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OVAL is a new kind of smart sensor system that helps protect the people, places and things you care about by increasing home awareness and empowering you to react quickly to potential issues around your home. Below is our recent interview with Mike Harry, CEO at OVAL Digital:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to OVAL?
A: OVAL sensors are all-in-one, and can monitor and detect changes in motion, temperature, humidity, light and water – quickly sending alerts to your phone or email. Additional notifications can be sent to family, friends, neighbors and co-workers when you’re unavailable.
Small, wireless and completely customizable, OVAL can turn any ordinary object or area into a smart one – helping you to create a smart home that actually works FOR you.
With OVAL, improve the comfort and safety of loved ones, prevent and reduce damage to your home and property, and enjoy overall peace of mind.
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Q: How would you convince the reader to start using OVAL?
A: Unlike many other smart home products, OVAL includes 5 powerful sensing capabilities, eliminating the need to purchase and manage multiple products and apps. OVAL requires no home integration or installation, making it an ideal choice for those who are new to smart home technology or for some, like renters, who may not have the permission or desire to install a complex smart product. You can be up and running in minutes.
OVAL sensors are also unique as they can attach to any object or area around the home and changed quickly and frequently. Heading out of town? Place an OVAL sensor on your door and receive a notification whenever it detects motion. Kids at home? Place an OVAL sensor in a liquor cabinet or near potentially dangerous or sensitive items. Worried about that basement window leaking? Set an OVAL by the window to detect water and save the constant trips downstairs. Worried that you left the stove on? Check the current status of the sensor in your kitchen to make sure the temperature is within a normal range.
The possibilities are endless because OVAL is a flexible sensor system that works how you want it to, where you want it to, and when you want it to.
Q: What can be monitored with OVAL?
A: OVAL sensors can monitor and detect changes in motion, light, temperature, humidity and water. Multiple sensing features can be used at once and each sensor is completely customizable. If you want to know when the bedroom temperature falls within 68°F – 72°F, OVAL will let you know.
OVAL sensors can be placed in or on almost any object around your home, making it smarter, instantly. No two homes, or people, are alike, and OVAL was designed with that in mind. Connected dozens of sensors to one OVAL system for complete home awareness in the ways that matter to you.
Q: Can you provide some real word use-cases that we can expect to see?
A: We have three real-life customer use cases that illustrate how useful OVAL can be.
A customer had purchased an OVAL system for his elderly fathers’ home, so our customer could better monitor the environment. One day, OVAL was identified an unexpected drop in temperature and alerted our customer immediately. The elderly father had bumped into or accidentally turned the thermostat down to a dangerous level and, with the medication he was on, became unresponsive. Our customer, not being able to reach his father on the phone, went to his house and was able to resolve the situation. Our customer shared this story with us, and gave us permission to retell it to others, as without OVAL the situation would have likely become more dire or even fatal.
Another customer has a rebellious teenage daughter who likes to sneak out of the house and get into trouble. She connected an OVAL system to the teens window, front door of the home, and other escape routes. Being that OVAL motion detection alerts our users whenever the sensor is touched, any attempts to disable the sensor will result in an alarm. With the combination of adding light sensing in addition to motion, the poor teen was unable to join her friends on the midnight joyrides she had grown so fond of.
The third customer lives in an apartment complex and travels regularly. He wrote to share a story where he had an OVAL sensor in his bathroom to identify high humidity levels and know if there were any water leaks. While traveling, he received a water alert from his OVAL sensor. Because he had also added his neighbor as a contact while he was out of town, they both received the notification. The neighbor was able to enter the apartment and while our customers bathroom was not leaking water directly, the apartment above him was. OVAL helped to identify this issue and send a quick alert, which allowed the building super to address the problem before multiple units may have been damaged.
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Q: What is on the roadmap for OVAL moving forward?
A: We have exciting developments in progress for OVAL.
In early 2017, OVAL 1.0 was launched in 32 countries with hundreds of customers. After a year of learning about how our customers were incorporating OVAL into their everyday lives and watching the latest developments in hardware, firmware and software, we made the decision to phase out our OVAL 1.0 line and start production on a new, and much improved, OVAL 2.0.
OVAL 2.0 has a whole new look and user experience. Some of the notable features include a wireless gateway, allowing you to place them in areas more convenient to you, and add multiple gateways to one location to further extend range between the gateway and sensors (approx. 150ft.) This allows for sensors to reach areas that previously may have been out of range such as garages, attics and basements.
The sensors battery life is increasing from 2 months to over 6 months. The response time and reliability of the sensors are greatly improved, due to a brand new firmware system that we are implementing.
Now, customers will be able to control multiple OVAL systems through one account. Put one at home, in the office, a loved one’s location, vacation home, or anywhere that matters and have global peace of mind at your fingertips.
On the software side, we are debuting a brand new look and user experience. From in-app analytics and reporting, to more fluid controls, OVAL will offer more customization and understanding of the data being collected to help you identify trends and change behaviors that can help you improve safety, conserve energy and save money/
OVAL 2.0 will also be compatible with other smart devices, including home assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home. Now, for example, you will be able to ask Alexa what the temperature is in the baby’s room and to alert you if it goes above or below a certain range. With IFTTT support, you can connect OVAL to 100s of other devices that currently provide home automation. OVAL is the perfect mobile and versatile sensor that can create many additional use cases.
We will be relaunching our new brand in early May 2018. We’ll announce OVAL 2.0 through Kickstarter, approximately May 15, and accept pre-orders. Planned ship date is October 2018. We will be offering OVAL 1.0 in some bundles as an immediate product that can be shipped immediately, so that our customers can become familiar with OVAL and have something useful in hand while waiting for the latest version.
OVAL 3.0 is also starting to be mapped out. While a couple years away, this system will further the OVAL line and usefulness to keeping our customers aware, safe and happy.
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