Kickstarter launches for Thingsee One

Haltian seeks to raise $99,000 through crowdfunding to commence large scale manufacturing in 2015

Haltian, the makers of Thingsee One, an open source developer device for Internet of Things (IoT) application and solution development has today launched a Kickstarter fundraising campaign enable large scale manufacturing. Developed at Haltian, a Finnish start-up founded by ex Nokia employees, Thingsee One offers users, ranging from corporate developers to do-it-yourself enthusiasts, the hardware platform to bring their IoT ideas to life.

Thingsee One has extensive connectivity, with GPRS, WLAN, Bluetooth and Micro USB 2.0 built in, and is equipped with a variety of sensors, including a gyroscope, an accelerometer, humidity and temperature sensors. If more flexibility is required, additional sensors not included in the standard product can be connected wirelessly via Bluetooth, or GPIO (general purpose input/output) pins on the printed circuit board.

With cellular connectivity and long battery life, the robust, shock and water resistant device can be used in remote locations with no power source. Optimised power consumption, means the battery can last up to a year.

“All software requires hardware, but creating the latter is difficult and expensive,” says Ville Ylläsjärvi, Co-Founder at Haltian. “Thingsee One will save time and money by offering reasonably priced hardware to developers and enthusiasts that facilitates any number of Internet of Things use cases, which is something that hasn’t existed before. Thingsee One is what the Internet of Things is all about; turning any IoT idea into reality, quickly.”

The Kickstarter campaign is running to help prepare for market introduction and to collect funds for large-scale manufacturing of the device. The campaign will run for 30 days, aiming to raise $99,000 for the final development of the device as well as collecting market feedback.

Thingsee One is in the wild!

Next step: revolutionising the way innovations emerge

Having started life as a shipment tracking project, the potential for Thingsee to change more industries with a brand new approach to the IoT product development was apparent to Haltian. “We have already manufactured several versions of the hardware,” Ylläsjärvi explains, “and are currently finishing the software stack and mobile applications. Now we want to get Thingsee One through the certification process and start large-scale manufacturing. We believe Thingsee One can truly change the way new IoT ideas become reality and deeply affect how we communicate with the world around us.”

The same device can be used for development and business, to test the concept and to deliver the concept to the market. This means that less time, expertise and money is needed to create a new business because the proof of concept can be achieved quickly, so that investors can base their decisions on real world implementations, rather than theoretical computer models.

“There are a virtually unlimited number of ways to use Thingsee One,” Ylläsjärvi continues. “A start-up entrepreneur or new business developer without the resources to develop their own hardware gets an all-round device for software development, while corporate developers will benefit from the open source device software. Do-it-yourself tech enthusiasts can use the test environment, mobile and web apps to simply try out new things.”

For the simplest use cases, the device can be used just by opening up the package and configuring the sensors for a given use case. For example, you can start tracking, setting speed-limit notifications and using information from all of the sensors through the mobile application.

Thingsee One also enables users to build their own server, using the software development kit or their favourite languages and frameworks. Developers can build any kind of sensor-based service on top of Thingsee One.

After the Kickstarter campaign, Haltian’s next goal is to get type approval and start large-scale manufacturing of the hardware. In March 2015 Haltian plans to get final type approval for the hardware.

Thingsee One in a developer’s workshop

About Haltian Ltd
Haltian Ltd is a visionary engineering house with world-class talent in high technology electronics design and productisation. We can design and develop any kind of connected device, and our expertise ranges from miniaturised mechanics combined with sensors and radio technology to high quality software, all incorporated in a beautiful user experience. With a current headcount of 70 talented professionals we are the fastest growing company in Northern Finland. Find more at www.haltian.com