HomeHeartbeat™ is a first-of-its-kind home-awareness product from Eaton Electrical that resulted from a joint collaboration with MAYA and Ember (co-developer of the ZigBee wireless standard).

User Study

MAYA did extensive in-home research to understand what homeowners, renters, and landlords cared (or worried) about most. We gave potential users kits that allowed them to imagine that they could create any type of sensor, use a Post-it® note to represent and position it in their desired location, and then document it with a photograph. Examples of the kinds of awareness that people desired included:

  • Wet/Dry: Is the basement flooded? Is a sink leaking? Has the dog run out of water?
  • Open/Closed: Is a door, window, or cabinet open?
  • Power: Did I forget to turn off the iron? Is the security light on?
  • Attention: I need a panic button (“Help!”) or an alert (“I’m home from school.”)

Prototyping

Once these “sensors” were in place and we knew about them, we used Wizard-of-Oz prototyping to simulate an experience with the system by giving each participant a Web-enabled wristwatch that received messages from the “sensors.”

Product Design and Development

After our research validated the concept, MAYA’s work encompassed the entire product development and user experience: prototyping, industrial design, engineering embedded applications, user interface design, instructional guides, retail packaging, a Web portal for managing communication setting remotely (and for purchasing additional sensors), and the integration of wireless technologies into the “Home Key”—a pocketable, key-fob-sized interface that can configure and get alerts from any sensor in the system.

Results

Users can set up Home Heartbeat, in three easy steps:

  • Put a sensor in a desired location and make sure it can “see” the network.
  • Set alert preferences for the sensor by using the included “Home Key.”
  • Use the Home Key or a cell phone to view alerts.

Home Heartbeat can also automatically elevate the system’s awareness when it detects the absence of the user.

When Eaton unveiled Home Heartbeat, it won a coveted Innovation Award at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, and Popular Mechanics magazine selected it as an Editor’s Choice.