Don’t take things so seriously. At least that’s how the team at Viget in Boulder approaches the internet of things.
The interactive design agency likes to approach its projects with a , like the social-media responsive brooch it created for NBC Sports during the Kentucky Derby. Worn by fashion commentator and Olympic figure skater Johnny Weir, the as people tweeted #WatchMeNeighNeigh. There’s also the anti-Grinch beer tap built for Ponysaurus Brewing Co. in Durham, N.C. If local sentiment on Twitter proved positive, the tap measured “nice” and poured free holiday beer for patrons. As measured by the Holiday Spirit Measurer Thingy, the city’s “cheer factor” had .
Viget’s latest project was for its own office: , a mash-up of massive temperature gauge and art installation with a few Harry Potter-esque touches (including a snitch with a red cape instead of wings). Every hour, the gears whiz and whirr while the pulleys turn and a string of colored LEDs change to indicate the current temperature and forecast for the next 15 hours. It looks like a line graph framed by old pipes, 3-D-printed numbers that look like typewriter keys and other steam-punk accoutrements
“I think because I work with connected devices day in and day out, I get a little disappointed by how everything is getting automated. I appreciate that it is analog to some degree,” said Justin Sinichko, Viget’s hardware developer. “While we work all day long staring at a screen, this is literally one of the two interfaces in the office that will tell me useful information without having to look at my phone.”
Behind the scenes, it’s not the magic of a wingless snitch predicting the future temperature. The Wi-Fi-enabled contraption gets a data feed from Weather Underground. And depending on what city the Temper-O-Meter is set on (controlled via custom iPad app), it uses custom software based on the platform to instruct the gears to move.
“We tie into , and things like the Particle ecosystem that integrate really well with services online and we’re able to take advantage of it,” Viget’s marketing manager Ben Travis said. “That’s one of the advantages of having an open internet. It’s pretty easy for the average person who has a little bit of technology skill to get started.”
In the Denver area community, communities like TechrIoT () and IoT Colorado Meetup (at ) offer workshops and meetings on the topic.
While Sinichko says the Temper-O-Meter is really just for fun — “We walk in and are like, ‘Oh, it’s going to get colder. No duh,'” he joked — the process is educational.
“The more and more you do in connected devices, the more you realize there are some really silly ideas out there. So how can we focus on building the good ideas?” he said. “The extra time we have we want to leverage it in kind of cool ways. So yeah, interactive art. That’s pretty awesome.”
