Multiple remote controls at an average house is pretty common nowadays, and so is the pain and frustration of using them and misplacing them. A new crowd-funding product called iRBeacon wants to put an end to your agony and bring a universal remote that is smarter and more adjustable as it uses infrared, Bluetooth and your smartphone to make it easier to control your electronics at home.
How it works is pretty simple. You place the tiny iRBeacon, available in four colors (aluminium grey, brilliant white, matte black, piano black), on any appliance or device at home that has an infrared receiver, be it your plasma TV set, Blu-ray DVD player, air-conditioning system, etc. Then you download the iRBeacon app to your smartphone or tablet, as long as it runs on Android 4.3 and above and has Bluetooth 4.0. Now you can start controlling those that are connected to your devices, even setting timers and editing personal preferences through the app as well.
The little iRBeacon devices you placed on your electronics communicates to your smartphone or tablet using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) so it is supposedly energy-efficient and will not drain your gadgets. But then it uses infrared to actually talk to the appliances that you connected it to. The developers also say that you can actually control your appliances from anywhere in the world as long as you have Bluetooth connection.
The project has already achieved 85% of its $20,000 goal on IndieGoGo. If you believe in the product, you have 37 days left to make up your mind to support it. Its target shipping date to backers is December this year, while they are targeting it to reach web retail stores by January 2015.
SOURCE: Indiegogo
