The smart socket Aucasi brings three advantages to the table, they explained to passersby in their promotion stand on the 18 Septemberplein this Sunday. By automating the behavior of appliances throughout your home, security is increased, energy usage is limited and user comfort is heightened.

The socket houses different sensors, among which a movement sensor and wifi-antenna. Through these Aucasi can not only manage the behavior of the circuit it is connected to, but also can switch your TV on and off from a distance. The specific rules of your smart system can be edited through an app, but works autonomously, without a base station of some kind. This makes the system fully modular. “With only just a single Aucasi socket you can turn multiple appliances into a smart system”, as Tim Beckers, inventor and master student Electrical Engineering, explaines.

Beckers got the idea for the socket a few years ago, when he wanted to watch a movie at home and first had to manually turn down every individual light source. There has to be an easier way, he thought. January 2016 he started working on a functional prototype, after which Duco van den Akker, one of his former entrepreneurial teammates, was involved.

From the summer onwards a full four-person team worked hard to bring the project to fruition. Van den Akker adds that stress and handling crises are part of this process: “This night we were up until 2 AM fixing one of the sensors of our prototype, to be able to present here today.” The topics covered during their studies have been of great use during the project.

Besides Beckers and Van den Akker, Nguyen Quoc Khanh (Software Science student) and Thijn Kolk (Industrial Design student) are part of the team. Each of them adds his own expertise. According to the team, technical skills are not enough to make a project like this into a success. Since developing the prototype, they have put more effort into marketing, strategy and networking than in the product itself.

“I think we’ve sent more than 700 to all kinds of news outlets”, Beckers confirms. “700? More like a thousand”, Van den Akker responds like it’s a daily affair. To take the next step in the process and start production, they have launched a Kickstarter-campaign just this weekend. The team is trying to obtain an initial investment of about 165.000 euro. With this investment, Beckers expects to bring the Aucasi to the market in May 2017. “We start with a first batch of 3.500 units for a price of 49 euro a piece. But, we only offer this price to our Kickstarter-backers. After the first batch, the Aucasi socket will be priced at 69 euro.

Aucasi’s Kickstarter-campagne runs until the 24^th of October and has more than 100 backers at the moment of writing.