Tilt My Blinds Lets You Retrofit Your Existing Blinds To Make Them Smarter

Tilt My Blinds, which is currently on track to be successfully crowd funded on Kickstarter, offers a clever way to get in on the home automation action by letting you control your blinds’ ’tilt’ mechanism via a smartphone app, dedicated wall switch, or its own built-in light sensor. No longer will you need to get up, walk across the room and awkwardly reach for the cord to let in light in the morning or to shutter the blinds for privacy or to watch a movie. Instead, the process can be automated or controlled from the convenience of your smartphone. There’s an obvious accessibility advantage, too.

Of course, automated blinds have been the stuff of home automation systems for years, but, like many of the newer breed of smart home products currently hitting the market, Tilt My Blinds prides itself on taking a small pieces, loosely joined approach, in the sense that its gizmo is designed to be retrofitted — in 15 minutes or less — to your existing venetian blinds, not part of some expensive monolithic home automation system. Whether or not another disparate smart home product is a good thing will likely depend on how far down the line you are in your own smart home setup or how deep your pockets are.

The Tilt claims to work with the most popular type of blinds in the world, those with a 2 inch slatted blind, and is designed to be fitted inside of your existing blind tray, so in theory the mechanism (i.e. motor) is nicely hidden. Power-wise, the device comes in two versions: One that uses a chargeable lithium battery, and another that operates off a solar panel, which is a very nice option. The thought of having to charge yet another device, fills me with dread.

To control the tilt mechanism, you can use the bluetooth enabled iOS or Android app, including setting various schedules. Otherwise, wireless wall switches are also being offered. But, perhaps cleverest of all, the blinds have a light sensor so you can, optionally, automate the opening and closing based on external light.

If the Tilt My Blinds takes your fancy, there are a few early bird offers still open, starting from $60, including U.S. shipping. For more details check out the full KS campaign.