Style is great, but these days, homes also need substance. Here’s our round-up of innovative smart home products to add some intelligence to your investment.
The Buddy System
Berlin-based BuddyGuard has begun selling Flare, a smart home security system with an aesthetic, and innovation, straight out of “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
This intelligent appliance uses voice and face recognition software to identify and authenticate visitors. The system, which is equipped with LTE service should wi-fi fail, can also distinguish “suspicious” noise from normal sounds and contact local law enforcement without any action by the homeowners. Just be sure to show Flare some pictures of Grandma before she comes to visit.
Mood Lighting on Demand
Practicality meets playfulness in Philips Hue Bulbs.
The “bright” bulbs can be synced with smart home systems like the Amazon Echo or Apple HomeKit and controlled by voice command or smartphone, and set against “routines” for regularly scheduled or action-activated lighting.
But perhaps the most fantastic feature of the lighting fixtures is that they offer 16 million colors on demand, adding a nightclub vibe to any living room.
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Life on the Road
Volkswagen and LG Electronics are joining forces to turn your car into your new smart home remote. The plan promises to connect VW cars to the smart products within drivers’ homes and bring messaging from home back to the car cabin via a collaborative infotainment system built by the two companies.
Imagine the wondrous future where you can turn your lightbulbs on and set them to green, all while stuck in traffic.
Conservation Through Comfort
The intelligent thermostat may very well have been the first true smart home product, but it still hasn’t been perfected. Schneider Electric hopes to change that with the Eco IQ, a new automated climate control system that looks to solve the problem of constant user input. Instead of inputting desired temperatures, users are asked to just tell the system when they are uncomfortable, and Eco IQ will do the rest.
Eco IQ also aids in energy conservation by maximizing energy savings over the course of a day, instead of following the common smart home thermostat strategy: pre-set energy-saving schedules, which users can, and often do, override.
One final intelligent touch? Schneider Electric has paired the Eco IQ with top-rated weather service WeatherSentry, allowing the IQ to make informed climate control decisions based on current weather trends.