HiddenHUB speaker scans the room to produce the best sound
It takes a unique set of features and an interesting design for a portable speaker to turn heads these days and Hidden's newest offering is definitely intriguing. The company's HiddenRadio series was its latest release, providing pop-up pills of 360-degree sound and capacitive touch controls. This time, it's taking to Kickstarter to launch the HiddenHUB, a more well-endowed offering that goes beyond the basics, with adaptive acoustic sound, smart features and a sleek futuristic design. If you're intrigued, you can head over to its crowdfunding page today and take advantage of a limited early bird deal of $339, which is a hefty savings over its proposed $599 retail price. That's certainly not cheap, but it does sound like an interesting piece of kit, especially when it can do double duty as a glowing blue wall sconce.
The Hub can share sound with nearby Bluetooth speakers or a network of other Hubs scattered throughout the home for multi-room audio. These units can use your existing WiFi network to communicate, or if you're off-the-grid, it can set up its own 5GHz network to tie them all together. Mobile devices and computers can connect wirelessly through Bluetooth, WiFi or Airplay, and we're told it will support DLNA. When you're nearby, volume and track selection can be controlled by using the touch sensitive "smart dial" on the top edge of the speaker itself. A single tap will start/stop the music, while a double tap will skip to the next track. Volume can be controlled by swiping clockwise/counterclockwise around the Hub's edge. There's also an AutoPlay feature that's supposed to sense when a user leaves home, turn itself off, and resume where it left off when you return.
One of the more unique features on the HiddenHUB is its adaptive sound technology. This uses an accelerometer to detect whether its on a table or mounted vertically on a wall, along with infrared sensors to scan the area so it can optimize the audio output according to its environment. We haven't seen any specs regarding its audio capabilities yet, but with its clean circular design and glowing blue underside, it's definitely an interesting addition to the growing world of intelligent speakers.
