"Open sesame" is the magical phrase from the story "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." When uttered, it opens the mouth of a cave filled with treasure.
Locally designed app
Open-Me is not magical but it accomplishes almost the same thing: instead of a cave, the app opens your garage door from a smart phone - and instead of magic, it relies on technology.
Justin Menkveld is the inventor behind the app and is in the middle of a very ambitious Kickstarter campaign to raise the capital in order to develop and commercialize the app on a large scale.
The basic app allows someone to open and close their garage door from anywhere in the world with their cell phone. It can also open the garage door automatically when arriving at home and close it when leaving using GPS technology. Advanced features being designed include a video feature, allowing someone to view the door in real time, and an "alert" that notifies you if your garage door was left open.
Menkveld is currently an application development consultant at
OST. He says he has been working the app for three years and has had a working prototype that he has been using every day for over two years.
He says he began working on it when more and more technologies were being designed for phones that would allow consumers to eliminate "dead weight" from their pockets, vehicles and wallets. "I was riding my motorcycle and thought 'how annoying that I can't open and close my garage door. I could put a garage opener on my bike but anyone could grab it," Mendveld says.
Details of Open-Me's technology, functionality, team, future plans and Menkveld's background are highlighted on his
Kickstarter project page.
Writer: John Rumery, Innovation and Jobs News Editor
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