With more and more home devices that need to ‘be controlled,’ more and more controllers have emerged in the market, including those that can control smart devices and others that can control traditional devices.
A U.S. startup has launched a smart home accessory called Bond that can turn traditional home devices into semi-connected devices without the need to install any hardware.
Just plug the Bond device in the socket, point the old remote at Bond and wait for a blue light to show up. Users then will be able to control non-smart home devices via their smartphone apps or other smart devices.
Bond supports both infrared and radio frequency devices. Bond works by learning the signals from various remote controls and rebroadcasting them when prompted through an Alexa or another smart device. It works like an old-fashioned infrared blaster.
Home devices that can connect with Bond include ceiling fans, air conditioners, humidifiers, motorized windows, garage doors or door bells.
Users will operate from their smartphones – to set desired air conditioning temperature for sleep time, to control lights in the room, and to see measurements of temperature, humidity and light of a room.
After the Bond integration, devices will be controllable through either the app or the remote. The hardware itself uses home Wi-Fi to control other devices from the phone. Meanwhile, IR remotes need to be in the same room with Bond for the technology to work. The app will also send reminders when old remotes can’t send signals.
Bond supports other smart home platforms as well, such as Nest, Samsung SmartThings, Honeywell, Crestron, iDevices, DirecTV and Amazon Echo.
Pre-order for the device is available on Bond’s website. The price tag is US$99. However, the launch date hasn’t been disclosed and no apps have been uploaded to the app store.