Futuristic gifts for the home
In the future, our homes will be fully automated, with heating and air conditioning systems that learn your preferences, refrigerators that automatically order your groceries, and other weird and fantastical gizmos that will be enabled by the arrival of the Internet of Things. While we haven’t quite arrived at truly smart homes, there are a few gadgets that you can buy for the house that will get you most of the way there.
Nest Thermostat – $250. The Nest Learning Thermostat is still the best, easiest, and cheapest way to give your home’s heating system a jolt of intelligence. If your budget extends a few hundred more dollars, you can also grab a bunch of Nest Protect smoke detectors, too, and have the whole thing networked together and accessible from any internet-connected device. It’s pretty cool to be able to set your home’s temperature when you’re at the office, or out and about with your smartphone.
HP Sprout all-in-one PC – $1900. If there are some kids in your household, someone with a particularly creative bent, or just someone who likes trying out new and weird gadgets,the HP Sprout is worth a look. The Sprout all-in-one PC has an odd appendage that sprouts out the top of the screen, which contains a projector, a high-res camera, and a Kinect-like depth-sensing camera, pointing down at a 20-point trackpad. It’s not cheap, but it’s most futuristic PC on the market today.
Myo gesture control armband – $150. While commercialized brain-computer interfaces are still a little ways off, the Myo is a Bluetooth-connected armband that lets you control your smartphone, smart home, or simply a PowerPoint presentation with hand gestures. The Myo reads the myoelectrical pulses that arrive at your arm muscles — so, if you waggle your fingers, the Myo can read those electrical signals and send a command to an attached device.
LulzBot TAZ 4 3D printer
3D printer – $500 and up. This year finally sees the arrival of reasonably priced, easy-to-use 3D printers. Starting at about $500 for a no-frills Printrbot, or going up to around $2000 for the latest LulzBot TAZ 4, maybe it’s time you started printing your own cups, cutlery, and other about-the-house doodads? In a few months, at-home 3D printers might even be able to print computer circuit boards using conductive plastic — so it’s a good time to get in on the 3D printing bandwagon.
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