There are some 10 billion hardware devices connected to the Internet today. By 2020, this Internet of Things will power over 50 billion connected cars, dog collars, toothbrushes and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
But while it’s now easier than ever for people to use or even create new software, innovative hardware design has remained a distant frontier, accessible only to trained engineers and the most diehard of soldering gun-slinging hobbyists.
As connected devices march toward ubiquity, a small vanguard of technologists, like Joachim Horn, founder of London-based startup SAM Labs, is working to democratize their future. Horn contends that it will take creators with a greater range of diverse perspectives to realize the full potential of the Internet of Things.
His goal is to put the future of the Internet of Things in more people’s hands – literally. SAM Labs’ construction kits consist of wireless building blocks that empower budding inventors, from seven-year-olds to seniors, to create just about anything they can imagine.
“We’re making every piece of tech into a plaything,” said Horn from the SAM Labs offices in London.
“Not only are there no wires, but there are no circuit boards or coding. You turn it on and start creating. We’re leveling the playing field to empower kids, designers, startups or anyone else who wants to build an Internet of Things device and never thought they could.”