Home-control wearable technology coming soon

Someday soon, turning on the lights in your house may involvea simple wrist-and-hand gesture as you walk in the door.

Another gesture would fire up the HDTV and Xbox One while dimming the den lights to play "Call of Duty." And, when you're all set to turn in, yet another gesture would switch off all your home's lights and lock all the doors.

A high-tech wristband called the Reemo, being developed by a Twin Cities startup called Playtabase, would make all of this possible.

The company is one of the newest players in a market often described as the "Internet of Things" -- a wave of innovation intended to make home automation less nerdy and more accessible.

The Internet of Things is new, but already huge.

A prominent local home-automation company called SmartThings recently got snapped up by Samsung after becoming a home-control trendsetter. Google bought out high-tech thermostat and smoke-detector maker Nest, which itself acquired the Dropcam webcam maker not long ago.

All home-electronics and home-improvement retailers now have "smart home" products on prominent display. Richfield-based Best Buy, for instance, recently made a deal with home-control company PEQ to carry that vendor's hardware, and is including it in "connected home" departments it will set up in more than 400 stores by the holidays.

Playtabase, with its home-control wristband, aims to complement and not replace other Internet of Things technologies being installed in homes. The Reemo wristband would add gesture-control capability to make those other products easier to use.

Minneapolis-based Playtabase is initially aiming to make its product compatible with home-automation and home-security technology from Redwood City, Calif.-basedIcontrol Networks.

This gives Playtabase a wide reach at the outset because Icontrol's technology is the foundation for home-tech systems from a broad range of well-known providers -- including Comcast and ADT Security Services, as well as small ones such as PEQ.

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Home-control wearable technology coming soon