from the or-something dept
For this week's
awesome stuff post of interesting crowdfunding projects, we've got various takes on home security and alarms.
Point
The
Point is an interesting new take on "the internet of things" and sensors. It's a little device with a bunch of sensors designed to alert you on your phone, if it senses something is wrong in the house. If it hears breaking glass, for example, it can alert you. Or if the noise is too loud (and unlike some other devices it doesn't send the content over the internet, it just alerts you). It tracks noise, air (smoke), temperature, humidity and some other things and can send alerts and also light up differently in the home as well. It's a rather different take on these things, done in a way that doesn't feel as privacy-invasive as a number of other connected home offerings.
rClock
You kind of have to see the
rClock in action to get it, but it's an alarm clock with a big plastic stick on it, that can swing down and "tap" you, to try to wake you up without making noise (though, I'd imagine that the tapping might make some amount of noise). I'm not sure I'd personally feel comfortable with a robotic alarm clock slapping me in the morning to wake me up, but it is a different sort of alarm...
BeOn
OK, the
BeOn isn't an alarm, per se, but does some interesting things to hopefully mean you wouldn't need a home burglar alarm. It's a sort of smart lightbulb that pays attention to when and how you use the lights in your house -- and if you set it to "away" mode, it just mimics your usual lighting patterns, to make anyone looking from the outside think that you're home. A lot more clever than the standard trick of just using a regular timer. The other neat feature is that it can listen for the doorbell to ring, and then turn on lights, at various intervals, around the house as if it's someone coming to the door. Of course, while that might scare off a potential burglar, it might confuse the heck out of a friend stopping by unannounced to say hello...
Filed Under: alarms, awesome stuff, sensors
