VOCs(Volatile Organic Compounds) are bad chemicals and cause various health effects including eye, nose, and throat irritation; headaches, loss of coordination, nausea; and damage to the liver, kidney, and central nervous system. Some organics can cause cancer in animals; some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans. These are invisible and surprisingly found in everyday things quite often!
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Did you know almost cleaner and fragranced home product as well as child toys have VOCs?
Let alone VOCs, there are many atmospheric factors that affect our health 24/7 including CO2 level, temperature, humidity, air pressure, noise level, light intensity and so on. We want to be in the know to prevent ourselves from any harmful environmental conditions all the time.
So we made MicroBot Alert!
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Alert is a tiny device that can monitor various atmospheric variables including temperature, moisture, air pressure, light intensity, noise level and CO2 level, organic chemicals(VOCs), movements, and more. Thanks to multiple built-in sensors and machine learning, Alert learns about you and your environment and sends you push notifications containing useful information and recommendations about the environment. It gets more useful and accurate as you use Alert longer and longer.
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Alert is so tiny that it can easily affix to any appliance, wall, or backpack. You can take it with you anywhere or install it in a place to monitor the environment locally and remotely 24/7.
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Alert can be used with the corresponding MicroBot Alert app (available on iOS and Android), IFTTT, Amazon Alexa and Google Home. It connects to your smartphone or optionally to a smart hub via Bluetooth Low Energy.
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Alert's mobile app screen
The best thing about Alert is that you don’t actually have to actively use it. Just carry it with you or leave it somewhere in a place. You will automatically receive insightful messages about the environment and air quality.
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Smart Alerts example
Within the app, you can set conditions manually, and the details are available in the later section.
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VentureBeat - "Sense leverages artificial intelligence to become smarter and give users better recommendations over time."
TechRadar - "MicroBot Sense is a tiny multi-function sensor for a tiny price."
Markets Insider - "Sense offers a comprehensive solution to monitor and detect any change in the environment"
TrendHunter - "Sense is small enough to carry around anywhere, giving . consumers precise information on the atmosphere around them."
Geeky Gadgets - "Sense learns about you and your environment and sends you push notifications containing useful information and recommendations about the environment."
InsideHook - "Thanks to its tiny size, you can take and measure your surroundings anywhere you go."
The Ambient - "The MicroBot Sense will track the health of your home on the cheap"
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Media Contact
Beatrix Labbe, Naran Inc., edward@thenaran.com
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The possibilities are endless, but here are some examples.
1. Monitor various locations in a house (including TVOC & CO2)
Alert can tell you a lot more than just temperature and humidity. It can "sense" if lights are turned on in the basement or in the garage, if the kitchen needs ventilation, if the closet isn't too humid, and so on.
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Surprisingly, temperatures can be quite different in different locations even in a small house.
2. Beware your surroundings
Alert can also detect and measure VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and carbon dioxide. These are invisible and can be extremely toxic. You want to be in the know 24/7.
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Surprisingly, VOCs are commonly found in everyday things.
3. Get notified when your dryer finishes
Alert's built-in accelerometer can look after your laundry and send you a push alert when it finishes.
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Don’t you often forget about your laundry?
4. Make sure the air conditioning isn't polluting the air
Circulating air conditioning increases the carbon dioxide level in your car, making you drowsy while driving.
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Know when to ventilate
5. Know when someone is at the door
The noise sensor can detect the knocking sound and give you a heads-up wherever you are.
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You will get a push alert when someone knocks on your door!
6. Share your data with friends
You can instantly send your current conditions and location to your friends and family along with a photo or a video at anytime.
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You can share your current weather condition with others.
7. Check if all lights are turned off
Do you often forget to turn off the lights in the garage or in the basement? Alert can tell you if all lights are turned off before you sleep. You can also set up an automation rule to turn on lights automatically when it becomes dark in the evening.
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Make sure your smart home automation executed as expected
8. Proper atmosphere, very important
Changes in temperature and humidity could affect your valuables, especially string instruments and camera lenses. Stay in the know of where you store them.
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Make sure you keep the humidity between 40-50%RH!
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The most basic feature that Alert offers is monitoring the atmosphere. The app user interface explains it well below.
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For users who just want a quick summary of current conditions, you can just press the tactile button on Alert, and it will send a push notification to your smartphone (the “Quick Check” feature).
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"Quick check" demo
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The Smart Alerts feature enables users to automatically receive push messages to their smartphones when certain conditions change.
Alert is able to catch the atmospheric changes around you and give you more insights about the environment and the air quality, so you can take any necessary actions for you and your family. These messages are based on analyzing your Alert data against various international air quality and construction standards such as ASHRAE, CSA, and so on.
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Alert configuration with various conditions
Users can manually configure conditions themselves. For example, to receive a notification message when the living room lights are turned on, or when the temperature drops below 0°in the basement.
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Alert World
You’re welcome to contribute your environmental data and share it with the community, allowing others to benefit from real-time weather. You’re free to opt-out from sharing at anytime.
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“Alexa! Ask MicroBot to check Living room”
“Alexa! Ask MicroBot to check my parent’s house”
“Alexa! Ask MicroBot to check the baby room condition”
The Alexa Skill is already implemented and currently being tested for the “Works with Alexa” Certification. Google Home integration is under development and will be available for use when we ship the first batch.
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Built around BLE technology, Alert comes with a tracking feature for free. Thanks to MicroBot Cloud, the community can help you find your Alert when you lose it somewhere you don’t remember (the "Find my MicroBot" feature - a.k.a. crowd GPS).
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Alert can also measure the TVOC concentration level as well as carbon dioxide level in the air.
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MicroBot Cloud enables remote monitoring, integrations with other services and the “Find my MicroBot” feature. It’s an optional service that makes Alert even more useful.
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MicroBot Cloud operates with a dedicated smart hub, smartphone or tablet. If you have a spare iOS or Android device at home, you can remotely access your installed Alert through the device from anywhere, anytime. Having a dedicated smart hub is good (and cheaper if you don’t have a spare smart device) because it provides more consistent user experience and connectivity. If you need a dedicated hub device, please add $59 to your pledge!
All backers will get 1-year MicroBot Cloud subscription for free and unlimited remote access to your Alert!
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Pair and use in 5 seconds.
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We have produced many working prototypes and developed iOS and Android apps (already released for testing). Alert is being reviewed for Alexa Certification, and the Google Home and Clova integrations are on the way.
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Warranty
1-year limited warranty. For more information, please read our policy.
Tax & Shipping
We’re doing our best to ship MicroBot Alert globally, except for some restricted countries. Please note that backers from some countries will be responsible to pay for duties and taxes upon receipt.
Delivery
The first batch will be shipped in July, and for those who back the Distributor Kit, we’ll ship out working sample units as soon as the campaign ends! We promise we do our best to keep the ETD. This is our third campaign, so we know what’s coming. We will keep you posted!
For developers
As soon as they’re ready, you’ll receive the following:
- access to MicroBot Cloud API and documentation
- access to MicroBot protocol documentation and SDK
Webhooks are available for you to quickly integrate with other applications. Please take a look at our quick guide on Webhook found in the mobile app.
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Lonely death is a phenomenon of people dying alone and remaining undiscovered for a long period of time. It used to be quite unique to Japan and Korea, but it’s increasingly becoming a major social issue in many countries including the United States.
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We were asked to address this particular issue and lucky enough to receive some funds to do the R&D for a year. For this, we needed a way to monitor person’s behaviors in a place without sacrificing privacy, so Internet Protocol (IP) cameras were no good. We came up with the multi-sensor idea; analyzing multiple environmental data can tell you beyond room conditions. With Alert, it’s now easy to detect whether a person is having a normal day or having abnormal days over a period of time. It’s easy to install, easy to use. That’s how and why Alert was born in the beginning. Achieving mass production will decrease the cost and help solve many similar issues.
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We’re the maker of MicroBot Push, the robotic button pusher turning any dumb appliance into a smart gadget.
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In late 2015, Push was successfully funded on Indiegogo and shipped to 20+ countries. It’s now widely available through various retailers in US, Japan, Korea, UK, Germany, France, and more. It’s also listed in Amazon Launchpad, and its Alexa Certification is being processed along with Alert. Push is now also used by many disabled people (especially those with limited mobility) across the world. We’re proud that our product is useful, usable and used by many users and hoping the same for Alert.
Risks and challenges
We’ve done mass production a couple of times now, and we’re still regularly running batches for MicroBot Push, so we know what to do with manufacturing. For this project, software is more of a challenge than the hardware.
We need lots backers for Alert World to become more useful and usable to all of us.
- the Alert World needs your contribution to cover more areas
- the data collected by Alert World is essentially used for advancing the Smart Alerts feature. The more data, the more accurate and useful the alerts will become.
- there will be lots of data coming from everywhere around the world, so making our server more stable and secured is our first priority before the shipment.
