Top 2021 new gadgets ! Home cleaning appliances with a tech
Light bathroom suggests $ 750K for smart home extension that overwhelms your sunglasses
One ongoing theme in the world of smart homes has been the emergence of gadgets and other tools that can transform "normal" objects and systems into "connected" - eliminating the need to change fully functional objects, while using technology to improve their usability.
In a recent development, a smart home start from Santa Barbara called Shine Bathroom has raised $ 750,000 seed funding to help build and distribute its first product: an accessory that you attach to an existing toilet to make it a "smart toilet."
It's a dirty business, but somebody had to do it.
Shine’s immediate aim is to eliminate the old, unfriendly and environmentally friendly method of cleaning toilets; and providing tools to find out when something is not working properly in the plumbing, even helping you fix it without calling a plumber.
The long-term idea is to use technology and science to rethink the entire bathroom environment to put less strain on our natural resources, and to use it in a way that is consistent with what we want to do as consumers, using this first product to explore that market.
"The bathrooms range from the basic cleaning areas to where we prepare for the day," said Chris Herbert, founder and CEO of Shine. "Self-care and self-care will be very much at home, and this is a great opportunity."
Shine’s first money injection comes from two VCs and is based in Southern California: Entrada Ventures (similar to Shine, also in Santa Barbara), and Mucker Capital, a LA fund that mainly supports the random start in Silicon Valley (some in their current portfolio include Naritiv, Everipedia and Next Trucking).
Shine Bathroom Assistant, as the first product is called, is currently on sale at Indiegogo from $ 99, with the first products expected to be shipped by February 2020.
It is a fitting challenge for the hardware business: toilets are a necessary part of our modern lives, but they are not popular, and they have not really been established in a long time.
Herbert admitted to me (and I'm sure Freud will have something to say here, too) that this was something to take for a long time, going back to a trip to Japan as a high school professor and impressed by the way companies like Toto invented things in business, with beautiful loos, cleaning up everything (and they sang and danced).
"We thought, how can we make a better bathroom?" he said. “We have decided that the answer is software. If you take a thesis like that, you will see many opportunities. ”
A size similar to the Amazon Echo or other connected home speaker, attached to the Shine toilet is battery-operated and comes in three parts: a water tank, a sensor and a spray nozzle that you insert into your toilet bowl, and a third sensor fitted with an accelerometer that you attach to a large line filling the tank private. The boat is full of tap water (which changes from time to time).
The water is filtered through a special filter that electrolyzes (by sending a stream into the water) and then spraying it with all the water to clean and remove odors. Shine claims that this method of spraying is five times more effective than traditional deodorant spray, and is as strong as bleach, but without harsh chemicals: water converts back to salt after performing its function. (Also to be clear, no soap or other cleaning products are involved.)
Next to the cleaning features, the second part of the bathroom assistant is Sam, AI on your phone. Linked to hardware and sensors, Sam identifies common privacy issues, such as leaking droplets out of hundreds of gallons of water, measuring vibration variations, and when that happens, sends a free repair kit to fix it yourself.
The solution to vibration vibration, and the use of intelligent sensors to connect dumb objects, is remarkably consistent with the past business life of Herbert and others in his team.
Herbert was one of the two founders of Trackr, a Tile-like product that also played on the idea of making "dumb" things: Trackr's basic product was a small fob with Bluetooth inside that could be attached to keys, wallets, purses and more to find its place when misplaced.
The company's long-term goals have been extended to the IoT space and how “dumb” machines can be made smarter by attaching sensors to it to monitor vibrations and sounds to find out how they work - ideas that have never been on Trackr but found new life in Shine.
Trackr, of course, makes a story about how a good idea can inspire, but not always.
Starting its season has raised more than $ 70 million, from a set of top investors including Amazon, Revolution, NTT, Foundry Group and more. Eventually, the basic concept was widely used (a handful of Bluetooth trackers on Amazon), and Tile emerged as a market leader among the private sector - a position used to transform the product and its highly profitable investment with Comcast's partnerships and popularity.
But with that momentum, I would say that the market has not yet clearly decided whether there is a lucrative business to be found here, and what the consequences would be if platform companies could vent their anger in a different way (Apple is the latest rumor that it will compete with Tile).
Eventually, the Trackr team (including Herbert) disbanded and a new leadership team re-entered and relocated to Adero. Now, that party is over, with CEO Nate Kelly and others moving up and down to Glowforge. Many attempts to contact the company could not be answered, and I received a note from a current employee stating that Adero had sent notices that the company was now unable to pay.
Obviously, there may be more to come despite that.
"Something's out there, and I hope there's something they can do," Herbert said of his earlier start.
Meanwhile, he and four of his former colleagues at Transrr are now considering a new shiny challenge, a large toilet and bathroom where he sits, and investors who want to get into it.
“We were impressed with Shine’s vision of the bathroom to better prepare our head for the day and saw the most neglected opportunity in the bathroom,” said Taylor Tyng of Entrada Ventures.
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