The Smartest and Oddest Gadgets for Your Apartment

This is a sponsored post by Taylor Ryan of Apartment Showcase.

Consumers today are more tech obsessed than ever. “Tech” products improve and change so frequently, it’s now a struggle just to keep up with what’s new.

One of the fastest growing markets in this industry is known as the “Internet of Things,” or “IOT” for short. This type of technology covers all the things around us, including and not limited to: smart environments, wearables, and smart devices that measure us and react to our every move. Like it or not, the areas around us are going to become responsive and engage us more regularly.

For example, cars are becoming smarter. More cars are equipped with a feature that automatically slows down to avoid front end collisions  using advanced sensors and interconnected devices. At this rate, many futurists predict driverless cars will become the standard within 20 years.

What about your apartment in the future? Will the place you live soon be filled with smart products that help you think less and automate more? This new tech craze can bring us closer to living more comfortably or it might do the opposite. Which of these new smart products do we really need? Are we trying to discover solutions for problems we don’t think we have? You be the judge. Below are some of the most interesting and odd products that you might find irresistible in your apartment of the future:

Smart Appliances

Your refrigerator will eventually have the ability to know when products are running low, missing, and expiring. This smart refrigerator may become the standard in the next 20 years, but right now it seems like a rather opulent feature. See more in this YouTube video.

Let’s say you’re pressed for time and you want to know the exact moment that your clothes in the laundry are done. In a world where you need to be as efficient as possible and everything is connected, you can expect to get a notification on your phone from your laundry units. See more in this YouTube video.

Smart Food/Drink

One of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns in the last three years has been a little scanner called SCIO. It molecularly scans foods, drinks, medications, etc. and identifies them. You can find out how many calories are in your favorite dessert or when your fruit is ripe enough to eat. This scanner does it all, it won’t be long before one of these becomes standard in every kitchen and supermarket. See more here.

Are you a big egg person? Find out when you’re running low or when your eggs have gone bad via the Egg Minder Wink App-enabled Smart Egg tray. Yes, this is real, see them here.

Pets

Have you ever wanted to track where your cat hangs out when you’re not home? Using the G Paws Pet GPS Tracker you can track your animal for up to eight hours (the battery life is limited). You can analyze the results and find out what they’ve really been doing. See it this video.

Want to train your pet to be smarter while you’re away at work? Then you should check out a device  called Clever Pet. It teaches and entertains your dog by teaching them to hit different buttons in order to receive treats. The challenges get harder as your dog learns to complete different tasks. You can track your dog’s progress as they learn to repeat longer combinations. Think of a doggy version of Bop it. See their promotional video.

Safety/Security

Violent assault is no joke, neither is this smart hair clip from First Sign. If a violent intruder gets physical with you, the hair clip picks up on “the forces that create injury.” Once triggered, the hair clip alerts authorities (unless it’s a false positive), then it turns on the camera and microphone on your cell phone to catch the intruder in the act. This means that if someone comes to your apartment and punches you in the head hard enough (assuming you’re wearing the device), it will automatically alert the police, and begin recording video and audio on your phone.

If you’ve ever been late to work and can’t find your keys, phone, shoes, etc; then you might want to take a look at Bringrr. Using “Bring Tags” you can rest assured that all of your important objects are going to be easily located.

Lighting

When thinking of smart environments, many people picture neon mood lighting following you around your house put to tranquil techno beats. But there are variants of this technology, take a look at Emberlight. It’s an adapter that can screw into a standard fixture and be used with any dimmable incandescent/LED/CFL Bulb. You can save settings and have the lighting follow you throughout your apartment allowing you to save money on electricity but also give your apartment mood lighting as you see fit.

Have you ever wanted to wake up to sunlight slowly filling your apartment? Maybe you want your apartment to automatically reduce glares coming in during the afternoon. This is all possible with the newest line of smart shades, Sivoia QS by Lutron.

Apartments of the future will eventually come with many different smart amenities and features, only time will tell which ones you’ll actually use. Find your next apartment on apartmentshowcase.com and fill it with all the IOT devices you need.