Knocki Device Makes Walls And Tables ‘Smart’

Knocki, a smart device that enables surfaces it’s placed on to be “smart” as well, successfully raised more than $1.1 million in its Kickstarter campaign.

“We already have the capital and the resources where we can actually get the units produced in whatever volume,” CEO Jake Boshernitzan told TechCrunch.

“Really, the goal of the campaign was to get the production volume higher … I don’t think we want to have 50 thousand units, but 10 thousand, 15 thousand, 25 thousand — which is well beyond the volume we’re shipping out — would be perfectly sustainable for our strategy,” he continued.

The Knocki is designed to be attached to surfaces like tables and walls and then essentially, “make any surface a smart surface.” Once attached, those surfaces can be tapped in order to control smart devices like thermostats and lights.

“If you purchase Knocki and don’t have a Nest thermostat and you don’t have Philips Hue light bulbs, if you don’t have all these different smart devices, there’s a lot of capability even if you just have a WiFi network at home and a smartphone,” Boshernitzan explained.

Earlier this year, PYMNTS dubbed Knocki the Clapper for the IoT age.

In an interview with WIRED, Boshernitzan outlined the specs behind the hockey-puck-shaped device. Rather than relying on smartphones or smart home dashboards, Knocki can translate taps or, well, knocks on any surface it’s attached to.

For example, Boshernitzan said that users could program a Knocki device to turn their TVs off when they tap a coffee table three times. The device isn’t just a souped-up remote control, though Boshernitzan explained that users with smart locks can use Knocki to swap keys and codes out for secret knocks or gestures to enter their homes.

And perhaps the most important lesson Knocki learned from its clapping predecessor: it won’t confuse random contact for actual inputs.