Electric Imp guest blogger Michael Costigliola is Research & Development Lead at Advanced Lumonics Labs, creator of ORBneXt.
It has been said that to innovate is to do something in a new way. At Advanced Lumonics Labs we strive to do this daily. The basis for our latest project, ORBneXt, is to present information to the user in an innovative way and bring the concept of “Your World at a Glance” to fruition.
While getting ready in the morning have you ever wondered what the temperature is outside? Sure, we could stop what we’re doing, turn on the TV and wait for the weather forecast to come up. We could also find our phone and load an app to find out if we need to throw on a jacket before walking outside. ORBneXt allows you to find out instantly by glancing in its direction to absorb the desired information. No reading required, no sorting through channels to find the weather, no unwanted intrusion, just the soft glow of information.
Displaying information in a pleasing format is what we set out to do with ORBneXt and it doesn’t stop with temperature. ORBneXt has the ability to quietly and elegantly display information about weather, sports scores, stocks, emails, text messages, social media updates, and many other things. The possibilities are endless thanks to ORBneXt’s IFTTT channel.
To empower ORBneXt and bring something unique to the world, we have chosen amazing components such as the Electric Imp WiFi enabled platform to provide Internet connectivity, a luminaire-quality Japanese glass housing, state of the art LEDs, and blink.n.play iOS and Android apps.
Choosing the Electric Imp platform allowed us to focus on the end user front-end experience knowing that the back-end was in great hands. We are delighted to have the expertise of the Electric Imp staff supporting us through their technology, which has enabled us to make our idea a reality.
We have just wrapped up a very successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, surpassing our goal halfway through the month-long funding period. We cannot thank our backers enough as they joined with our team to help bring this project to the world.
ORBneXt is now in the final stages of development. If you missed out on our Kickstarter campaign you still have an opportunity to be one of the first to have ORBneXt in your home or office. We are currently accepting pre-orders on the ORBneXt website, with an estimated shipping date of August 2014.
Michael Costigliola
Research & Development Lead
Advanced Lumonics Labs