Wearables Maker Out of Microsoft Smart Home Accelerator Program Eyes $30 Billion Market

Al Baker, chief operating officer at technology startup Playtabase, sees home health as a largely untapped market for wearables, he told Consumer Electronics Daily on a media tour in New York. The company is launching an Indiegogo campaign next month for Reemo, a wrist-based wearable designed to help users control their environment through gestures using point-and-control technology. Playtabase was one of 10 companies out of a field of 400 selected for the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator program for technology startups.

Microsoft held its first Ventures Global Startup Day in San Francisco in June, where it announced a partnership with American Family Insurance to provide what it calls a “thematic accelerator” with a focus on home automation. The accelerator was developed to tackle “the most challenging problems in home automation,” Microsoft said. With the Internet of Things, and home automation in particular, “rapidly emerging, consumer demand is growing for solutions that are intuitive, connected and affordable,” Microsoft said, and that presents “tremendous opportunities for new players in the space.” The accelerator program’s goal is to help a new generation of companies “create smarter and safer homes,” it said.

Baker showed us an “appearance model” of the wristband, sans technology. The company and its design team have mapped out the placement of electronics and the real estate required to accommodate sensors and circuitry on the band to fit the form factor of top wearables on the market today, Baker said.

Consumer pushback on wearables currently involves “having a reason to wear it” and fashion, Baker said, saying the band will be available in several colors. Reemo will be targeted to a market that “needs the technology or can find a health benefit beyond general lifestyle and a social element,” he said.

Reemo will launch on crowd-funding website Indiegogo to the mass market “to see what people think,” Baker said. In addition to providing funding for production, going the Indiegogo route “helps us understand users and to get insights about what they expect,” he said. The Indiegogo launch is Sept. 3 and runs for 30-45 days, he said. The company will continue to test the product beyond that with users, including individual users or care facilities and their residents, he said. Reemo is aimed at enabling “independent living, especially for the elderly, the disabled, and patients with chronic conditions,” according to company marketing information. The device lets the target demographic “control things in their home,” and it sends feedback to designated recipients on how the user has been interacting in the home, Baker said.

Reemo features will enable users to control conventional and selected smart systems, including lamps, fans and appliances that aren’t connected devices. Reemo smart plugs work with a hub that communicates with the devices, Baker said. The company is launching with the iControl platform “because they're making a big push now” and have an installed base of 2.4 million homes with the interface layer for home automation systems from ADT, Cox, Time Warner Cable and Comcast, he said. “They already have a network into existing homes” and have a track record covering a couple of years, he said. The company plans to be compatible with additional home automation platforms in the future.

Being part of the Microsoft accelerator gives Playtabase a chance to learn from Microsoft and to gain insights into its customers and users along with those from American Family Insurance, Baker said. The value proposition isn’t necessarily the same for a user as for an insurer, “but if you can combine the two and make it mutually beneficial, then you have a very valuable partnership,” he said. The company will try out ideas with beta testers and “see what sticks,” he said.

Reemo will be sold from the company’s website and through healthcare organizations, Baker said, saying retail sales currently aren’t on the road map. It will be offered as a base model with a subscription upgrade that gives the user additional data, he said. The kit’s target price is $250-$300, depending on the number of receivers included. In addition to the wristband, the kit will include smart plugs and multiple wireless receivers that “let you piggyback on existing home automation systems,” Baker said. Launch is scheduled for spring 2015, he said.

Playtabase sees health wearables as a $30 billion market within the next two years, Baker said. Parks Associates released data Thursday that said nearly 30 percent of U.S. broadband households own and use at least one connected health device. Muhammad Abdurrahman, CEO of Playtabase, will speak at Parks’ Connected Health Summit in a session on “Healthy Living, Connected Devices, and Wearables” Sept. 4 in San Diego.