No offense to the dancing robots at CES 2015

By Albert Tsoi:

We at Ecovent love gadgets and there were a lot of gadgets at CES 2015, the yearly consumer electronics and technology trade show that takes place in Las Vegas. Dancing robots. Robots with banner ads that stalk you. Smart rings. Smart belts. Smart roller skates. Wearables for every other part of your body. 3-D printers. More 3-D printers. Yet more 3-D printers. Sharks with frickin’ laser beams attached to their heads. Just kidding on the last one.

There was no shortage of weird, amazing and inventive tech products showcased at CES 2015. They were fun to look at and even more fun to play with. However, no offense to any of them, the vast majority of them are not products that an ordinary consumer would actually buy.

“Oh, so you make a product that actually solves a problem?” This was a response from a random passerby to our booth when we explained our system of smart vents and sensors to her. Team Ecovent went to CES 2015 to showcase our system to the world. At times like this, it sounded like people were pitching our product to us rather than the other way around! Some of them were our existing reservation holders but we received a lot of enthusiasm from folks who had never heard of Ecovent until they walked by our booth.

One gentlemen told us that he would run around his home closing and opening vents to save on energy costs. He got so tired reaching for ceiling vents that he fashioned rods to them, so he didn’t have to use a step ladder to reach them. Another CES attendee had a basement that was freezing in the summer, so she tried closing off her vents. When that didn’t work (a lot of conditioned air still escapes fully “closed” standard vents), she taped them shut, which still didn’t work. Not only do these “solutions” not work, they’re inconvenient and more importantly, dangerous to the HVAC system. Closing vents without understanding, on a scientific level, how they will affect the pressure of the HVAC system can restrict airflow in a way that could damage an HVAC system.

It was great hearing about the real life problems people face and knowing that we have a solution to those problems. Yes, Ecovent is part of the “Internet of Things” and it is a connected device. However, the Internet of Things and the connected home is more than just about sticking a WiFi chip into any device that will take it. Our experience at CES 2015 reminded us that that there’s more to innovation than making tech for the sake of making tech. Technology also exists to solve actual problems, so we can spend less time fighting those problems and more quality time with of our friends and family. Or watching cat videos on YouTube.

Sorry, wannabe Robocop.