Kickstarter launch of Mui’s enchanting wooden smart home controller coincides with the start of CES 2024

Mui has a history with CES, having unveiled their initial wooden smart home control board in 2019. Since then, they have been diligently developing a second generation model for over a year. Excitingly, it appears that the new Mui Board will soon be available for purchase, with the aim of delivering it to customers by the end of 2024.

Like the original, the new Mui Board is a wooden, touch-sensitive surface that allows you to control smart home devices. When it’s not in use, it looks like a minimalistic little wooden border, but when you tap it, the screen lights up. It’s kind of like a better, less intrusive version of the Nest Hub. Smart home controls are used, such as adjusting thermostats, turning on lights, locking doors, starting your electric car charger and much more. Perhaps the most significant change in this new board is that it works with Matter, a smart home standard that may have broad enough support to eventually succeed. So while it’s a little early to tell exactly how that will affect its usefulness, it’s likely that it’ll be much more compatible with your smart home than the original was.

Despite the fact that the second-generation Mui Board has been in the works for some time, the company says it won’t ship until the end of 2024. However, the device’s Kickstarter campaign opens on the morning of January 8th, with the board carrying a $499 price tag. Mui’s latest feels like a classic CES product from a small business, with a nice design and intriguing features, which is by no means guaranteed to make sense to many people. But if Mui can live up to its own whims (check out these adorable pixelated animals enjoying the forest!), it might be worth your home.