Skip to main content

Bumblebee wants to lift your bed to the ceiling to save you space

Screengrab via GeekWire/YouTube

If there is one thing your apartment never has enough of, it’s space. It’s easy to fill up just about every last inch of square footage in your place — with knick-knacks, with necessities, and especially with furniture. Imagine if you could just make your bed disappear when you aren’t using it so you suddenly have an empty room to host people or to do a workout in. Bumblebee Spaces has found a way to do just that, and it’s showing off the system in a small Seattle apartment.

Walk into the small, one bedroom apartment overlooking the waterfront and you might feel cramped. But wait for the Bumblebee Spaces smart home system to kick in and you’ll see the bed and furniture retract up into the ceiling. By the time the electric motor system pulls the bed all the way up by the industrial-grade straps, you’ll find that the seemingly small apartment has just about all the room you could ask for. We’ve seen plenty of space-saving tech before, especially in tiny homes, but nothing quite like this.

Recommended Videos

Bumblebee’s system might seem like a pretty simple bit of machinery, but it’s much more than just a modern reimagining of a Murphy bed. It’s all connected to an iPad that serves as a central control panel for the system, which utilizes a variety of smart tech to help optimize your home.

The system is packed with depth sensors that can determine if there are people nearby or in range of the moving furniture. Artificial Intelligence and machine learning algorithms help determine what items have been added or removed to retractable storage spaces and bring them down to you when you need them, according to a report from GeekWire.

One of the smartest parts of Bumblebee’s space-saving smart home system: it doesn’t rely on an internet connection to function. That means that even if your Wi-Fi goes out, you won’t be stuck with your bed tucked neatly against the ceiling while you’re forced to sleep on the floor.

If you want Bumblebee in your own home, well, you’re going to have to wait. The company is still working on building a consumer-ready product and prices are yet to be determined. You can get your hands on the system by renting out the Seattle apartment currently conducting demonstrations of Bumblebee’s tech, though. And the apartment is set to go on the market soon with the system installed, according to GeekWire.

AJ Dellinger
AJ Dellinger is a freelance reporter from Madison, Wisconsin with an affinity for all things tech. He has been published by…
The Home Connectivity Alliance wants to bring you the smart home of your dreams
A 55-inch Samsung The Frame 4K TV hangs on a wall in a dining room.

The interconnected nature of smart home technology has long been the subject of discussion, especially with regard to the "walled gardens" that sprang up around different platforms. Many opinion pieces (our own included) said that the smart home would never be truly "smart" until interoperability became commonplace. Today, a number of different companies came together to announce the launch of the Home Connectivity Alliance, an organization devoted to creating interoperable appliances within the home. This announcement might pale in comparison to CES 2022 launches of a massive new TV or a nifty new robot vacuum, but it's just as important.

The HCA is made up of American Standard Heating and Air Condition, Arcelik, The Electrolux Group, Haier, GE Appliances, Samsung Electronics, and Trane Residential. The presence of some of these companies comes as a surprise given their relatively low profile in the smart home market, but Samsung's membership is no surprise at all. Samsung has long been a proponent of Matter, another platform pushing for interconnectivity between devices.

Read more
The best exercise tech to help you crush your 2022 fitness goals
Tonal Home Gum arm training.

If you’re looking for a home workout solution that’ll help you nail your weight loss and health goals for 2022, then you’re in luck. Fitness tech has experienced something of a renaissance in the past few years, and nowadays the home workout gear available to consumers is absolutely incredible. No matter what your preferred workout routine might look like – whether it’s running, rowing, lifting weights, or something else entirely – there’s almost certainly a piece of equipment that’ll allow you to do said workout in the comfort of your own home. Here are a few of our favorites:

Mirror

Read more
7 things you didn’t know your home security system could do
SimpliSafe bast station sitting on a table infant of a mirror.

Your home security system is the main line of defense against burglars and unwanted visitors. It can provide peace of mind when you're away, but there are a lot of things your security system can do that you might not be aware of. For example, rather than just catching suspicious activity, it also lets you record your pets being silly for video clips worthy of America's Funniest Videos.

With the right setup, your home security system can extend its functionality far beyond the basics. Here are seven things you didn't know your home security system could do.
Connect to your smart home to disarm the system and turn on the lights
When you come inside, your first step is typically to turn on the lights and/or disarm your security system. You can actually disable your security system with the right key code and connect it to your smart lights so they automatically turn on when you enter the code. You can also connect it to other smart devices like a smart plug to turn on other devices.

Read more