Lumos Smart Hub ISTE 2014
We saw a ton of great stuff at ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) 2014 Conference. That said, one of our most favorite products was the Lumos SmartHub. In a nutshell, the Lumos SmartHub is an in-classroom device that works as the centralized hub for all the various classroom technologies. Essentially, then, the Lumos provides educators a simple way to access any and all technology, without the hassle of finding the right remote, or switching to the right input.
The argument goes like this: teachers and educators have access to an unprecedented amount of technology, however, due to the newness of all these various products, they have little experience with them. Further, this lack of experience with these new products, teachers often have a hard time with getting them all to work in concert with one another. Therefore, Lumos set out to build an easy way to allow teachers to quickly and efficiently use all of these new products:
Our schools are trying to keep up with technology like media projectors, interactive whiteboards, modern Wi-Fi, and classroom audio systems. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out we throw in iPads, Android tablets, and Chromebooks into the mix. At first, it’s incredibly exciting, but that excitement soon wears off when you try to use all of these independent technologies together on a daily basis. Our team at LUMOS has spent years working with technology in education and know firsthand that if you’re not battling Wi-Fi, you’re dealing with dead batteries in your microphone, lost remote controls, or trying to figure out which input you need or wire to plug in to display what you want. Often times it seems like half the class is spent fiddling with the technology that is supposed to make your teaching more dynamic and impactful. These frustrations led to the development of the SmartHub.1
While the main function of the Lumos SmartHub is to drastically simply the modern smart classroom, there is so much more to the device. The Lumos also acts as a Wi-Fi hot-spot and has a built in PA system, allowing the teacher to wear a wireless microphone to boost their reach through the speakers. And what’s even more, the Lumos runs on an Android operating system:
I know you’re thinking “now that’s all great and dandy…. but you said this thing was smart”. To control all of this wizardry we put in an Android operating system and built custom software allowing you to wirelessly mirror or extend you screen from any mobile device to the projector. We figured it’s 2014, you should be able to share your screen without having to plug in a cable! 2
On top of all that, the Lumos is powered through a simple, easy to use app. Lumos is currently running an Indiegogo campaign to bring their device to schools across the U.S. Here is a good look at the Lumos SmartHub in action:
