twine system for a DIY smart home

‘twine’ interface for a digitally-connected home

‘twine’ is a prototype interface to enable everyday objects and machines to automatically text, tweet, or e-mail users in response to particular situations or activity. the project is designed by supermechanical (engineer david carr and industrial designer john kestner), currently seeking funding for production on kickstarter.

imagine a world where your laundry machine texts you when it is finished; your front door telephones you when someone knocks; or your garage alerts you when someone has moved your toolset. while ‘the internet of things’ and a connected home are not new concepts, the mission behind ‘twine’ is to make the technology easily accessible to average users with no knowledge of programming. the system is powered by a wireless module (2.5-inches square and powered by AAA battery), connected on users’ existing wifi network and interfaced with a cloud-based service called ‘spool’. web-based, ‘spool’ permits users to modify and monitor their ‘twine’ alerts from any browser.

the application itself reads in conversational english, for example: ‘when moisture sensor gets wet then send an SMS reading ‘the basement is flooding!” users can add to a list of preprogrammed rule sets, and share new rules with other ‘twine’ users.

the ‘twine’ sensor module registers temperature and movement, but supermechanical plans to also produce additional external sensors to increase the functionality of the system, including a magnetic switch (for moving objects), a moisture sensor, and breakout board to let users wire up additional sensors if desired.

full view of ‘twine’ wireless sensor module

screenshot of the ‘spool’ interface

video introduction to the project

via gizmag