Manything, an Oxford, UK company, has a unique vision. The Manything team was kind enough to share their vision of home security/monitoring. It is really quite ingenious. While they do not have a booth at CES, the team will be in attendance. Should you like to meet the team, or if you have any questions, here is Manything’s contact page.
TechFaster: What does your company do, and how do you do it?
Manything: Manything (Monitor Anything) is a new app that turns your spare iOS device into a smart cloud-based WiFi camera. It’s the ideal way to stay connected with your home, kids and pets when you can’t be there.
Download the free Manything app to your iPhone, iPod or iPad and press record. You can check in on your live streams wherever you are, either online or on the app. Manything also stores your last 30 days of recording and detects sound and motion so you can easily review, edit and share the best bits.
Why do you do it? What problem are you taking on?
Manything: Home security camera systems are expensive, clunky and hard to use! We developed Manything for people who want to monitor things but don’t want the hassle and expense of setting up special equipment. Manything uses the camera you already own and takes just seconds to install. The result is an instant video monitoring solution packed with features and fail-safes far beyond your average home security system; motion and sound detection, battery backup if power fails, cellular streaming if WiFi fails, automatic switching to stills mode if bandwidth deteriorates, clip editing, and more.
Tell us your founding story. What was the “ah ha” moment?
Manything: When Manything CEO, James West, had his bike stolen he was frustrated that there was no simple way to monitor his garage. So he ordered a home security system that to this date he still hasn’t got working!
Around the same time James and his uncle, Mike Fischer (Manything Co-Founder) were throwing around ideas of how cameras on smartphones could be used for their other business, stock photo agency Alamy.
The ah-ha moment came when they realized how many retired smartphones are on people’s desks or left in drawers. These devices are packed with computing power and features that are out of reach of most video camera systems (battery backup, multiple radios, GPS, accelerometers, etc.).
This, combined with the growth in DIY home security, meant deploying these smartphones as affordable, high-spec, video monitoring devices presented an exciting new opportunity in home security.
Tell us a little bit about the founders
Manything: Manything brings together a team of entrepreneurs and self confessed geeks with a history of spotting future technology trends:
- Manything CEO James West also created the world’s first, and now largest, crowdsourced collection of images, Alamy.
- Mike Fischer was Co-founder of RM plc that brought computing to schools
- Tim Pearson, former CEO of RM, is current chairman of Updata Infrastructure and alumni of HBS.
You can meet the Manything team here https://manything.com/meet-
What’s the next step? What do your current goals look like?
Manything: Our immediate goal is to make Manything the most awesome home WiFi monitoring app. We’ve been listening to our users and are busy developing lots of new features including the best motion detection alerting you’ll find!
Anything else you want to leave us with?
Manything: As we can see at CES 2014, smart home devices are having their moment! With Manything our users are able to stay connected with their homes when they’re away; watch the children and check in on the pets. We even have one user using Manything to build a criminal case against intruders!
We would like to thank the Manything team for answering our questions. Be sure to download their free iOS App.
