Ever dreamt of a facility enabling you to operate your home appliances without even getting out of that couch? ‘HoRo’, a start-up by Sunil Sheth, an engineering student at K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering, Mumbai, has been developing low-cost home automation devices since 2015. This system enables a user to create a wireless connection with almost every device that fuels on electricity.
The modular system which consists of three devices, Hub, Nod and App, facilitates a user to operate his electronic devices such as fans, lights, geysers, etc, over a mobile phone. Apart from assisting the lazy, it has proved to be a boon for the people with disabilities. Some of the Digi giants have shown a keen interest in this technology, but not much of their products fall in an affordable segment. The system which is generally priced in the range of Rs 60,000 to Rs 1,50,000 per unit by most of the providers is being sold by HoRo for Rs 7,000 per unit.
“Home Automation systems have been in use mostly by the elite community. The price at which we are providing the systems will also allow middle class families to enjoy its benefits. It only takes around 20 mins for the system to be installed. We have tied up with local electricians and construction companies in Vasai to provide this service to its customers,” says Sunil, who founded HoRo with the assistance of RiiDl, the incubation lab of KJSCoE. The HoRo team works in the RiiDl lab of KJSCoE, where they also use technical assistance from other engineering students.
Sumit Phogat, who bought the system from a local vendor in Vasai, says, “I bought this device for my grandfather who was diagnosed with arthritis hence a couple of months ago. This device assists him in operating home appliances without much efforts.”
Karthik Krishnan, another happy customer of HoRo, says, “The best part of the system is, it gives me the ease of operating my home appliances even when am away from home. For example, I can switch on the air conditioning minutes before I return home from my office.”
HoRo claims to be the only company in India to provide the automation system at such a low price point.