WeMo Introduces a Connected Swtich
At first glance, the Belkin WeMo Stage Scene Controller with Thread is a simple light switch with physical buttons for when voice or a smartphone app are less than ideal ways to turn on the lights in a dark room. But look further, and the HomeKit enabled device is able to accomplish a wide array of tasks including opening connected shades, turning on a speaker, or closing the garage door. Even better, the switch is able to do all these things at once as a scene controller. The switch is compact in size (about the size of an Apple TV remote) and can be programmed in any number of ways.
The NPD Take:
- As adoption of home automation products continues and users add more devices to the home, easy ways to ways to control devices will be at a premium. The Belkin WeMo Stage Scene Controller can interface with a wide variety of products and scenes. For users with Thread certified devices or a Thread border router (including the HomePod Mini and Apple TV 4K 2nd Generation) and other HomeKit compatible devices, the Stage Scene Controller is especially versatile.
Xiaomi Tests a New Smart Home Interface
Engineers at Xiaomi developed a prototype headband that allows users to control smart home devices using only brainwaves. The headband is paired with a smartphone app which monitors the user’s brainwaves. Reportedly, users are to ‘concentrate’ on getting their smart home devices to perform a specific action- the headband/phone combo will interpret the brain wave information and then relay it to the device.
The NPD Take:
- Controlling smart home devices using nothing more than one’s thoughts is a technological breakthrough. However it is not likely to be taken up by a majority of smart home users any time soon. Technology users have shown to be resistant to wearing devices in the past (example 3DTV glasses) and the use of brainwaves will be seen as overly intrusive.
- Still, researchers in other venues continue to explore this method of human to machine interface (notably, Mercedes- Benz has experimented with mind control in vehicles). For users of most smart home devices, the development of voice control (and accounting for control of a growing number of devices, platforms, and scenes) holds the most promise for friction-less device interfaces.