This new startup uses the iPhone’s UWB feature for controlling your smart home

Image: Fluid

Six undergrads from Duke think they have solved the interface problem of the smart home with the help of the U1 chip from Apple. Most of today's methods for controlling smart devices are cumbersome and frustrating according to them. The smart home needs an intuitive control interface and automations that fire off based on where you are in the house. One app to rule everything. They are not incorrect.

They have a solution called fluid one. A point-and-click control interface and location-based automations are two ways that Fluid can control connected lighting, locks, cameras, thermostats, and more.

If you point your phone at a smart light bulb, the correct controls will turn the light on or off. It is possible to control a device with your phone. Tim Ho, one of the six co-founders of Fluid, says that the handoff is similar to the Apple device.

The app can be used in the background to make smart home automations based on the location of your phone. You can turn on the lights in the hallway as you walk through it. When you sit on your couch after 6PM, the lights will dim and the thermostat will be adjusted.

If this sounds familiar, it's probably because a prototype app was created last year. He wanted someone to develop the hardware to make it work in your home. Andelefski is a technical advisor for the team behind Fluid.

The system combines hardware with an augmented-reality-powered app that uses Apple's ARKit framework to detect where your phone is and which smart device it's pointing at. The system can make those guesses because the ultra-wideband beacon are mounted on your walls. It is similar to gps but with UWB beacon.

When you first set up the system you need to log in to the app and connect each device to a beacon. The range of each beacon is 18 to 20 feet.

This creates a context-aware space that can be used to control your devices on demand or automatically. Depending on the time of day and other conditions, different automations can be triggered as you enter or exit each range. The app can be used to control devices in other rooms.

Image: Fluid

The system calculates the phone's position in 3D space by simultaneously measuring its distance to multiple SmartNodes on your room's walls. The orientation of the phone is determined by the phone's augmented reality engine. It is possible to infer what you are likely pointing at with these measurements.

The Fluid One replicates some of the functions of the much-loved Sevenhugs remotes. The physical remote controls were no longer used. The hub hardware of Fluid One has an IR controller that can be used to locate the other remotes. Sevenhugs was bought by a company that makes UWB chips.

Image: Fluid

There is a $100,000 goal to start production of the system on the project. The Fluid One lite kit contains four smart nodes and can be ordered early. The additional tiers range from $449 to $749 and include a smart hub to provide location based automation.

Pricing for the product will be between $400 and $899 when it is released early in the future.

The only phones that work with the system are the newer ones, and it isn't compatible with other phones. The team is waiting for a robust software interface before they support the operating system.

The system should be compatible with a long list of smart home devices when it is launched.

There's a note on crowd funding.

The field of crowd funding is chaotic. One in 10 successful products that reach their funding goals fail to deliver rewards, according to a study done by Kickstarter. There is often disappointment in store for those products that do get done because of delays, missed deadlines, and overpromised ideas.

Use your best judgement when defending. Do you know if the product looks legit? The company is making claims. There is a prototype that is being worked on. Is the company planning on manufacturing and shipping finished products? Is this the first time it has completed a crowd funding campaign? You don't necessarily buy a product when you back a project on a site.

Apple HomeKit, Amazon, Google Home, Z-Wave devices, Ring, Ecobee, Lutron, and many more are included. Thanks to the brains of the system being built, it has wide compatibility.

The location data used to initiate automations is between your phone and the beacon, not sent to a server.

The advent of the new smart home standard was one of the factors that made fluid one possible He says that if you have more than one device, you can see the value of the system. Matter will allow us to tie even more devices together.

The downsides of fluid are obvious. You have to carry your phone around with you when you're at home. That was my biggest complaint when I was testing RoomMe. I don't want to have to carry my phone around with me in my house.

It would be more compelling if fluid worked with an Apple watch. It isn't technically possible yet but a future update from Apple could make it happen.

This type of technology would be built into our smart homes in a perfect world. It's not appealing to stick more single-use, white plastic hubs and beacon around my home. It would be a no-brainer if every Thread border routers had a UWB chip.

The solution is for Apple to develop this tech and use it to create more multi-purpose beacon that leverage the power of the UWB hardware they already have. I know of a few smart students that Apple should speak to.