In short
How many emails do you receive every day? More than 10?
Or are you tired of continuously checking your mobile phone / tablet / pc, for that email you are waiting for?
Then you will appreciate our E-mail Watch!
We found that of the many emails we receive, only a few require our immediate attention, some can just be read later and some are really non-urgent notifications.
So it would be nice if we could have a quick idea of the incoming emails just by giving a glance to something somewhere around you, without the need of turning on any other device, just to check if there's anything new. No screens to read, no screens to touch, just a quick glance, without loosing the attention to what you are doing.
So we created the E-mail Watch, a small (ca. 50x40x20mm), 3d printed, microUSB powered, beautifully LED illuminated, stand alone, Wi-Fi connected box!
It features a total of 4 multicolor LEDs, each giving an easy and quick information about your inbox new messages (and you can customize it to receive any other sort of notifications!).
This project is open-source, all the code will be shared so you can
improve it or change its behavior to your needs and preferences!
What We Need & What You Get
We already have a few working prototypes currently in use, you can see one in the picture above. We are already refining the case design and we would like to improve the software behind it and make it even simpler to configure; then, once up and running, its operation requires no knowledge or control at all!
Fundings are mainly aimed at finalizing the new design, and buying components in larger quantities to keep the final product price as low as possible.
That's why if we don't reach the objective no one will be charged and, unfortunately, no one will receive the perk. :-(
So please help us spread the word and make this project a success! :-)
With the full perks (kit or assembled) you will receive a fully functioning and final product, complete with all the required instructions to set it up in minutes.
The Custom Color perk gives you the exclusive right of choosing a beautifully colored case (red, green or yellow).
We currently support Gmail and use the Gmail labels to differentiate the various categories of messages. For example you could consider 5 different Gmail labels:
- Bank: Credit card/ATM (urgent) notices ...
- Personal: Friends/Family (still important) messages...
- Social: Facebook/Twitter (could wait a minute)...
- Notifications: Advertisement/Discounts (uhm, read 'em later)...
- Specials: Your beloved/Important messages ("Starred" messages)
Each label corresponds to a different color of the main multicolor indicator (e.g. blue for Bank, green for Personals, purple for Social, cyan for Notifications).
The Specials category is indicated by the separate star-shaped, yellow indicator.
Or you may choose to use the category labels provided by Gmail to automatically filter messages:
![]()
The "Starred" messages have a dedicated star-shaped indicator:
![]()
In addition, the top multicolor indicator becomes red to notify you of problems with your Gmail account (like network issues, wrong password or other errors) and becomes yellow in case no information is received for some time (temporary warning sign).
The embedded blue LED (right side of the box) indicates the successfull cloud connection and the correct activity.
The pulsing (hidden under the cloud symbol) multicolor LED meaning is described on the Spark starting page and mainly provides network connection information.
![]()
Technical details and requirements
To make all this work fine you have a few options:
-
Run a simple (Linux) shell script (provided by us) on an "always on" PC (or a network server) or for example a Raspberry Pi, to check emails and send appropriate commands to the E-mail Watch. Of course you could have a single PC doing the job (somewhere in the cloud) for multiple Gmail accounts and
E-mail Watch devices (anywhere you have a WiFi internet access).
-
Create a free account on pythonanywhere.com and run our Bash script there, so you don't need to have your own server online... it's the cloud!
-
Use any online service like Zapier, IFTTT, or many others to create your own rules and activate the E-mail Watch notifications at your own preference (based on email, or any other available source).
-
Build your own web page (or simple browser bookmarks) where you manually set notifications for someone else anywhere on earth (where a Wi-Fi connection to the Internet is available!).
Here is an exemplary architecture of the system using a free account on pythonanywhere.com (case 2):
![]()
Since all the code is open source, you will be able to modify it if you would like to change any behavior. Also the hardware allows for some customizations (like changing LED colors or adding a light sensor, for example!).
This project full technical details and preview code are also available on the following: Hackster page.
Risks & Challenges
The prototypes have been up and running continuously for a few months so we are really confident of their stability and reliability. The case design is nearly definitive, we may need to make one or two finalizing steps for optimum results. Each case will be 3d printed in Europe. The assembly will be (home) made in Italy by hand for maximum quality (and some cost saving!).
The electronic part is based on the very well known and greatly supported Spark Core, which is a former very succesfully crowd-funded project.
We are also working on the software side to make it easier and compatible with any (IMAP) email server, rather than just your Gmail account. Also, we plan to improve the software to provide real time notifications (current update time is 45 seconds on average).
We will keep you up to date on this page, so you know what you can expect and which features and improvements we will be adding to this project. Also, your feedback will be very much appreciated!
![]()
Given the
very low consumption of the
E-mail Watch, you could use a
USB battery (commonly used to recharge mobile phones) to power it for
several hours (depending on the battery capacity, a work day duration is easily reachable).
Other Ways You Can Help
You think you personally don't need the E-mail Watch or you prefer to invest your financial resources in other projects? No problem! Please just make sure you share this project page with your friends, collegues or anyone you think could be interested in knowing more about it. That's the crowd-sourcing, help us reach the crowds out there!
Thank you very much. :-)
