At Useful Sensors we’re focused on building intelligent sensors, ones that use machine learning to take raw data and turn it into actionable insights. Sometimes I run across problems in my own life that don’t need advanced algorithms or AI to solve, but are blocked by hardware limitations. A classic one is “Did I leave my garage door open?”. A few months ago I even had to post to our street’s mailing list to ask someone to check it while I was away, since I was anxious I’d left it open. Thankfully several of my great neighbors jumped in and confirmed it was closed, but relying on their patience isn’t a long term or scalable solution.

Sensors to help with this do exist, and have for a long time, so why are they still a niche product? For me, the holdbacks are difficult setup procedures and short battery lives. The tradeoff generally seems to be that to get a battery life measured in years, you need to use a specialized protocol like ZigBee, Threads, or Matter, which requires a hub, which adds to the setup time and likelihood of having to troubleshoot issues. Wifi-enabled sensors like the Swann linked to above don’t specify a battery life (the support team refuses to give an estimate further down on the page) but I’ve found similar devices last months, not years. What I would love is a cell-data-connected sensor with zero accounts, apps, or setup, beyond maybe scanning a QR code to claim it. One of the reasons I’m a big fan of Blues is that their fixed-cost cell package could make a device like this possible, but I’m guessing it would still need to be comparatively large for the hardware and battery required, and comparatively costly too.

What all of the current solutions have in common is that they demand more of my time than I’m willing to give. I have plenty of frustrating issues to debug in my technical work, the last thing I want to do when I get home is deal with poorly documented setup workflows or change batteries more than once in a blue moon. I’m guessing that I’m not alone, every product I’ve seen that truly “just works” has had an order of magnitude more sales than a competitor that has even a bit of friction.

I would happily pay a lot for a device that I could stick on a garage door, scan a code on my phone that took me to a web URL where I could claim it (no more terrible phone apps, please) and then simply sent me a text if it was open for more than ten minutes. My sense is that the problems that need to be solved are around power consumption, radio, and cost. These aren’t areas I have expertise in, so I won’t be attempting this challenge, but I hope someone out there will, and soon.

A similar application is medication detection. I’m old enough to have my own pill organizer (don’t laugh too loud, it’s coming for you eventually) but an accelerometer attached to a pill bottle could tell if I’ve picked it up, and so presumably taken a dose, on time, and I’d never again have to measure out my tablets into little plastic slots. Devices like these do exist, but the setup, cost, and power consumption challenges are even higher, so they’re restricted to specialized use cases like clinical trials.

It feels like we’ve been on the verge of being able to build products like this for decades, but so many systems need to work smoothly to make the experience seamless that nothing has taken off. I really hope that the stars will align soon and I’ll be able to remove one or two little anxieties from my life!