GreenBeat

Threshold is not your average gadget-making firm. Their products aren’t chic or whiz-bang. However, the things they make do have the curious property of actually working with each other, according to its CEO, James Martin.

Here’s the pitch: Let’s say you have a motion-sensor off-switch for the lamp in your living room, and you also have a motion-sensor security system by the door. Chances are, you either bought two separate sensors that don’t talk to each other, or you paid for an expensive professional installation to get a single detector working alone.

The future home could include several different systems working side-by-side, says Martin, like automation, energy management and security. “But it’s not mom-friendly technology,” he goes on, noting that it’s damn near impossible for an ordinary consumer to set up a complete, interoperable system alone.

By comparison, he points out the stereos of several decades ago, which wired together a separate tuner, player, speakers and other parts. Today you can buy an all-in-one boom-box. Martin wants to extend that concept to the home.

Threshold is designing and manufacturing a lengthy list of its own gadgets, including various pieces like wireless cameras, speakers, thermostats, clock radios, remote controls and light-switches. All of them communicate with each other over “One-Net”, the company’s own wireless standard, which it offers as open source to let other devices tie in.

Working with about $2 million in seed funding, it’s so far gotten together a list of over 20 gadgets. Martin, a former general manager at Nokia, told me that his industry contacts are making the process easier by giving good manufacturing deals and support services.. “People that have seen what we do describe it as disruptive,” he said. “When people see something they think could open up a new market for them, they want to help out.”

I wasn’t sure whether the concept was really that disruptive, and asked Martin several times whether it was a good idea for the company to do its own manufacturing. However, he insisted that there’s a large empty spot on the market, caused by companies that make no effort to make their devices interoperable or convenient. Trying to work with a Sony or Toshiba, he says, would only eat up years of time, due to the snail pace of change in most large corporations.

Threshold will start out selling packages, for things like home security and automation, the latter of which could help lower energy bills and consumption of electricity and water down.

The company will be looking for about a $5 million investment this summer. By that time, Martin says, it will have taken about $2.5 million in seed funding, and begun manufacturing its products.

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