Allison interviews Dhaval Patel, founder and CEO of Lotus, about their Ring device, which allows the wearer to control switches in the home without an app, WiFi, rewiring, or an internet connection. To use the Ring, the wearer points their index finger at the device to be controlled and clicks the button embedded in the Ring.
The Lotus Ring functions like a low-power remote, using IR technology to control lights, fans, and anything a wall switch controls. It requires charging only two times a year, for less than an hour each time.
The Lotus Ring controls the Lotus Switch Cover, which is simply placed over a normal wall switch. The Switch Cover snaps in place with magnets on the back that align it with the wall switch. When the Cover receives the IR signal from the Ring, it mechanically toggles the wall switch to turn the circuit on and off.
The Lotus Kit (Ring and Switch Cover) is so simple to set up and use, you can carry it with you on trips and use it at remote locations like hotels and rental units. It’s perfect for those who want a remote control without fussing with smart devices. It also makes converting a home for better accessibility much easier than installing more complicated smart-home systems.
Learn more at https://getlotus.com/
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Transcript of Interview:
Allison: There are a lot of smart rings out right now, but we’re in the booth of Lotus with Dhaval Patel to talk about a very different device that is a ring. Why don’t you tell us the problem we’re trying to solve here.
Dhaval Patel: Thank you, and very nice to meet everyone. My name is Dhaval Patel. I’m an electrical and aerospace engineer by training, previously managed a division at Apple, and founded Lotus to solve my own pain point because I was born with twisted knees, and I didn’t have a smart home myself, even though I’m an electrical engineer. So, in a nutshell, for people with physical disabilities, we’ve made this wearable ring that controls objects at home by pointing. But unlike traditional smart home technology, there’s no app, no rewiring, and no internet. You just point and click.
Allison: So he’s given me one of these rings as well, and we saw a demo a little bit earlier. The ring has a line on it that has a light that lights up, but it’s also got a button on the side. So that’s an infrared light we’re seeing?
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. So if I push the button, you’ll notice a little red light that comes out, and it’s just like your TV remote. So if you push the button, it’s sending a little infrared signal, and it’s completely offline.
Allison: Now both of us are pointing our fingers away from the lamp that’s in the room, but I’m going to turn and point at the lamp and I’m going to press the button on the side, and now it turned off. So that seems like magic to me because we’ve got no internet, no Bluetooth going on, there’s no app. How is this working?
Dhaval Patel: Well, essentially it’s using the same core technology like your TV remote. We’ve just honed it so it only turns on what you’re pointing to and nothing else. So you’ll notice when we were pointing to the camera, the lamp wasn’t turning on and off when we were pushing the button. Right? So if I push it here, you’ll notice it turns on and off. Now if you come closer, the way it works and the reason you don’t need rewiring, and I’ll let you go ahead, go ahead and pull this off.
Allison: So we’re looking at an outlet here that has a plastic box on it and I’m going to pull on it and it’s magnetically connected and it’s got an IR sensor down at the bottom and if I flip it over, we can see that there are little levers underneath.
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. So what you’re looking at, there are two magnets. This is a regular wall switch because we’re in a booth that’s down here, but usually you would see it in a wall, on your wall. It’s a regular wall switch and the same thing applies to the little toggle switches. The way this device works is it just has magnets. These two shiny silver things are magnets and you’ll notice when what it’s doing is it’s physically pushing your wall switch behind it. And so you don’t need rewiring because you have magnets and then once you snap it on, go ahead, if you turn it back, it’ll just snap on and there’s no rewiring.
Allison: So we’ve done a complete home installation just now by touching it onto there. So the magnets are grabbing hold of the screw heads, right?
Dhaval Patel: That’s right.
Allison: So as long as those screw heads are made of steel, we’re good to go? That’s all you need?
Dhaval Patel: Actually, we found all screws everywhere, all the time are made of metal, so they will always get attached via the magnets.
Allison: Well, I know you’re an electrical engineer, so it does require it to have iron in it for that to work, but that is what they’re made out of. So if I’ve got this ring on, oh, I know you talked earlier about the way this can work across multiple homes and multiple people.
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. In addition to being manually controllable, so if I push this button, you can manually control it as well. But the key you’ll notice is your ring, so go ahead and turn it on and off.
Allison: That’s right.
Dhaval Patel: And my ring can also do the same thing. So if I use mine now, which means there is no programming involved, the nice benefit of this is your ring can continue to work in not only your home, but let’s say if you visit your dad or granddad, your ring will continue to working in his home with his Lotus devices and vice versa. Meaning any device can be controlled by any ring, and any ring can control any device. So it’s like a telephone. The more people who have it, the more beneficial your own device becomes.
Allison: It also occurs to me that you could carry this with you in your hotel room, put it on the wall. Now, what kind of switches does it work with? This is one of the traditional toggle switches. What else does it work with?
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. The idea was to have it not only be super simple to set up, meaning two seconds, but you can also take it with you. For instance, we’re here at CES. If you had a smart home, you couldn’t bring it with you here, but we can bring this. In fact, we’re using it upstairs in our hotel room. And to your other question, we actually use the two most common types of wall switches. You’ll notice this is the same in the front, but in the back, it’s for the smaller toggle switch. And this is just a prototype.
Allison: The old fashioned switches.
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. And so you’ll notice it’s the same exact front. The front is a button, same exact function, it’s just different back. So all you do is the same thing, snap it on, point and click.
Allison: Talk to me about why this is good for accessibility. It seems like this would be good for pretty much everybody.
Dhaval Patel: That’s our mission. Our mission is we build tech that anybody can use. We just optimize for disability first. So speaking of accessibility, the reason it’s really good is A, it’s the social model of disability. You can convert any space into an accessible space and be able to control it in seconds. And I do mean seconds. And in addition, you can take it with you so you can convert any space wherever you go in seconds as well. And so for me, the reason I built this is because I’m on crutches a lot on and off. And I didn’t even have a smart home because it requires rewiring your switches to connect to the Internet, putting speakers everywhere to control the switches you just rewired, and then setting it all up with an app. And then you can’t even take it with you. And so for me, when I’m traveling, it’s a big problem. Even at home, where I live, I didn’t do any of that, even though I’m an electrical engineer. So the goal was to make any space accessible in seconds and make it portable.
Allison: This is fascinating. I really like this product. And I’ve never thought of anything like this. That’s why there are people like you. What’s the cost on these?
Dhaval Patel: We start off with a starter kit. And what you’re looking at here is the initial box. You’ll actually notice, you can open it with one hand, even the box was made intentionally to be accessible. And so a starter kit comes with one ring and three switch covers. So you can at least start off with putting one in every room. And the starter kit is \$349, meaning the same price point as one smart speaker with a display. But you end up with a smart home instead of one smart speaker. But if you’re working with one of our partner organizations, like the federal government, meaning Veterans Affairs for injured soldiers, or state government like the state of New York, or any of a large number of disability organizations like the ALS Association, MS, CP, cerebral palsy, you actually get it for even cheaper, you get it only for $299.
Allison: So what is this device right here?
Dhaval Patel: Ah, great question. Both of the devices that you just saw — the rings and the switch covers — are operated by a small battery. The nice thing is, it’s only taking power for a short burst of time. For just that small burst of time, it needs power. The rest of the time, it’s not using power. So instead of charging it every day, like say an Apple Watch, or your phone, you only need to charge this once in six months, the ring and the switch cover. All you do at that point is once in six months, you can see these two contacts here. And you see the little gold pads on the bottom of the ring. All you do is drop it and it snaps on using magnets and you just need to charge it for 45 minutes. And for the switch covers, they have USB-C on the bottom.
Allison: And then you’ve got a USB-C cable to charge.
Dhaval Patel: That’s right. You can actually share the USB-C cable to charge this device or this device.
Allison: This is fantastic. So where would people go to find this product?
Dhaval Patel: So you can get it on our website at https://getlotus.com. Lotus like the flower. So that’s G-E-T-L-O-T-U-S dot com. Getlotus.com or through any of our partner organizations.
Allison: Very good. Thank you so much, Dhaval. This was really interesting.