A Home Automation System You Can Talk To, and a Beacon Without Battery

Our weekly series looks at the best and most interesting new projects on crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. After all, products like the Pebble smartwatch and the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset prove that the coolest new innovations aren't coming from only the big companies anymore. We're watching out for what comes next.

One project that really caught our eye this week was the Homey - a voice-controlled home automation tool that looks like a bleached Nexus Q. Despite the really annoying name, the idea behind the project is a pretty good one - a voice-controlled box that can connect to several different protocols gives you control over multiple devices with just your voice, instead of having to juggle different remotes. Making it even better, the device is connected to the Internet, and can connect to your mail and calendar services, to behave more intelligently.

For example, the Homey could adjust your lights and your thermostat, open the curtains and start your stereo, turn on the TV and your media player. Its creators claim that out of the box supports various formats such as AirPlay, Sonos, Plex, Nest, Hue, and a lot more. This is made possible because the device carries eight radio modules that work on different frequencies and protocols, all of which are integrated toegther with speech recognition. The Homey is powered by a Raspberry Pi, and runs on JavaScript, which the developers hope will make it easier for people to make apps for the Homey.

Of course, most of us don't have a lot of smart devices yet - that's a trend that's only getting started now. To compensate, Homey also includes an infrared LED and can be trained to work with your existing remotes. This means that you can program it to work with your TV, or control your air conditioning if you have an AC that is operated by a remote. And of course, as you buy new connected devices, they will work with the Homey as well.

People who pledge to the Homey will get both the hardware and also sample code and early access to the SDK, so they can make their own apps for the Homey when it becomes commercially available. There's a full year to go between development and shipping though, and people should expect their units to ship only around March-June 2015. The project has already raised EUR 71,999 of its EUR 100,000 goal, and there are 29 days to go for funding. You can see the pitch video here:

In case you're interested in something a little simpler and with a shorter timeline, then you should check out the iFind - a Bluetooth item locator that's expected to ship by October 2014. A Bluetooth beacon isn't exactly new - or even exciting - technology though, so why are we highlighting it?

Because the iFind doesn't require a battery, and instead it "recycles electromagnetic energy and stores it in a unique power bank." That's a pretty amazing feat - although of course, a Bluetooth beacon consumes a lot less power than something like a phone. The fact that something like the iFind can exist at all does give us hope for a future when our smartphones aren't routinely tethered to a power cable.

The tag itself is big enough that you won't lose it, at 32X27X2.4mm in size, and it can be detected from a range of up to 60m, or 200ft. All you need to do is sync the tag to your phone via Bluetooth once, and then you can just attach it to whatever you want - your keys, your car, your pet, your wallet or even your kid! It works with both Android and iOS devices, and another interesting feature of the tag is that shaking the iFind causes your phone to ring - very handy if you're always hunting for your phone, though it might need to be disabled if you're attaching the tag to a pet!

Another cool iFind function is the "rope" mode - in this mode, the tag starts to beep loudly and your phone gets a notification, in case they go out of range. This is really handy if you keep the tag in your wallet or your keyring, because if you've left your phone (or keys, or wallet) behind at a restaurant, you'll get a warning about it before too much time has passed.

All these features are interesting, but what really sets the iFind apart, at the end of the day, is the battery-free operation.

You can see the full iFind video here:

To see our other picks from crowdfunded projects, click here.