Tag: IDC

Episode 428: How to add ChatGPT to the smart home

This week’s podcast tackles Kevin’s real-world experience with the Google Pixel tablet and speaker dock. He liked the tablet, but as a smart home accessory it’s lacking, which is what we had originally anticipated. But it’s still a bummer, because I want a good Google Home display option as Google deprecates third-party Google Home display devices. Then we talk about a couple smart energy products including Dracula Technologies’ new energy harvesting technology that can “suck” even more power from sunlight, Savant’s new energy storage device for homes, and a smart plug from EcoFlow that connects to Kevin’s existing rechargeable battery. The industrial internet of things gets a mention thanks to IDC putting out a new report estimating that total spending on IIoT will be $1 trillion in 2026. Get on it. We then get a bit random, discussing smart water filtration stations, and what Broadcom’s new Wi-Fi 7 chips means for Wi-Fi and for smartphones, before hitting a Thread-enabled dev kit using an ESP32 and Philips Hue bulbs getting a feature tweak. We close the news segment by answering a listener question about connecting Zigbee bulbs between IKEA’s and Home Assistant’s platforms.

Image courtesy of IDC.

This week’s guest is Ran Roth, CEO and co-founder of Sensibo, a maker of smart HVAC controllers. The add-on devices connect to window units, mini splits and other A/C and heating units that use IR controllers. We talk about smart energy and the road the company has taken since its founding in 2014. But most of our conversation focuses on how Sensibo is using ChatGPT to improve the user experience with its devices. Roth also hints at other potential use cases for ChatGPT that are less intuitive, and explains how he thinks the availability of large language models will help companies that have access to them use their data more easily. He likens it to the shift that Amazon’s cloud computing had on innovation after AWS launched cloud computing (EC2) in 2006. He then talks about what he’s learned so far and the concerns people have around AI and privacy. It’s a good show.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Ran Roth, CEO and co-founder of Sensibo
Sponsors: Blynk and Particle

  • As expected, Google’s Pixel tablet isn’t a major improvement for the smart home
  • Better energy harvesting from Dracula sucks more power from light
  • Broadcom’s chips could lead to smartphones with Zigbee or Thread
  • How Sensibo is using ChatGPT to parse a lot of data
  • What Sensibo has learned about using generative AI

 

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Episode 142: Smart sheets, suits and carpets are coming

We begin this week with another cautionary tale about bricked connected devices. This week it’s an automotive product called Mojio. From there I discuss the things I recently learned about building wireless networks in industrial settings while Kevin talks about how much money connected plants can save. We then get super nerdy on innovations in low-power chips before dipping into a lot of news such as IDC’s expectations for the IoT and new talents for the Google Home, Amazon Echo and Honeywell’s controller. We end the show with reviews on two connected devices we installed and answer a question about leak sensors from a listener.

Levi’s offers a jacket made with smart fabric from Google.

Stick around and you’ll hear from Nick Langston, head of business development at TE Connectivity, talking about the future of smart fabrics. While the biggest use case so far is in smart clothing to detect health data, Langston envisions a future where those same sensors might be put into sheets, carpets or even cars. He also shares an idea about what might be the coolest jersey ever that would react to your player getting hit on the field or light up in response to your team scoring a point. It’s pretty cool.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham
Guest: Nick Langston, TE Connectivity
Sponsors: Lux Products and ADT

  • Another brick in the IoT device bag
  • How transistor design will change for IoT
  • The IoT will be worth $1 trillion by 2020
  • What happens to privacy if your bedsheets are a sensor?
  • Smart fabrics are soft, but the business model is hard

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