7 years, 10 months ago
#MakerMonday IoT Special
We captured all our conversations with Internet of Things experts, makers and thought leaders to share with you our beautiful connected world.
Over the last 18 months, we’ve been interviewing leaders and makers in the Internet of Things, from connected toys to flood sensors and beautiful devices aimed to get us looking at objects rather than screens. Delve in and see who’s who in IoT, what the future holds and what products you should probably have in your life.
Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino founder of the Good Night Lamp
Named second in Onalytica’s 2014 “Top 100 Internet of Things Thought Leaders”, Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino is an interaction designer, product designer and entrepreneur who’s been exploring IoT for most of her professional life. In fact, she was co-founder and CEO of Tinker London, the first distributor of the Arduino platform in the UK. If there’s anything you want to do in IoT then she’s definitely someone you should be speaking to. After her first shipment of the long anticipated Good Night Lamp, we chatted to her about her experiences in shipping IoT products, the changes she’s witnessed in this space and why she’s worried about the future of the Internet of Things.
Adrian McEwen of MCQN ltd & DoES Liverpool
Author of ‘Designing the Internet of Things’ and builder of the first mobile web browser and creator of Bubblino, Adrian McEwen, talks to us about how 3D printing and makerspaces can help take us away from a throwaway culture to one that mends. We chatted about birth of IoT, 3D printed prosthetics and how makerspaces can foster innovation through play. Someone to talk to for all things maker in IoT.
Usman Haque founder of Thingful
Driven by connecting people with the things around them, Usman has worked across the globe on various projects, all with participation at their core. He’s helped citizens transform skylines with Burble, and is currently helping us to understand the connected world around us with his company Thingful. Usman was on the scene back in the Internet 0 and Wiring microcontroller days, before IoT and Arduino came along. We caught up with him to hear about what he’s experienced over the last fifteen years and his thoughts on the future of making.
Raph Crouan founder of Startupbootcamp IoT | Connected Devices
With a background as a strategic and analytical International Senior Marketing and Sales Director in tech, Raph found himself working with Apple for around twelve years spearheading ground-breaking innovation and products internationally. After leaving three years ago, he’s now back in the entrepreneurial saddle and is leading the new Startupbootcamp IoT | Connected Devices accelerator for Consumer and Industrial IoT hardware startups. We caught up with Raph to find out what he looks for in an IoT startup, the Internet of Useless Things and the role of accelerators.
Jessi Baker founder of Provenance
The rapid evolution of online shopping has changed not only the way we buy but also how companies make their products; if buyers can make better choices then companies will have to pay attention to how they scale and at what cost. Established in 2013, Provenance are seeking to empower both consumers and sellers with their digital transparency tools aimed to help companies share the stories behind their products. We caught up with founder Jessi Baker to hear more.
Seb Potter creator of Hackaball
Seb has been working on children’s products for nearly twenty years and is the creator of Hackaball: a throwable computer that helps kids learn the basics of programming. He’s worked for a video game publisher, helped run a digital agency, and more recently worked as a Product Manager for kids' hit brand Moshi Monsters, and 3D printing startup Makielab. We caught up with Seb to get his view on edtech and IoT.
Yodit Stanton, Founder of OpenSensors
Yodit is a Software and Data engineer, she founded OpenSensors with an aim to enable people to publish and subscribe to the multitudes of invisible IoT data that exists in our environments. The OpenSensors IoT ingestion engine is capable of processing millions of messages per second and enables their users to create smart and responsive environments in realtime.
John Nussey co-founder of Ding
With an impressive background in physical computing, product prototyping and open-source electronics, we spoke to John about funding in the Internet of Things and find out about his new connected product startup Ding which is about to revolutionise the doorbell.
Filippo Yacob co-founder of Primo Toys
Since 2013, Filippo and his team have been busy encouraging children to explore the digital world through IoT and friendly technologies. We spoke to Filippo about his inspirations and the future of play.
Joachim Horn founder of SAM Labs
The team at SAM Labs want to make sure everyone has a voice in the Internet of Things revolution. Their wireless building blocks caused a stir last September when their Kickstarter campaign was fully funded within three days and now their 817 backers are playing with the first electronics development kit that integrates Hardware, Software and the Internet. They are challenging how we prototype and allowing everyone from newbies to seasoned makers get on with turning their ideas into reality, whether they can code or not. It’s been a pleasure catching up with Joachim to find out what drives him.
Justyna Zubrycka co-founder of Vai Kai
Berlin based startup Vai Kai, spoke to us about how they’re crafting 21st century toys using wood, haptics and IoT to encourage children to find new ways of interacting with technology.
Co-Founder of Vai Kai Justyna Zubrycka, is an industrial designer who, fittingly, used to work in a wooden toy factory. With a passion for tangible interfaces, she was working on both digital experiences and traditional wooden toys when she thought about combining the best qualities of each to create a new type of toy for modern children.
Damon Hart-Davis founder of Open TRV
With a background in computing, Damon setup one of the UK’s first Internet Service Providers, took and a sidestep and worked in banking for more than twenty years, then, created an Open-Source Thermostatic Radiator Valve, otherwise known as OpenTRV. OpenTRV aims to make it easy for you to save energy by only heating rooms that you're using and no longer using a single thermostat to heat your house. We caught up with Damon to see what’s next and talk about the future of smart cities.
Ben Ward founder of Flood Network
Ben has spent over twenty years doing things with the Internet. A self-declared troublemaker, he decided to base his entire company on disrupting the status quo and asking questions. After working on some of the largest telecoms networks in the world, a subsea cable system, and developing network monitoring software he decided that it was time to use the Internet of Things for real-world applications. He is Founder of the Oxford Flood Network and recently started the UK Flood Network.
