Asian start-ups aim to 'democratise' the Internet of Things with a US$10 chip
Tech CEOs join forces for the untapped Southeast Asian market
Bored with your outfit? Imagine if you could change the color of your shirt, using just your smartphone.
A group of female tinkerers in Bangkok , Thailand, have figured a way to do just that. Using a thumb-sized circuit board called the ESPresso Lite V2.0, the members of PINN Creative Space have built a system that lets people use their smartphones to change the colors of tiny LED lights embedded in a T-shirt.
The not-so-simple T-shirt is part of the Internet of Things (IoT) - the growing network of everyday objects with internet connectivity, which allows them to interact in the way we take for granted in PCs and smartphones.
Cisco, Sony, and more recently, Samsung, are among multinational companies that are investing in IoT.
But the start-up behind the ESPresso Lite wants to coexist with the "big boys." Singapore-based IoT company ESPert, which created the tiny circuit board, wants amateur hobbyists to be able to build their own IoT gadgets at an affordable price. The Thai hobbyists' "I-o-Tee" is one example of what can be made with the technology.
The ESPresso Lite contains a chip that enables devices to "speak" to one another via the cloud, using a Wi-Fi connection. Priced at US$10, it retails mostly online in 14 countries across Asia, as well as in Australia, Europe and the US In two months, ESPert has sold about 5,000 units.