the supermechanical twine

My friend sent me this kickstarter link to this gadget this afternoon called the Twine. It’s a pretty cool idea, one that basically takes little things you wish you could do, and gives you the ability to do it. For instance, have you ever wondered if the FedEx guy really knocked on your door before just deciding to leave your package on the front porch? Well you simply attached the Twine to your door, and a sensor in the little device will sense knocking at the door, and send you an email saying that someone just knocked at the door. This way, you basically know when the FedEx guy actually came to your house instead of stalking your package online.

This device, created and peddled by two guys from MIT, has the ability to effectively link ordinary things to the internet. It’s pretty much the size of a post-it note pad, and syncs wirelessly to allow objects in your life to communicate with you. You can attach the Twine to your laundry machine so that when the accelerometer detects the vibration has stopped, it’ll send you an email saying your laundry is done. If you have a mouse at home, you can mount the Twine to the bottom of the mousetrap, so that the vibration of the spring trap will trigger an email message so you know exactly when something happened. The device syncs wireless to a web app that lets you set the parameters and the alerts that this generates. This thing can output anything from emails, twitter, and text to even more complicated http applications.



I suppose the possibilities are endless, and the Twine features an internal temperature sensor, an accelerometer, a magnetic switch, a moisture sensor, and a breakout board for plugging in any additional sensor you feel you may want. The practical applications for this could be anything! I have a funny feeling that eventually, production scales will help drive the price of these gadgets down so that people will be able to mount them on various things in our ever increasing desire for information. This gives you access to info you couldn’t really access before, things like knowing if someone knocked on your door when you were out at work or knowing if your kid opened the door to the pantry (magnetic switch sensor) after you told him no more cookies.

Right now the kickstarter no longer needs backers, but they have the twine on preorder, with an estimate ship date of March 2012. I know that early adopters always have to deal with the glitches and stuff, but this is actually one gadget that I’m definitely curious about checking out. I guess $99 is a bit steep for a gadget, but I have a feeling this is the start of something big.