve been following the progress of the Good Night Lamp since last summer. Their Kickstarter campaign ending last week without reaching the funding goal isn’t keeping them down–they’ve opened an online shop to take pre-orders. The prices look to be the same as the backer reward levels on Kickstarter. If they can manage to bring most of the backers from the Kickstarter campaign over to make pre-orders, they should do just fine.

The Good Night Lamp team set a lofty goal on Kickstarter, but it seems to have been one that was well thought out, and honest. I respect them for that. It seems that many of the projects put up for crowd funding don’t set their funding goals high enough to realistically produce their product. It appears that team Good Night Lamp did their homework and set a funding goal accordingly. While the Kickstarter might not have reached its primary goal of funding the project, at least they have an idea of the demand at a sustainable price point. More teams seeking crowd funding should follow Good Night Lamp’s lead.