数码大师的智能家居梦

    2011年2月，亚历克斯•霍金森和家人抵达位于科罗拉多州的住处，想要来一场滑雪之旅，但眼前所见却让他们大吃一惊。那年冬天的早些时候，管道爆裂，水淹没了地下室，房子有一部分已经开始腐烂。

    40岁的霍金森说：“我甚至都不知道发生了这件事，这一点让我难以忍受。”因此，他开始着手研发一种感应器，能够在类似事件再次发生时通知他。几个月后，他有了更强烈的感受：市面上涌现出越来越多的联网设备——比如最近流行的Nest恒温器——但这些设备都没有集中连接起来。一个想法在他心中应运而生：开发一个平台，让所有设备能够互相连接。

    早在2012年，霍金森就在华盛顿成立了多达41位员工的初创公司SmartThings。迄今为止，它已经从一次成功的Kickstarter募捐中筹得了1,000万美元，还获得了罗恩•康威的天使投资公司SV Angel和贝宝（Paypal）共同创始人马克思•莱文奇恩等赞助者的种子资金支持。根据霍金森的说法，只要花上10分钟和200美金就能安装入门套件，也就是一个能将设备与控制排水、开关、门锁等三个感应器联系起来的枢纽，非常简单便捷。谷歌（Google）合伙人和Digg创始人凯文•罗斯曾说它是“最酷的Kickstarter募捐项目”。

    后来，First Round Capital的合伙人菲尼亚斯•巴恩斯偶然看见SmartThings在Kickstarter 上120万美元的募捐活动，被它“解决连接设备的难题”这个基本理念所打动。他说：“这种开放式的方法吸引了我。”他指的是人人都能获得让自己的设备兼容所需的开发工具。SmartThings的枢纽目前能够与大约1,000种设备良好兼容。

    When Alex Hawkinson and his family arrived at their Colorado home in February 2011 for a ski trip, they were shocked at the sight. Earlier that winter, the pipes had burst, water had flooded the basement, and parts of their home were rotting.

    "I couldn't stand that I didn't know that had happened," the 40-year-old Hawkinson relates. So he went about building a sensor that notified him if something similar happened again. Months later, he had a bigger epiphany: More and more Internet connected devices were hitting the market -- the stylish Nest thermostat being a more recent example -- but none of these devices were connected in a centralized way. That's when he hatched the idea to invent one platform that would let all these devices talk to one another.

    Early in 2012, Hawkinson founded the 41-strong Washington D.C.-based startup SmartThings. To date, it's raised nearly $10 million from a successful Kickstarter campaign and seed funding from backers like Ron Conway's SV Angel and PayPal (EBAY) co-founder Max Levchin. According to Hawkinson, anyone with 10 minutes and $200 can get the starter kit -- a hub that communicates with devices and three sensors that control outlets, switches, door locks, and the like -- up-and-running. Google Ventures (GOOG) partner and Digg founder Kevin Rose once called it the "coolest Kickstarter project."

    When First Round Capital partner Phineas Barnes stumbled across SmartThings's $1.2 million Kickstarter campaign, the basic premise of SmartThings -- taking the difficulty out of connecting devices -- made a lot of sense to him. "The open approach is what captured me," says Barnes, referring to the fact that now anyone can access the development tools needed to make their devices compatible. That dovetails nicely with the 1,000 or so objects SmartThings currently recognizes.