As described earlier a bit my idea is to have a small module you connect to your existing blinds. The module connects to your wifi and can take for example parse your alarm clock on your mobile.
I met up with an old friend who’s studying in Linköping to get some feedback on my idea. He has released several apps on the Play Store that have given him a fair income in parallell with his studies. I haven’t had any contact with him for pretty long but when I heard about his interest in apps I thought this would be a great opportunity to hang out. The most useful feedback from him was that I should sketch the logic and start coding right away, according to his experience the code gets much better if you code in intervals and let the code lie on the shelf for a while to ripe (and your brain to come up with better solutions). This seems reasonabe, have had similar experiences in other tasks ( engine problems, electrical system faults etc.) so I will bear this in mind.
I have loosely thought about this idea for maybe a year, and brought it up sometimes. My girlfriend told me she had spoken about it to her girlfriends and they said that they would gladly buy it if it was available. So I met with two of her friends, two students at Karolinska Institutet. Their feedback consisted mostly of expected features and ease of use. They pressed the issue with people that don’t like complicated installations and configurations. The idea is that the screw holes and dimensions should be the same, you should be able to install the module by using the existing screws and holes and then just plugging in the 12V-adapter. I have since my meeting with them thought a bit more about configuration, how to make it as easy as possible? I have looked a lot at how Google have made the configuration for their popular Chromecast, where you have an app that guides you through every step.
I also got feedback from a friend working at Ericssons R&D department. The most valuable feedback I got from him was something I have earlier thought of but avoided! All the regulations when developing and selling an electrical product. You have to meet ROHS and CE requirements, affiliate with different envinronment and recycling organizations ( EE-registry, EL-kretsen, REPA). That is a lot of research needed if someone plan on doing a venture all by himself! Quite overwhelming..