Innovation Companies & The Internet of Things

Smart devices are constantly growing to improve our way of life. MAKO Design + Invent is all about contributing to the growth of innovation companies that aim for such progression.

Through our clients, we are often introduced to inventions that involve the interconnectivity of various devices. The term “Internet of Things”, or IoT for short, refers to the coming era of products and devices that display this interconnected trend.

Gartner, a technology research company, has already predicted that there will be approximately 26 billion such devices by the year 2020, a 30-fold increase, worth $1.9 trillion in value.

The benefits of these devices are apparent in their real-time feedback to users via sensors, as well as their ability to be controlled from any location remotely. As technology to control these devices has become smaller and cheaper, innovation companies are rapidly developing them to make our lives easier.

There are many innovation companies in Texas that are at the forefront of such product development.

3 Innovation Companies Developing Smart Devices in Texas

One of the innovation companies developing for the IoT is Prodea. Using a technology known as ROS (Residential Operating System), they provide a service delivery platform that is agnostic or can work with various systems without requiring any special adaptations.

The system provides an all-in-one solution for users to control IoT devices in their homes or other locations. The OS can monitor things such as “entertainment, education, health and wellness, social TV, home security, automation, interactive advertising, and enhanced voice.”

Another innovative company in the IoT space is Vital Herd. Not content with only connecting devices to the Internet, they monitor livestock using a bio-acoustic inter-rumen sensor or e-pill. The cow swallows the device, and it lasts for life. Each cow is monitored remotely to detect breathing rate, heart rate, rumination rate, and temperature.

These vital statistics can detect conditions such as early illness, real-time heat stress, estrus timing, calving readiness, and rumen (digestive) health. The benefits are obvious, as, on average, 40% of each herd of cows gets sick throughout the year and is also subject to a variety of other health and dietary problems. This costs the industry over $2 billion per year by some estimates.

Our friends at Supermechanical, an innovation company located in Austin, TX, have developed a device known as Twine. Powered by AAA batteries, the device can be customized with various sensors to detect things such as temperature, vibration, orientation, floods, leaks, opened doors, and signals from your other home systems.

MAKO Design + Invent loves seeing and contributing to innovation in product development as it continues to evolve. In the future, we foresee a world where even common objects are “smart devices”.

About: MAKO Design + Invent is the original firm providing world-class consumer product development services tailored to startups, small manufacturers, and inventors. Simply put, we are the leading one-stop-shop for developing your physical product from idea to store shelves, all in a high-quality, cost-effective, and timely manner. We operate as one powerhouse 30-person product design team spread across 4 offices to serve you (Austin, Miami, San Francisco, & Toronto). We have full-stack in-house industrial design, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, patent referral, prototyping, and manufacturing services. To assist our startup and inventor clients, in addition to above, we help with business strategy, product strategy, marketing, and sales/distribution for all consumer product categories. Also, our founder Kevin Mako hosts The Product Startup Podcast, the industry's leading hardware podcast. Check it out for tips, interviews, and best practices for hardware startups, inventors, and product developers. Click HERE to learn more about MAKO Design + Invent!