Quirky, the New York-based crowd-ideating product development company known for modular power strips and other clever tchatchkes you didn't know you needed until, of course, you did, just announced the spin off of Wink to focus on "smart" home products. Its core offering is a phone and tablet app that will, according to the New York Times, "offer consumers a single digital dashboard to link and control a user’s smart-home devices. With a few finger swipes, for example, you could instruct the lights in the kitchen and dining room to turn on when the automated door unlocks."
Putting aside for the moment big picture question of what happens when the grid glitches, Wi-Fi wiggles, the phone inexplicably goes missing under a pile of clothes (which you need to turn on the lights or it will never be found) and hackers inevitably get to work, this is very big news. Quirky will also be selling a piece of hardware called a hub, a router capable of handling Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave and Wi-Fi.
On July 7, when Wink goes live, Home Depot will have displays in all its 2,000 stores featuring Wink-ready products developed by 15 companies, including General Electric, Honeywell, Philips and Rachio.
By 2018, what has now been dubbed the Connected Home market is expected to more than double to $3.5 billion, according to a Parks Associates report quoted in the Times story. (The fight over net neutrality isn't just about about faster Netflix downloads...).
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As important as it is to keep track and promote developments here in Chicago, it is vital to be aware of what is happening elsewhere as well. A recent Brookings report on the Rise of Innovation Districts points to a "new geography of innovation" defined by urban density and networks of networks connecting research universities, national labs, corporations and startups. The report barely mentions Chicago, but the West Loop could be its poster child. The point is that not only are West Loops happening all over the place, but that the traditional innovation powerhouses on the coasts are riding this wave, too. Notably, O'Reilly's fabulous Solid conference, the Printed Electronics USA conference and Parks Associates Connections conference are all in San Francisco, while MIT Technology Review's Emtech is in Boston.
