With the goal of letting these legacy devices join the home automation bandwagon, South Korean startup Naran has come up with Microbot Push – a wireless robotic "finger" designed to operate standard buttons and switches.

According to Naran, the Microbot Push allows users to integrate conventional, non-smart devices into the Internet of Things (IoT). The device is basically a pair of small boxes consisting of the push body (26.6 x 26.6 x 28 mm) and the Micro-USB-charged battery pack (26.6 x 15.2 x 35 mm), which attach to a surface next to a button or switch using foam tape. Despite this seemingly flimsy anchor, the company says that the microbot can apply 1 kg (2.2 lb) of force, which is enough to flip just about any switch you can throw at it.

In addition to the actuator, the Push also has built-in sensors to detect light, motion, and sound. There's also Bluetooth connectivity to allow it to network with a small, personal server computer called a Prota, which packs an ARMv7 1.5 GHz quad-core processor, up to 2 GB RAM, 8 GB built-in flash storage and runs the company's proprietary Prota OS Agatha. Prota also boasts built in 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi so you can control a Push from anywhere there's an internet connection.

The Prota automatically detects and pairs with any nearby microbots and runs user-defined actions based on if this then that logic, that trigger the Push microbots to activate a button when certain conditions are met, such as time of day, lighting conditions, or when movement is detected.