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The company is peddling a collection of handy home gadgets: a remote-control door lock, an intercom system with a wireless handheld device and a smoke detector of a different sort. The products were unveiled for U.S. sale at the builders' show but are already on the market in Europe.
One of the products unlocks the front door when you press a button on a miniature gizmo similar to the ones used to unlock car doors. It has a range of 50 yards, which means that on a rainy day, you can pop the front door open from your car and scoot in the house, groceries in tow, without delay.
Afterward, the door automatically locks. But as with ordinary locks, you can still use a key or leave the door unlocked by turning the button on the knob.
It's available as a stand-alone device or built into a wireless handheld remote control for a house intercom. With that, you can be upstairs or outside, talk to someone on the front porch and unlock the door. It has a 200-yard range.
Additionally, Amesbury Locca has figured out a way to save people from climbing on a chair or waving a broom to kill the I-can't-stand-it-anymore noise of a smoke detector that has been accidentally triggered by, say, burnt toast.
Simply plug into a wall socket a wireless 3-inch-by-3-inch device with a little mute button that you can use to silence the battery-powered detector. Once the smoke from the toaster clears, the detector automatically resets, according to Amber Grayson, the company's sales and marketing director.
The Amesbury Locca Access remote-control lock sells for about $300. The Connecta, made up of a wireless, handheld intercom device, an intercom box and a remote-control door lock, sells for about $600. The Protecta smoke detector and control system will cost about $90 when it is available in June.
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No question, people love gadgets.
But a gadget for shutters, those simple wooden window coverings that people have used for centuries?
Well, Sunburst Shutters of Las Vegas has introduced a remote control for indoor window shutters.
From anywhere in the house, you can close or open the shutters to adjust light levels via remote control. John Barnes, vice president of marketing, said you can use one channel to simultaneously open or shut the louvers on dozens of shutters, or you can control each window individually. The product went on the market last month.
