Twine is a box that lets you create smart "playlists" for real life. The 2.5-inch square slab contains various sensors along with Wi-Fi, runs for months on a pair of AA batteries, and can also be powered by USB.

The Twine ships with two on-board sensors: an accelerometer and a temperature sensor. Also available will be a moisture sensor and a magnetic switch.

So what do you do with it? The idea of Twine is that you can set up nerdy electronics projects without any nerdiness required. Using a simple web interface you can configure actions like "WHEN moisture sensor gets wet THEN tweet 'The basement is flooding!'" (to use an example from the product page). Inputs can be anything the sensors can track, and outputs can be via Twitter, email, SMS or any HTTP request.

Configuring the Twine is as easy as making a smart playlist in iTunes

A breakout board will also be made available that will let you hook up any other sensors you like, without soldering (or in the U.S, soddering).

It's a tweaker's dream, letting you pepper the house with sensors to let you know what's going on, or – in theory – automate everything. Send an alert if somebody knocks on the door while you're out. Turn on the air-con if the temperature gets too high.

Twine is a Kickstarter project, and it has already been funded (blowing past its original $35,000 goal with over $550,000 in pledges). You can pre-order a Twine, though, for $99, over at the site of the inventors Supermechanical. The first Twines should ship in May.

Twine product page [Supermechanical]