Hayo is a hub designed to enable devices to receive and interpret movement based controls
Meet Hayo, the gesturally controlled hub that interfaces with the latest smart home products to make interacting with your various devices effortless and magical. Described by TechCrunch as a fusion between Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft’s Kinect, the tube-shaped controller is basically what happens when you give voice-command assistants a camera. Simply pair some smart lights, smart fans and smart blinds to pinch, tap and wave your home to life.
Accompanied by an app that lets you assign various commands to connected devices in a 3D capture of your room, the tool is easily customized and offers a surefire way to impress guests. Of course, at the product launch Hayo’s developers want to start with a relatively small scope so as to ensure the device runs smoothly – you’ll be able to set a maximum of ten invisible buttons (points along a surface) and determine their respective functionality based on a list of device-specific commands.
Because of this approach, the tool is still rudimentary, and doesn’t rely on facial recognition for detection for instance, opting instead to identify individuals based on their size (a rather imprecise metric). And though the team is working on additional gestural capabilities, the only fully gestural functionality thus far is the slider, designed to scale volume, lighting or temperature. Ultimately however the company wants to gauge customer feedback post-launch to determine the full range of faculties it should bake in before hitting retail.
When Hayo does obtain all of its desired utilities, perhaps it’ll prove to be a strong contender in the race to centralize the smart home. Though Alexa is currently light years ahead of competition from a sales perspective, the added benefit of Hayo’s machine vision means an even easier time controlling the various gadgets around the household. The two most critical factors for success in this space will be price point – which the team claims will be sub $300 – and third-party support to grow the number of devices that can connect with this one. Having just announced the device to the world at CES, Hayo still has about a month left to go on Indiegogo, where its nearing the funding it needs for early bird materialization.
