Figure 4.11: BrewPi is a fermentation temperature controller for brewing
beer or wine. Running on a Raspberry Pi computer and Arduino^6 , it comes
with a kit to convert a standard home fridge or freezer into a fermentation
chamber and is controllable via a web interface. (Images: Anthony Plunkett).
The IoT market, to date, has tended to create tools for innovators and early
adopters. In an immature market that is exploring possibilities, that’s fine. But
it has tended to assume that the way to reach a mass audience is to make
better-designed tools.
You can’t turn a tool into a million-selling product just by making it usable.
The WeMo plug comes with a well-designed smartphone app that walks users
through the setup process fairly clearly and makes it easy to set up rules to
control the plug. But the onus is still on the user to use the plug creatively. It’s
not actually the plug they want to control: it’s the appliance. Controllable
plugs are simply a first step in the journey towards controllable appliances.
In spring 2014, WeMo released a controllable appliance: the WeMo Crock P ot
slow cooker (see figure 4.12). This allows the user to control the temperature
and cooking time of a Crock P ot remotely from a smartphone app. Slow
cookers might not be for everyone, but the context of use is a perfect fit for
connectivity and remote control. Their value proposition is convenience: the
meal that cooks itself while you’re out all day. Remote control increases that
convenience by allowing you to adjust the timing if you’re home late. And
(^6) At the time of writing the Arduino model is being phased out for a newer version
based on the Spark Core development board.