I don’t participate in a lot of Kickstarter campaigns, but when I saw the Wired In – Wireless Productivity Sign With Arduino & HomeKit I just couldn’t resist. 1) because I’ve always wanted an “On Air” sign and 2) it actually solves a problem.
So What Is It? The guys at
WiredIn have put together a project that allows you to turn on a sign to let your coworkers know when you’re focused and not to disturb you. Simple right, but do we really need a sign? In short — yes.
What Problem Does It Solve? Although I have a private office, I work in a collaborative space at
Center615 and I like to leave my door open to keep my office cool. As much as I like talking with my friends when they pass by, it can also be distracting if I’m really focused on a task. Additionally, I’m often on the phone and use a headset so it’s not always clear when I’m on the phone. I think having this sign will really come in handy and I don’t think I’m alone. Call it a “first-world problem”, but if your goal is to stay focused then I’m sure we’ve all run into this issue and this appears to be a very elegant solution.
The Best Part Are The Nerdy Bits The WiredIn sign will integrate with iOS and Mac so that you can control it from your computer/mobile devices, but
they just announced that they will be supporting Android and Windows as well. This may sound like a simple thing but it’s not just about turning the sign on-and-off. The idea is that you can integrate the WiredIn sign with web services like IFTTT, or your calendar, or other 3rd party applications so that it’s a more integrated too. For example, I can imagine have a calendar event for a training session and having the light come on automatically at the start of the event. So cool! As of this post, they only have $5,000 left to reach their goal and I have no doubt that they’ll hit it. However, I’m hopeful that their funding goes well beyond that number and actually doubles to $50,000. If they do, then they’ve said that they will open up the Arduino controller. Don’t know what I’d do with that exactly, but there’s a nerd in my office that I’d love to turn loose on this thing.