How would you like to add intelligence to your air conditioner? How about control it from anywhere with an app and save 40% on its energy usage? Sounds to too good to be true? Meet Sensibo. Sensibo is a tiny device that connects air conditioners to the Internet and allows you to control them from anywhere, as long as you are connected.
The beautiful part of this nifty gadget is that not only can it be used with any existing air condition that has a remote control, it comes with a free app for iPhone, Android and Pebble. It can also replace the traditional controller, if you wish.
Each of the Sensibo Pod contain a temperature, relative humidity, presence, fan level, light and infra-red sensor, which is a pretty full load of electronics in a small package. For all you technies and geeks, each Sensibo pod is powered by two micro-processors – Texas Instrument’s CC2538 as the main MCU. It runs a 802.15.4 low power RF standard with 6LoWPAN protocol on top. The secondary MCU is Texas Instrument’s CC2541, running Bluetooth Low Energy and supports iBeacon. Sensibo runs on two powerful standard CR123A batteries and is equipped with 6 tiny super strong Infra-red emitters pointed in all directions, so that it’s easy to place the pod on your air conditioner – and it just works. Further more, it can use iBeacon to detect whether there is anyone in the room, and adjust the behaviour of the air-con accordingly.
The Sensibo works on a hub and spoke design. In short, you get a main controller unit called the Smart Hub, which then talks to the individual Pods in different rooms and places. This allows users to connect several different air conditioning units and control them at the same time. The Smart Hub is the component which connects to users’ router to access Internet and takes your “command” to control the individual pods.
To top it off, the Sensibo is developer friendly. Sensibo has a robust API that allows for the easy incorporation into other apps and can easily work alongside other smart devices. The API gives developers access to:
- Control all your A/C settings
- Temperature input
- Relative humidity input
- Vibrations sensor input
- Ambient light sensor input
- iBeacon information
- Time to reach target temperature
- Efficiency of current A/C usage
- Send arbitrary IR commands (TV, A/V, etc.)
- Receive IR commands (from different remotes)
Check out their promotion video on YouTube below, and why not hop over to their IndieGoGo campaign site and show your support for them by raising fund through pre-ordering. If everything works out for them, you will get the first batch of Sensibo devices shipped to you in January 2015, and you can start the new year with a renewed, intelligent and Internet-enabled air-conditioning system in your home!
