Aye aye! So the smart race has been catching some real momentum lately. We would say, repurposing dumb stuff to perform actions that they were not initially made to perform has vividly caught man’s fantasy and we all are literally scampering to tuck smartened dumb devices into our pockets.
Image Source: Digital Trends
Mobile phones, washing machines, televisions, and your home as Smart Home….all of these lifeless objects have suddenly started to know a tad too much about you.
But hey! Toilets? Mirrors? Could things like these ever turn smart?
Oh yes!
And we have brought together a list of 7 such weird stuff that got assigned with brains recently.
Smart floors
Genius tiles! And they talk to each other. So the whole flooring of your home knows which part of your home, you are standing in, what posture you are standing in, how many people are standing in a group and other such details related to humans standing or walking across the floor. Such floors collect weight-based data and convert it into useful information. On being coupled with visual enablers, projectors for example, these floors can actually show digital silhouettes standing or walking around.
Smart floors would not essentially comprise of tiles. Future Shape, for example has a proprietary product named SensFloor that is actually a textile underlay.
Question is, why would someone wake up one fine day and have an idea of creating something like this? Floors were meant to be beautiful furnishings a little time back, isn’t it?
But it seems smart floors are quite a winner! They have utilizations in sports, virtual gaming, healthcare and home security industries.
So when an athlete is not adopting the proper posture, the coach knows about it. When a patient is recovering and can walk at a quicker pace, doctors know it. When an unexpected guest walks through an open door, you know it!
Brilliant!
Smart locks
Keys are destined to become obsolete in a few years down the line! We swear they are. Smart locks are a champion and they are here to stay at least as long as the concept of smart homes is a hit. We can safely bet a ‘forever’ for that.
Security is a prime concern among smart-home advocates. And smart locks are the most suitable solutions.
These locks can be keyed out or keyed in using passwords or biometric aspects like the user’s fingerprints or an iris scan. This mechanism leaves absolutely no space for home or office security breaches when home owners are away.
More wonderfully, these home owners can access smart locks installed on their doors remotely, using a mobile application that operates using unique identification paths.
If you are a proud possessor of a smart lock system, you stay in complete control of who enters your house when you are away, while not facing the urgency of running back home very time your kid comes home early from a friend’s or in case of surprise visit from a relative!
Convenient it is!
Smart coffee makers
Caffeine addicts, boon for you.
These coffee makers are integrated with alarm clocks. All you have to do is, set the alarm, possibly using the system integrated into the coffee maker, or using an application that enables you to control alarm timings without having to touch the coffee maker.
The smart coffee brewer would come to life precisely 5 minutes before the time you have set alarm at. So by the time you wake up, a mug-full of freshly brewed coffee awaits you.
For the ones that you can remotely control, you can set alarm timings from wherever on the planet you are, and the coffee maker would operate in just the same manner. Useful thing for men and women who stay away from home for long but still want to ensure an uncompromised morning coffee for people staying at home.
Smart mirrors
Seriously? But why??
Because now-a-days mirrors are supposed to do a lot more than showing your face back to you.
Samsung’s smart mirror, for example, displays a lot of information right in the morning when you are brushing your teeth. Weather conditions, traffic conditions, news headlines, social media notifications, the day’s schedule notifications and a lot more!
Smart mirrors are also being used in motorcycles and bikes. These ones adjust their orientation according to the body movements of the rider. The aim is to give a better view of traffic and pull caution in face of an impending accident.
The biggest utility of smart mirrors however, is being made at trial rooms of retail stores. The smart mirrors fitted in such rooms are loaded with sensors that augment clothes on buyers without the need of having to really put them on. Additionally, these mirrors are also integrated with memory wherein, data about trial behaviours vis-à-vis buying behaviours is recorded for retailers to go through later on. Reportedly, stores that have smart mirrors installed, afford to make double the sales that normal retail stores without these mirrors do.
Smart bags
So far, a bag has never been anything more than a carriage for things that we frequently require and like to carry with us. So far, but not anymore!
New age bags like HiSmart and Phorce are here to change everything you believed your bag could do!
These bags can charge your PC, Mac and smart phone, can be converted to and from messenger bag and briefcase, are water-resistant and smartly enough, alert you through an alarm on your Smartphone when you walk away too far from it, forgetting it behind.
All that apart, they come with a cool look ad a lot of stuffing space! New entrant in the smart market, these bags have already become quite a hit with elites.
Smart toilets
This one impressed us. We are sure you would be impressed as well! Having roots from Japan, this stream of smart technology helps your toilet do a lot more than route your poop and pee into the sewage.
Let’s talk about health first. A lot of diseases and possible conditions can be diagnosed early enough if pathological tests are done. So, these toilets come with a urine sample in the bowl that collects samples of urine every time you pee. A continuous analysis for body vital data is conducted and reports can be seen using smart phones and computers.
Bowel movements are also continuously recorded and you can be informed well in time, in case your toilet detects a bowel issue in you.
Better, trying to conceive? Turn to your toilet, it will tell you when the best time to try is.
Yet better, in case you left in a hurry without flushing, use your Smartphone to push the flush button!
Uncompromised cleanliness and wellbeing!
Smart mattress cover
We heard of smart blankets. Yeah. But this one is hot on plate!
Smart Mattress covers are internet of things in disguise to make you sleep better in a more regulated environment. These mattress covers are integrated with Wi-Fi, and sensors that collect data regarding your sleep – your sleep timings, the temperature you are most comfortable with, your sleeping position, number of times you tossed in your bed, your blood pressure when you are asleep, heart beats, and how these vitals changed with a change in temperature….phew! A lot lot more.
And then all this data is processed into a sleeping report. Additionally, as the mattress cover gets used to your sleeping patterns, it instinctively makes the conditions most favourable, bringing into consideration, all the data that it had collected so far!
Sweet and cozy! A warm cocooned sleep is always welcome!
Well, this was our list. Got more insane smart products on your list? Let us know in the comments section below!
