MicroBot Push - The wireless robotic finger that makes dumb products smart

I would rename it. My brain read "Microbot" as "Microsoft" the first 10 times I skimmed the word. Anyone else? Very cool idea though.

I'd like to introduce my project, Microbot Push, a wireless robotic finger that makes "dumb" devices smart. It's basically a button pusher, but it could be quite useful for many things. With Microbot Push, I wanted to create a universal building block that could smarten up dumb appliances without throwing them away. Devices are getting smarter with Internet connectivity, but they often cost a lot more and require you to put extra efforts to install, configure and use. Attaching a Microbot on a button enables you to push it from anywhere, anytime with your smartphone. You can even automate it with platforms like IFTTT. It's simple and straightforward. I'm very surprised and excited to find out that people have very unique needs and use cases with Microbots across different cultures and industries. For example, our Japanese supporters will use Microbot Push to heat up their bathtubs before they wake up, whereas our Swedish supporters want to use Microbots to remotely turn on their outdoor car heaters (apparently that’s what they do on cold winter mornings). People here are smart and creative, so I'm looking forward to hearing more ideas and potential use cases. To give a little heads up, I will build more types of Microbots, and all of them are going to share the same philosophy. One that I'm also building right now is for turning knobs (named it Microbot Twist😀). Being able to turn knobs remotely could be very useful, especially when you want to lock/unlock doors automatically. One unit would cost around $50, so it will be a good alternative to smart locks in the market. Let me know if you have some other crazy Microbot ideas!​

This is awesome. I've been looking for ways to make my dumb apartment smarter. Who needs a Nest or Philips Hue when I can just have this push the buttons for me?

IFTTT for your home. Do you need a second button to reverse the push?

Like it and lots of potential. I have two real user cases in my home but problem is that it needs 4 or 5 switches to handle those two devices. Will follow it closely and hope it goes well! Two questions: a) How big is the actual hit area of the button? I.e how small of a button can it hit? b) Is it possible to program it for a sequence such as pressing switch A two times followed by B one time?

(FYI: the jazz music in your video is a bit too loud, it's hard to hear your voice). Exciting! Really like the concept of bringing the IoT to the vast, offline world of appliances.

Are there any plans for this to be integrated into HomeKit?

Finally someone got this done! I image this kind of robotic thing for a long time.

That's an amazing idea! I see so many applications for this! Thanks for creating 😄

This is awesome and also funny! Reminds me of Homer Simpsons typing bird 😄 There are so many ways this could be used with electrical stuff or just mecanical stuff. A question, is there a way for someone to press a button occupied by microbot or do you have to remove it? For instance on the mixer-example it could be hard to get to the button and someone might remove it, or for example I'd like to use it on the elevator button at work, but it's likely it will be removed.