SmartQsine will make sure you never run out of things again!
You’ve all been there: Upon arriving back home from the store, you find that there’s not enough milk to get through breakfast in the morning. Or, while strolling through an aisle, you can’t seem to recall if there’s enough jarred sauce for pasta tomorrow night. Wouldn’t it be great to know the answer simply by checking your smartphone? That’s idea behind SmartQsine, a smart inventory system developed by the team at NES Italia.
The system is comprised of several small pads, which are placed beneath the items that a user would like to monitor, and an accompanying smartphone app that lets them know when they are about to run out of something. Measuring just 8cm x 8cm x 1.8cm, the intelligent pads are compact enough to easily fit inside any drawer, on any shelf or atop any counter.
How it works is relatively simple: To get started, a user simply places an item on the pad and sets its current volume level. From there on, the pad will communicate with its paired mobile device, continuously monitoring and exchanging information around its remaining quantity.
Through its app, a user can seamlessly access their fridge or pantry data to see if they are in need of an item. Beyond that, they set an alarm that will notify them when something reaches a certain level, send a message to a person of choice when something is nearing its end, as well as allow for real-time edits to the shopping list.
The system appears to be built around the Nordic nRF51822 mbed dev kit (ATSAM3U2C), and is equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity. The pads are powered by standard coin-cell batteries with a life of around six months.
Users can choose between two different lines of pads: gold and silver. Gold enables the pad to communicate with its accompanying mobile app and to monitor not only what the user places on it, but also to obtain the data coming from other connected pads. Whereas, silver lacks communication capabilities and can only be read in the app after being linked to a gold pad.
Moving ahead, the team is entirely open to integrating SmartQsine into existing and future home automation systems on the market. Developers will soon be able to devise and integrate apps of their own as well.
Interested in the system for your home? Head over to its official Indiegogo page, where the team is currently seeking $80,000. Shipment is expected to kick off in August 2015.
Atmel | Bits & Pieces 