If you can talk to your thermostat to set your temperature, or control your washing machine from your driveway, why are you still walking over to your window to draw the blinds? The Axis Gear is here to help you address that modern-day inconvenience by converting your existing window shades into smart shades in a matter of minutes. Intended to easily motorize just about any set of blinds, the Gear can be controlled using your smartphone, or can be preset to lower and raise the blinds at predetermined times. And thanks to its integrations with other smart home systems and devices, you can bring your windows into the smart home fold.
“Today’s motorization solutions can be incredibly expensive and are not designed for retrofit applications,” said Trung Pham, CEO and founder of Axis in a statement. “Our goal is to simplify our customers’ lives by offering an innovative and affordable motorization solution designed specifically for existing manual shades, which represent a vastly larger market opportunity than new motorized shade purchases.”
So how does the Gear work? The solar-powered, wireless device is capable of motorizing window shades by controlling the beaded chain or cord loop that you’d otherwise pull to bring blinds up or down. And given the ubiquity of these pulley mechanisms, the Gear is compatible with a variety of shades, from roller shades to vertical blinds to roman shades and more. And thanks to the companion mobile app, users can control individual Gears or set them up in groups, thereby bringing light to an entire room (or plunging it into darkness) with the tap of a smartphone.
The Gear is equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy capabilities, and also boasts ZigBee or Z-Wave connectivity.
“Current motorization solutions are all based on tubular motor technology, which has remained largely unchanged for decades.” says Alan Cheng, chief design officer at Axis. “Gear represents a radical new approach to shade motorization – it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.”
You can pre-order the Axis Gear now from www.helloaxis.com for the early bird price of $180. When this deal runs out, you’ll have to get the smart product at its retail price for $40 more.
