Hasta La Gadget!

Google’s Android OS is the dominant mobile platform by market share, but it’s also increasingly pushing beyond portables and onto a range of other devices types — including, if this crowdfunding campaign delivers on its promises, the boring old wall switches in your home.

bRight Switch is a prototype project that’s within touching distance of its $115,000 Indiegogo crowdfunding goal (with less than a day of its campaign left). Its aim is to replace plain old light switch hardware with what’s basically a small tablet fixed to the wall, expanding the functionality of the switch interface beyond simply just switching your lights on and off.

The bRight Switch actually plugs into a base unit to convert a wall switch from dumb switch to smart screen, but its makers claim the installation process is an easy job for an electrician.

The bRight Switch tablet design is customised for a wall-mounted context to offer features that make sense in such a setting, such as people detection to automatically turn on lights on when someone walks into a room.

Other features the smart switch is set to support include the ability to remotely switch your lights on and off via the Internet and a learning mode that gets to know your routines over time and automatically switches lights on and off based on prior usage.

Also on board is a security feature whereby you can play back footage recorded by the camera on one of the switches in another room. Plus videocalling (via Skype, or similar) and streaming music via Internet radio services such as Pandora.

Other features include a built-in alarm; temperature display; dimmer ability for certain types of bulbs; an intercom feature allowing for chatting between bRight Switches located in different rooms; plus other security features such as setting an alarm to be triggered by motion in a particular room.

The units will also run standard Android apps, so you could presumably fire up Angry Birds on your wall if you’re really bored. bRight Switch’s makers are also planning to supply an open API to encourage developers to create new apps for the wall beyond what they’ve envisaged.

Of course, all these features are aspirations at this point with only a prototype of the bRight Switch in existence. If the device hits its funding target, which at the time of writing is looking pretty likely, its U.S. based makers reckon they can deliver to backers by July.

The switches use Wi-Fi to plug into your home router to support functions such as Skype calling and streaming Internet radio, while the Z-wave wireless protocol is used for talking to lights around your home that are not wired directly to the switch.  

How much will this smart light switch set you back? They’re charging $75 per switch for non-Bluetooth switches, and $90 for the Bluetooth version. Or $325/$435 for a five-pack of the two respective options.

What’s the point of the Bluetooth addition? Added functionality such as the ability to link up to external Bluetooth speakers for “full spectrum sound” — or, getting even more customised about home automation, the ability to track your phone (and therefore you) around the house, providing a “custom personalized experience as you move from room to room.”

There are plenty of things to be afraid of when you are in the dark. Anything could be walking your darkened halls and waiting to pounce on you. Aliens, a Predator, maybe even Weird Al Yankovic. Darkness is our enemy. I say embrace your fear and gather enough courage to install this awesome Alien Facehugger light switch plate.

Sure, it is scary, but at least you know it is there and not moving anywhere. It might even scare some of those other demons away. Besides, when a facehugger is busy hugging your wall switch, it’s all good. It is too busy to hug you to death.

It’s made from resin and cold cast bronze by Afterlight Sculpture and sells for about $24(USD). I don’t recommend ever flipping it to the “off” position though.

[via Obvious Winner]

Sure, you could get one of Think Geek’s iCade controllers to play actual arcade-style button mashing games — or you just bring the nostalgia of the joystick to your light switch for $30 with its recently introduced Power-Up Arcade light switch plate. The unit can replace any standard light switch plate, turning it into a faux gaming control panel. A traditional joystick replaces your old switch nub to control the lights, while its two action buttons enable “pew pew” sound effects when pressed. If all that wasn’t enough, the Power-Up also acts as a nightlight after you use it to pwn hit the main lights in your quarters (you’ll have to provide of a duo of AA batteries yourself). Check out the video below to see it in action for yourself.

Continue reading ThinkGeek’s Power-Up brings the arcade controls to your room’s light switch

Filed under: Misc, Gaming

ThinkGeek’s Power-Up brings the arcade controls to your room’s light switch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 04 Sep 2012 02:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  ThinkGeek  | Email this | Comments

In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you’d like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with “Insert Coin” as the subject line.

Just a simple light switch, you say? Look closer. Think Automatic’s Luminode dimmer switch hides both a processor and a mesh network connection that lets every switch in the home coordinate with each other. A multi-tap system makes it possible to link multiple lights together without extra wiring or complex programming, but that’s just the start: it’s possible to create “scenes” of predefined lighting levels and, with a USB adapter, hook up to home automation systems (including Think Automatic’s own) that can learn usage habits, track energy consumption or simply let us control the array with our smartphones. The platform uses raw XML to communicate and already talks to GE, Insteon and Stargate hardware — all without requiring a huge grid of buttons or displays.

Development of the Luminode is very nearly done after six-plus years of work in Seattle. The hardware is fundamentally ready and just needs the Kickstarter project to finish its FCC and UL testing along with the obligatory mass production. The hope is to start delivering switches in January as well as integrate more closely with non-lighting elements in the future. Pledge levels are dictated almost exclusively by volume: $130 is what it takes to get a basic two-switch kit, $260 will add the USB adapter along with an extra switch, and successive levels scale all the way up to a 50-switch, $3,000 kit for large homes. Think Automatic has a relatively low $35,000 threshold to meet its Kickstarter funding, but it only has 13 days left to go. If you like the idea of advanced lighting that doesn’t require an advanced appreciation of the user manual to understand, now’s a good time to click the source link and make it happen.

Continue reading Insert Coin: Luminode dimmer switch runs on a mesh network, learns to light up our lives (video)

Filed under: Household

Insert Coin: Luminode dimmer switch runs on a mesh network, learns to light up our lives (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Aug 2012 21:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Kickstarter  | Email this | Comments