Using an ordinary mobile phone to relay remote signals, the man can activate a device that uses electric motors to click on various switches.

With it, Samuel Mwaura of Ting’ang’a village just outside Kiambu town, has been drawing eager crowds to watch his gadget open his door, switch on the lights and even start an electric kettle that makes tea and pours it into a flask.

Remotely Opened

On arriving at his house ahead of him for this interview, we called him to let him know we were waiting. He remotely opened his front door for us and switched on the lights, all the way from Nairobi where he had just boarded a matatu.

Mwaura, with unkempt hair, is hardly what you would expect as the inventor of the complex contraption. Using his cell phone, he is able to operate what he calls the interpreting system or the ‘motherboard’- a mechanism of second break as the system waits for the next command. If there no second command, it performs the number one task," he explains.

Fixed Phone

"If I need it to perform task number two, I call for a second time during the delay. This is possible as the fixed phone, after relaying the signal, disconnects the first call," he explains. "If I need the third or the fourth task, I call three or four times as desired." The 30-year-old technician says each of the wires on a maze on the ‘motherboard’ has its automated function.

A rigged appliance that Simon Mwaura switches on using the phone to make tea and pour it into a flask. [PHOTO: MOSES OMUSULA/STANDARD]

The fixed home phone sends signals in form of vibrations to the interpreting system, the message is relayed to a motor, which in turn connects the signal to a switch rack. The switch rack then directs the final event according to the command.

The most interesting automated task to watch is the tea maker. Modified from a small deep-frying machine, he has modelled it with an aluminum water container placed at the base of the fryer which has an electrical coated coil. Milk is put in a separate container, with tea leaves in a much smaller container hooked to the milk one. After all is set, Mwaura takes his phone and calls the fixed phone five times in succession. The interpreting system gives a motor sound and a few moments later, a switch clicks on and the tea maker roars to life.

The milk container, fitted with a hinged device, tilts and pours the milk and the tea leaves into the aluminium container. After about four minutes, an alarm goes off to stop the heat. The aluminum container then tilts and pour tea into a positioned flask. Mwaura says his innovations border on making house work easier and on enhancing private security.

He says he has many ideas in the pipeline but he is hindered by finances needed to brig them to life. Mwaura, who works as a private electrician, says he hopes to get support from investors to mass-produce his devices.