The Ambiclimate is an easy way to make your dumb air conditioner smart
So, you want smart air conditioning. Typically, that means having to change the aircon unit itself, or ripping a hole into your wall to put in a smart thermostat.
The Ambiclimate provides a simpler way to set foot into the world of clever cooling.
The little desktop gadget connects to Wi-Fi, and can cast an infrared beam that'll mimic your existing aircon remote control.
With that, you can log into the Ambiclimate app on your smartphone to tell it if you're feeling cold or hot, and the Ambiclimate will learn your preferences over the course of a week, to automatically adjust the room to what you like.
Since it connects to the internet, it'll also work with other data, like weather information to adjust the temperature accordingly. For instance, on rainy days, where the temperature can drop a couple of degrees, the Ambiclimate will know not to turn the cooling power up as much.
With your smartphone's location data, you can draw geo-location fences around the home, too. That means your aircon can be switched off automatically if you leave the house, or can be turned on when you're nearing home.
Hong Kong-based Ambi Labs, the startup behind the Ambiclimate, says these features work with multiple users too, as the system tries to find a happy medium between what you and your partner typically set.
Ambi Labs isn't the first to offer a product like this. Others, like Munich-based Tado and Israel's Sensibo, offer a similar product that connects to smartphones and tries to replace your aircon remote.
Ambiclimate has an AI backend.
But where the Ambiclimate has an edge is its AI backend, allowing it to learn what you want.
The way Ambi Labs puts it, it isn't about a specific temperature you set -- it's what you find "comfortable." So if you typically get up multiple times in a night to fiddle with temperature settings, hopefully the Ambiclimate's brains will figure out a pattern and do it for you eventually.
The original Ambiclimate came out in 2015 after a successful Kickstarter campaign. The second Ambiclimate, currently on Kickstarter too, has already crossed its crowdfunding goal.
It may not be as sleek as a wall-mounted Nest, but at a fraction of the cost, and with none of the drilling, the Ambiclimate will appeal to a far wider spectrum of users.
Mashable understands that the second device mainly comprises a cosmetic facelift, and is priced more competitively than the first -- which retails at $129 on its website.
Victoria Ho is Mashable's Asia Editor, based in Singapore. She previously reported on news and tech at The Business Times, TechCrunch and ZDNet. When she isn't writing, she's making music with her band
