Awareness by design
Technology should leave people more capable. Between a person and a device, one moment matters most: understanding the basics of how it works. After that, a good device asks for as little attention as possible. We design for both.
Three budgets
Every wireless design is a set of budgets. Two of them are standard engineering. The third is ours.
Power budget
How much energy the device needs to do its job.
Measured in microamps and milliwatt-hours.
We keep it small with deep-sleep design, duty cycling, energy harvesting and battery-free NFC.
Link budget
How reliably the signal gets through walls, metal and bodies.
Measured in decibels.
We keep the margin honest with antennas tuned in the real enclosure and tests where the product will actually live.
Attention budget
What a device asks of people after a first minute of understanding. The goal isn't zero attention: it's attention well spent, on what the device is for, not on menus and notifications.
Counted in interruptions and minutes per day.
We keep the main function obvious and working, even when the extras fail, like a car's limp-home mode. The rest stays in the background: local decisions, notifications only when a person must decide, no app or account unless it is really needed.
Defaults we design with
These are the defaults we propose to every client. The client decides; we show the trade-offs.
-
The main function comes first: it gets the most testing, and keeps working when the extras fail. Fail-safe is a mindset, not a technology.
-
Every product gets its backbone on one page: what it senses, what it sends, what acts and what it depends on.
-
Decide on the device. Send results, not raw data streams, unless raw data is the point.
-
Notify only when a person has to decide something.
-
Fewer apps, not more. Where possible, devices join systems people already use, through open standards such as Matter.
-
A phone tap can give information without any app: an NFC tag can open the manual, the device's label or its backbone as a web page.
-
When an app is unavoidable, it is not the only way in: a card, a button or a local display still works.
-
Works locally first, and says so plainly when it can't.
-
If a device uses AI, it says so, shows what it decided, and a person can overrule it.
Sustainability, including attention
Energy
Microamp designs, energy harvesting and battery-free NFC mean fewer batteries made, replaced and thrown away.
Lifetime
Robust hardware, firmware that can be updated, components with long availability, and repair where possible.
Fewer trips and replacements
Every year a remote sensor runs without a battery change is a service trip that never has to happen.
Attention
In many systems the scarcest resource is human attention. We spend it as carefully as energy.
What is not for us
We avoid designs and platforms that diminish people's cognitive abilities and critical thinking. Designs and technologies that work against our mission are not for us.