Ikea Releases Air Quality Sensor
Ikea has a history developing unique connected products. The furniture brand recently announced Vindstyrka, an indoor connected air quality sensor due to release in April. Vindstyrka is a tabletop device with a large display and measures temperature, volatile organic compounds, and particulate matter levels in the home. Vindstyrka connects to Ikea’s connected air purifier, Starkvind, via the Home app, to improve air quality based on the readings. Pricing has not yet been announced.
The NPD Take:
- Ikea continues to expand into new connected devices, first partnering with Sonos and later, releasing smart home hubs and smart lighting products. Ikea currently makes non-connected air quality products, the addition of connectivity in these new devices allows users to track air readings more easily and even connect the measurements to scenes in the smart home set up.
Josh.ai Envisions ChatGPT for Home Control
Voice assistants, while responsive to spoken commands, don’t generally have much intelligence. With all of the excitement around OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Smart Home company Josh.ai released a proof of concept video demonstrating some of the company’s experiments with the application. The video, available on Josh.ai’s website, shows Josh, the company’s voice assistant, powered by the intelligence of ChatGPT answering complex voice queries more adeptly than conventional assistants. Notably, Josh is asked to adjust lights to accommodate a video shoot and they adjust the lights accordingly - without directing if they should be brighter or darker.
The NPD Take:
- While voice assistants are useful for simple control of smart home devices, smarter voice assistants would allow for more complex actions and, presumably, less reliance on users to set the automations. ChatGPT and other advanced AI applications are versatile and accessible and the potential for device control is significant.