Sometimes the key to creativity is a fresh perspective. That seems to have been General Electric’s motivation when it opened its patent vault to the crowdsourcing company Quirky in April. On Monday, the fruits of that partnership were apparent as the first four products under the joint Wink brand were unveiled.
The usual image of patents is a lock box of secrets that companies never want to loosen their iron grip on. However, though patents can be abused, their actual function is to encourage innovation. With this in mind, GE made thousands of its patents available to Quirky, a design shop specializing in creating consumer products through crowdsourcing.
The aim of the partnership is to produce a co-branded line called Wink: Instantly Connected, by combining Quirky’s crowdsourcing flexibility and creativity with GE’s marketing, manufacturing, and commercial expertise.
“We admire Quirky’s speed, collaboration and inventiveness and by opening up lab-proven technology and patents to everyday inventors we can help inspire new ideas and accelerate advanced manufacturing innovation,” says Beth Comstock, GE’s chief marketing officer.
The first Wink products concentrate on connecting consumer goods in what GE calls the “Industrial internet.” According to Kaufman, “Our future will be driven by access to things via our smartphones there is a ton of invention to be done in this area and no one owns this category.”
The Egg Minder is an oddity in our multifunction digital age. It does one thing, and that’s to mind your eggs. Invented by Rafael I Hwang, it has enough room to hold 14 eggs, and tracks their freshness in the fridge by monitoring when an egg is added or removed and thus how long it's been kept.
From the mind of Jake Zien, Pivot Power Genius is a bendy power strip that twists and bends to accommodate bulky adapters. It uses an app to independently control each outlet from a mobile device, allowing users to switch on or off two outlets either manually or by means of a timer.
The fourth Wink product was invented by Denny Fong and is called the Spotter. It’s a sensor pack that measures temperature, humidity, vibration, light or sound. Powered by two AA batteries, it can be programmed to send scheduled updates on the status of whatever room you've left it in, to your mobile device.
Source: Gizmag
