Ugo, the remote control for a smart home solution developed by French startup Otodo, has been nominated for a CES 2018 Best of Innovation award.
Otodo was launched in June 2016 by a former CEO of French telecommunications company SFR, with the mission of “democratizing the smart home.” It accomplishes this by employing a universal hub that the company describes as “compatible with all types of digital languages”—allowing a wide range of connected objects, from the latest technology to old-school remote-control thermostats, to talk to one another.
The hub, which can be controlled via smartphone app, is equipped with quad-band capabilities (433 MHz, 868 MHz, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi) and is directly connected to an automatically-updated, cloud-based library.
The hub can also be controlled with Ugo, which is where the real innovation shines. The soft, pebble-shaped device employs geolocalization technology within the home to execute different commands, depending on what you tap it on. A fingerprint recognition system also allows Ugo to recognize up to 16 different users, and encryption technology keeps it secure.
Ugo itself was developed by French remote-control specialist 4MOD Technology.
