The bttn – the simplest user interface
bt.tn
bt.tn
11 people set out to build a standalone button that costs 100$... Am I missing something? Is this satire? Great idea, would love to buy one but both price and team strength seem to be off by factor of 10.
From my perspective, you are not wrong at all. At the moment, the product is pretty pricey - that is something we are working on.
It is just a fact of life (which you surely know) that in small quantities, hardware tends to be pricey. We are working our trim little butts off to bring down the price.
As for the simplicity, the product is very simple by design. However, we have some pretty cool things on our roadmap to keep the same magical simplicity of use while adding a whole lot of functionality. It is a balancing act we are hoping to handle the right way.
It is a hardware product so I'd prefer they launched with a high but realistic prce and then dropped that latter than a more reasonable price.
But still - $100??
But, in general, you are right. 100 bucks is not a sustainable price point and we certainly don't like it. Not a bit.
Which should give you an idea what we are trying to do.
- a really cheap USB one
- a more expensive Wi-Fi one
- a $99 Wi-Fi and GSM one.
Most things that need buttons already have them.
Please enlighten me as to what on earth is novel (in the patent language sense) about a button on the internet.
I'll try to address some of the good points made here now.
First of all, I am a bttn evangelist, so I am a bit biased by profession, but hopefully sane enough to recognize a salient point nevertheless. But keep you salt shakers nearby, just in case.
As I've mentioned in my other comments, the point about the $99 price point is fair. It is too high. We want to bring it down, but early runs of new hardware tend to be pricey (and, as pointed out in other comments, our offering is not just the device, it encompasses the backend and ecosystem).
The point of the presales at this price is to offer the bttn to potential early adopters as early as possible. We are certainly not trying go gouge anyone.
As for the simplicity of the bttn, simple has been the #1 design principle. Looking forward, we want to keep the user experience very simple while still increasing the functionality of the bttn drastically. We have some stuff on the pipeline that we think is pretty cool and our major concern is properly balancing usability and power.
Again, thanks for the good comments and keep them coming. We'll be sure to listen and learn.
I built a very similar button using an arcade button[0] and a raspberry pi, and it cost <$50 in total parts -- it would've cost a lot less if I didn't decide to use a raspberry pi that I already owned for it. Mine just does a POST to an App Engine URL, but since it's a real computer I can SSH into it and make it do absolutely anything on the planet too.
[1]: http://www.amazon.com/SHARKK%C2%AE-Android-Smartphone-Unlock...
I had in mind that I'd be able to find a simple usb connected button for next to nix. My research instead turned up prices from $25 to $100.
So rather than a simple single button connected via usb, I found the best options have been:
* a usb numberpad (~$10) * a usb MCE infrared remote (~$15) * an amazon basics wireless mouse (~$5) * an rfid reader + 50 nfc cards (~$20)
In each case, the solution I landed on ended up being cheaper, more versatile and functionally superior to a single simple button.
For example, the wireless mouse is now an interface for a music playback machine. Originally I imaged just a single button which would start and stop the music. With the mouse I added the option of changing the volume using the mouse wheel.
Don't forget debounce. Debouncing can be tough. http://www.ganssle.com/debouncing.htm
http://arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Debounce or http://playground.arduino.cc/code/bounce
https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/projects/raspberrypi/tutorials/robo...
You can also debounce on hardware with a capacitor. Really simple too and does not waste CPU cycles.
I'm a little surprised that nothing like this exists already. I can see how you could easily build one yourself. But that doesn't give you the IFTTT ecosystem, which is probably good for less technical users.
I can't imagine a way this works in practice which doesn't seem slightly more complex than just using the app itself. Your presentation makes it seem as if you just press the button and magic happens. But, it's just a front end for the necessary complexity of the app itself. You have to interact with that at some point.
I have this vision of a wall with dozens or hundreds of buttons each with its own label and functionality.
And that voice on the video...she sounds completely stoned.
http://store.griffintechnology.com/powermate
(Which conceivably could function as a button, too -- just interpret sliding the knob all the way to the far side as a button press.)
Well, plus the PC with wifi and gsm cards connected to that USB port.
(I love the above comment as it both critiques the idea and explains why so many good things end up as POS -- mission creep)
Seriously, if you could order different colors, they lit up, and you could stick them on the walls? You could have a lot of fun with these things. (Think IFTTT)
I am also waiting for the reusable post-it notes that use e-ink.
How does the bttn user know what is happening after the bttn press?
The bttn has handy feedback lights for the end user: Flashing GREEN top means successful completion of the trigger, RED means error, and a circling YELLOW means wait. Pretty simple, really.
Not exactly what I was referring to. I would want a light to indicate some condition, then the button would perform some action. The two do not have to be related to each other.
So I walk in the house. The blue button on the wall is lit up, indicating that I have that email from my brother-in-law that I was waiting for. I push the button, launching a small nuclear strike against the country of Alfredamonia. (Or for a more prosaic situation, the light is lit up telling me my server is overloaded. I push the button to spin up another server)
It's a neat idea. 100 bucks is crazy expensive for something you should be able to order by the thousand from China. Going to need some serious early adoption folks. I would look to the Agile IT guys -- lots of those folks would want some big, physical indicator to show something and some simple way to interact with externalities.
It's certainly interesting.
I was having this discussion with someone the other day. So far the IoT seems to be 200 dollar Locks/Lightswitches, 100 dollar buttons and academic research on how to handle 10 gazillion devices.
Something is missing.
I just had to push it - so jolly and candy like.
It is kind of expensive so I am looking for $50,000,000.00 in VC to develop an online version. Here's the first prototype:
<button>button</button>For price, this could be re-produced for $3-4 on a low production scale, say 10000 pieces.
[0] my personal domain is bt.hn