Want to monitor things and environments remotely without a nerd degree? Maybe you want to get a tweet when your laundry's done, an email when the basement floods, or a text message when you left the garage door open.

Twine is the simplest way to get the objects in your life texting, tweeting or emailing. Focus on your idea instead of installation or technical stuff. A durable 2.7" square provides WiFi, internal and external sensors, and two AAA batteries that last for months. A simple web app lets you give Twine human-friendly rules — no programming needed.

How it works

Twine is a wireless sensor block tightly integrated with a cloud-based service. The durable, rubbery block has WiFi, on-board temperature and orientation sensors, and an expansion connector for other sensors. Power is supplied by micro USB or two AAA batteries (and Twine will email you when you need to change the batteries).

The Twine web app makes it simple to set up and monitor your Twines from a browser anywhere. You set rules to trigger messages — no programming needed. The rules are put together with a palette of available conditions and actions, and read like English: WHEN moisture sensor gets wet THEN text "The basement is flooding!" We'll get you started with a bunch of rule sets, and you can share rules you create with other Twine owners.

Because the hardware and software are made for each other, setup is easy. There's nothing to install — just point Twine to your WiFi network. Sensors are immediately recognized by the web app when you plug them in, and it reflects what the sensors see in real time, which makes understanding and testing your rules easy.

What is Twine?

Sensors: Listen to your world

Right out of the box, Twine has an internal temperature sensor and accelerometer for orientation detection. Additional external sensors plug into the multipurpose jack, and pop up on the web app ready for you to add to your rules.

Temperature (included)

Measure the temperature. Are your pipes freezing? Is your air conditioning broken? Is it nice up by the lake today?

Orientation (included)

Sense which side of Twine is facing up. Trigger actions by flipping Twine over, or detect when the oven or a chest is opened.

Magnetic switch

Triggered when a magnet is moved toward or away from it, so put that magnet on a door. Get notified when the mailbox is opened, or your teenager sneaks in the back door at night.

Moisture sensor

Detect the presence of water. Know when your basement floods, when it rained, or the last time you watered your garden.

Breakout board

Plug in your own analog or digital input without soldering. Terminals for signal, 3.3V power and ground are provided.

You can buy Twine with the internal sensors only, or any sensor. Get the full sensor package if you want all three external sensors.

Output: Talk to the Internet

You can tell Twine to speak in a variety of ways.

• Pebble smartwatch

• Twitter

• Email

• Text messaging — available for most carriers

• Configurable HTTP Request