Swidget
So Much More Than Meets the Eye
By Carole VanSickle Ellis
It all started when Lowell Misener fell down the stairs and found himself lying on the floor, looking at an electrical outlet that was not doing one thing to help him.
Misener, who is co-founder of smart-device maker Swidget along with Swidget president and COO Chris Adamson, got up and got to work, ultimately creating the Swidget outlet and Swidget switch, part of a network of future-proof, modular, smart devices designed to do everything from enhancing homeowner health and wellness to conserving energy and preventing costly power drains on rental homes.
“We started out just thinking about how to create an outlet that would provide emergency light during a power outage,” Adamson recalled. “What started as a very humble emergency light has evolved into so much more.”
Soon, the two were adding elements to their smart, battery-less nightlight-outlets like USB chargers and eventually air quality sensors, motion detectors, and humidity monitors. By 2018, they were winning awards at tech trade shows like CES and being described as “pretty darn awesome” by industry analysts, and by 2019, the company had been recognized as one of the CES “Techlicious Top Picks” for the year.
Homeowners, real estate investors, and soon, real estate developers, were all installing Swidget technology in their properties in order to safeguard assets and optimize prevention and performance. Swidget outlets and switches are wired into homes just like any other traditional wiring device. Their smart “Inserts” draw power from the wiring device, making them wireless and battery-less. Their modular format makes them hassle-free and simple to install for anyone seeking a hardware solution or a data aggregator and contextualization tool.
“The easiest way to think about Swidget is that we provide actionable insights through data created by these ubiquitous devices in the home,” Adamson said. He continued, “The hardware enables users to make smart decisions for the betterment of their lives about what is going on in the space in which they live and work.”
For a property owner who wishes to make it so, Swidget data can be almost entirely comprehensive, running the gamut from when lights are turned on and off to managing air quality and providing security monitoring when the owner is absent. Swidget has recently also evolved into the aging-in-place space, providing monitoring and reporting options for caregivers that can promptly enact alerts and even life-saving contact and safety measures in the event that a senior resident fails to go about their daily routine or forgets to turn off an appliance like the stove.
“We are so much more than meets the eye,” Adamson said. “The breadth of what we can cover is very, very wide.”
Providing the Means to Fully Informed Decisions
Swidget devices started out as highly practical, easy-to-install tools for improving life in any residence, but it was only a matter of time before the data element of the devices emerged as a powerful asset.
The amount of data available from the Swidget devices and sensors soon proved valuable in many market verticals. Optimizing this element of the network for verticals like SFR vacant property protection, for example, is a primary function for Cameron Wilson, CEO of Swidget and early angel investor for the group.
“I was in the audience during one of the founders’ first pitches to an Angel Investment Group,” Wilson said. “I have a background in the electrical, electrical distribution, connected home, and audio spaces. I thought the Swidget concept was one of the best I had ever seen.”
After getting to know Misener and Adamson and investing in the company, Wilson came on as the company CEO in early 2019. “I am responsible for guiding and financing the strategic direction of the company,” Wilson explained. “We are trying to solve some pretty big problems that investors and property owners face using the hardware and the data from that hardware to help make informed decisions.”
Not surprisingly, real estate investors were early adopters of Swidget technology, with landlords and fix-and-flip investors quickly realizing the implications of a device that could not only prevent home disasters like fire, mold, and flooding but that could, in Wilson’s words, “report the occurrence of motion in a vacant home, when there should be no motion.” He added, “This usage was a big surprise to us at first because we had not been involved in the property rental market initially. However, it quickly became a top priority to help rental and real estate companies monitor and indicate the status of what each property currently is compared to what it should be, and provide alerts when there are anomalies.”
During the lockdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, many property owners adopted self-guided tours in lieu of in-person showings, and this has led to a much higher incidence of rental fraud, squatting and theft in vacant SFR homes.
“Through the use of motion sensors and video cameras, we are able to monitor and even collect footage when there is an anomaly and notify the right people to address the issue,” Adamson chimed in. “That is a solution we built out specifically to address the needs of vacant-property owners and it has become part of the overall application of our technologies throughout the life cycle of a property.”
Seamless Implementation & Seeking Solutions
From the time Misener hit the landing at the bottom of his stairs and glanced over to see the entirely dark outlet that could not support a nightlight thanks to a regional blackout, Swidget’s founders and team members have prioritized seeking solutions to practical issues that may be implemented seamlessly into a resident’s or investor’s life and business. For this reason, many of Swidget’s technology packages are designed with new construction in mind.
“We want to offer builders the option to install flexible systems that do not mandate future buyers arrange their lives around their proptech,” said Adamson. “Builders want to offer customers flexibility and custom options for energy savings, smart-home technology, and green design.”
Similarly, because rental properties that can be customized by tenants are considered most appealing by residents and, by extension, tend to command higher rents, Swidget’s a la carte appeal can add value to rental properties as well, Adamson continued. “This application really shines in new development because when you install the wiring during the build phase, you are able to seamlessly implement whichever smart elements the customer wants later in the lifecycle of the home,” he said. “Our developers have worked very hard to make sure that whether you are installing new or retrofitting an existing property, working with the technology is as seamless as possible after installation.”
Swidget refers to itself and its products as “future-proof,” meaning the devices are equipped to accept modular inserts, which are available in almost all sensor types, and are available in all of the common communication protocols such as W-Fi, Z-Wave, etc. These modular inserts can be installed with minimal effort, and there is no need for rewiring. “This is particularly useful for landlords,” noted Adamson. “Once a property is no longer vacant, cameras and the other sensors may be easily removed.”
Future-Proofing Smart Technology for Lifelong Applications
This focus on serving rental property owners and servicers ultimately led to Swidget’s current developmental focus, senior care and aging-in-place assistance. Noting that Swidget devices can be both “unobtrusive” and ubiquitous, Wilson described how some clients are already beginning to incorporate the devices into their senior-care processes for loved ones and residents of professional care facilities.
“Say you have an older individual who typically gets up at eight o’clock in the morning, turns on the kettle to make a cup of tea or coffee, then later showers and prepares for the day. Swidget devices can unobtrusively characterize the behavior of an individual over time and use that information to then detect anomalies,” Wilson said.
For example, devices note the time when the individual typically passes by the motion sensor in the hallway, measure the power draw from the kettle, and detect the humidity increase in the bathroom. Once the routine is established, the system can then look for aberrations.
“In the event that any one of these routine things does not happen, it is a simple matter to automatically and without panic notify a family member or the attendant at the front desk of a retirement community to let them know that the individual is deviating from their routine,” Wilson said. Once the notification is received, a family member or caregiver can place a simple phone call or provide other check-in services to confirm the resident is not in distress.
“It is smooth and straightforward, so you do not have a panic,” Wilson said. He added that Swidget’s Research and Development team is currently working on refining systems tailored to the needs of caregivers and residents dealing with issues related to cognitive decline, such as automatically turning off a cooking appliance if no motion is detected in an area for a certain period of time and no positive feedback has been received from a voice prompt reminder.
The company is also working on digitalization of verbal commands using natural language and known voices in order to increase response and compliance from older individuals who may become confused if addressed by a disembodied, electronic voice like the ones associated with many AI functions, but will respond easily to a child’s or spouse’s questions.
“We want to be able to say, for example, ‘Dad, are you still cooking?’ in the child’s voice, and then if the response is not affirmative, the appliance can be turned off automatically, or at the discretion of a caregiver,” Wilson explained.
Because Swidget smart sensors are easily installed, interchanged, and removed, installing senior-care systems does not create a permanent surveillance system that might discourage younger residents from living in the property in the future. 35-year veteran contractor and host of television shows like “Holmes Makes it Right” Mike Holmes describes the appeal of installing Swidget devices in new builds as well as in existing properties, noting the company’s smart inserts may be placed within their light switches and used as indoor security cameras, humidity detectors, and air-quality monitors. “For us, this is a perfect solution because it makes my life easier and all of our homes more secure and healthier,” he said.
“That is always our goal,” chimed in Wilson. “We always want to be a good investment for the owner of the property as well as for the occupant of the property, and that translates to higher purchase prices and higher rental rates because the overall value of the asset is higher thanks to Swidget’s products and services.”
SIDEBAR 1
Facing the Future with Future-Proof Technology
In the late 1990s, some early-adopter medical practices began to avail themselves of the ability to send radiology images to radiologists in other geographic locations using the infant internet. This process became known as teleradiology. The benefits of this are easy to imagine: Physicians could consult expert radiologists in highly niche fields and possibly get results for patients faster than ever before. The technology became more popular and, as is often the case in an industrial revolution scenario, began to evolve extremely quickly.
Those early implementers of teleradiology soon found themselves using outdated equipment and outdated methods despite starting out on the forefront. To address this issue, the entire field began focusing en masse on creating systems that would work in the present and were likely to be adaptable to future technological evolution.
Teleradiologists were not the first population to attempt to future-proof their industry by any means, but they did set the standard for tech evolution by prioritizing adaptability and interoperability, two of the most critical elements of any future-proofing attempt.
Today, industries apply the term “future-proofing” to everything from career advice to air traffic scheduling. Naturally, the issue arises particularly close to home when it comes to connected homes and smart-home devices.
When evaluating a piece of technology to determine if the item, itself, is future-proofed or if it will make a property more future-proof, look for evidence that those two key characteristics, adaptability and interoperability, apply. For example, a smart-home or connected home system must be preset to accept upgrades and new types of software with few stalls or roadblocks.
Typically, additional installations — at least those that must be wired into the internal workings of the building structure — should be minimal or nonexistent. Instead, updates and new features should be accessible through external and simple installation or simply by installing an update in the existing system.
When it comes to adaptability, future-proofing gets a little murkier. How can you identify adaptability to an event that has not yet occurred? Adaptability is primarily indicated by a capacity for change. For example, when Swidget CEO Cameron Wilson talks about future applications for Swidget in senior-living communities, he is careful to point out that much, if not all, of the infrastructure is already in place in buildings that are currently running Swidget.
When Swidget co-founder and president Chris Adamson discusses how real estate investors are making use of the product, he points out that cameras used during construction or rehabbing may be easily removed to accommodate tenant privacy, then reinstalled with equal ease. Both of these observations demonstrate Swidget’s policy of seamless integration and future-proofing.
Learn more about the future-proof elements of Swidget at Swidget.com
SIDEBAR 2
The “A la Carte” Approach to Smart-Home and Proptech
One of the best things about Swidget, said company co-founder and president Chris Adamson, is that its many elements may be blended together and used in a vast array of different ways. As a result, looking at the Swidget product list can be overwhelming. Here are the highlights of Swidget’s product offerings:
» Camera Insert
» Temperature, Humidity and Motion Insert
» Air Quality Insert
» USB Charger Insert
» Air Quality “Starter Bundle”
» Energy Savings Bundle
» Bathroom Ventilation and Lighting Bundle
» Basic Swidget Outlet
» Wi-Fi Control Insert
» Build-Your-Own Switches, Outlets, Dimmers, and Auxiliary Control Switches
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