Ambient Devices

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ambient Devices, Inc. is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA that designs and markets various ambient devices for display of information ranging from weather to traffic reports to stock quotes. The company was founded by David L. Rose, Ben Resner, and Pritesh Gandhi, and is a spin-off from the MIT Media Lab^[1]. The company also maintains the Ambient Information Network, a datacasting network presently hosted by U.S.A. Mobility, a U.S. paging service. The service is similar to Microsoft's SPOT service.

Ambient's devices focus on information of interest to the local (or larger) area, such as weather and stock indices, and with a paid subscription Ambient will provide a particular device with more personalized information.

Contents 1 Products 2 External links 3 Notes 4 References

[edit] Products

• Ambient Orb - Mar, 2002^[2]
• Ambient Weather Beacon - 2003
• Ambient Weather Forecaster - 2004
• Ambient Dashboard - 2004
• Ambient Wireless Datacasting Kit - Mar, 2005^[3]
• Ambient 5-Day Weather Forecaster launched at Brookstone [1]
• Ambient Google Clock - (in development)^[4]
• Ambient Umbrella - 2007 ^[5]

[edit] External links

• Official home page
• Device configuration, coverage areas, etc.

[edit] Notes

• Coopeland, Michael. How to ride the Fifth Wave, Business 2.0, 2005-07-01.
• Massachusetts Corporations Database listing
• Rubin, Ross. Switched On: Sweet dash eats cash, meets crash, Engadget, 2005-04-20, accessed 2007-03-16.
• Rubin, Ross. Switched On: The Ambient Dashboard moves the needles, Engadget, 2005-04-13, accessed 2007-03-16.
• Farivar, Cirus. Ambient Clock combines Google Calendar and analog timekeeping, Engadget, 2006-10-23, accessed 2007-03-16.
• Koprowski, Gene. Wireless without worries?, Forbes, 2004-07-30.

[edit] References

1. ^ MIT Media Lab Spin-Offs, MIT Media Lab , Retrieved May 1, 2007.
2. ^ Kirsner, Scott. Peripherals, Lite-brite style, Wired 02-2002
3. ^ Press Release: Ambient Launches Wireless Datacasting Kit
4. ^ Ambient Clock combines Google Calendar and analog timekeeping, Engadget, 2006-10-23.
5. ^ Rubin, Josh. Forecasting Umbrella, Cool Hunting 2006-01-10, accessed 2007-05-01.