Intelligent Products Galore

Home automation systems have struggled to find a mainstream audience, in part because they require a bit of technical savvy from their users. But these days, the fast proliferations of smartphones and tablets provide an easy way for even tech novices to communicate with home automation gadgets. And those gadgets are more numerous by the day.

The Nest thermostat comes with integrated WiFi so that you can control, schedule and monitor your home's temperatures, from the porch or from a taxi. Nest learns your behaviors and automatically adjusts its settings for maximum efficiency and comfort. It will tell you how much energy you're using, remind you to change your filters, and even alter its functions to account for the differences between, say, a heat pump or radiant heaters.

Philips' Hue lights offer some concert lighting effects right in your own home. Screw these LED bulbs into your regular fixtures, install the app to your phone or tablet, and then you can turn the lights on or off, brighten or dim them, or perhaps best of all, change the color. Then you can even program the lights to perform just about any combination of color and brightness, and control up to 50 lights on one bridge (which links the lights to your phone). The more lights you have the more fun it will be. But it will cost you -- a starter pack with three bulbs and a bridge goes for around $200.

INSIDE BILL GATES' HOME

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates' home just outside of Seattle, Wash., might be the most famous smart home to date. Everyone in the home is pinned with an electronic tracking chip. As you move through the rooms, lights come on ahead of you and fade behind you. Your favorite songs will follow you throughout the house, as will whatever you're watching on television. You can entertain yourself by looking at Gates' extensive electronic collection of still images, all available on demand. The chip keeps track of all that you do and makes adjustments as it learns your preferences. When two different chips enter the same room, the system tries to compromise on something that both people will like.

Efficiency and Fun

Belkin markets its WeMo home automation switches specifically to smartphone users. For about $100, you'll receive a smart WeMo switch and a motion detector. Plug the switch into an electrical outlet, and then plug a device, such as a lamp, heater or coffee pot into the switch. Pair the switch with your smartphone using Belkin's app, and then you can control the switch remotely, letting you, for example, turn a light on or off from 1,000 miles away (or just from your cozy bed).

Home automation isn't always about pricey products. Some of the most useful smart home tools are actually free.

The WeMo is one of many products compatible with IFTTT (IF Then, Then That), which is a free Internet service that lets you automate an endless number of processes. For example, with IFTTT (which rhymes with gift), you could create a so-called "recipe" that automatically posts Twitter tweets to Facebook if they contain a specific hashtag or keyword in them. Or you could schedule a text message to yourself as a reminder to call your grandma.

IFTTT is basically just a simple way to create triggers that result in specific actions, and it works with WeMo. For instance, you could set up a WeMo motion detector in your bedroom, and when it sees that you're up for the morning, it will trigger the coffee pot in the kitchen.

The potential for these kinds of "if x, then y" type of actions is limited only by your imagination. Of course, it takes some time to set up all of these fun actions. And that brings up one of the biggest challenges of home automation products.

Many smart home products use their own proprietary apps. In short, you could install dozens of home automation gadgets and their associated apps, and then slowly drown in frustration as you try to control all of them.

The Revolv is a $299 WiFi hub that connects to all of your other wireless home automation products. Revolv attempts to unify all of your home automation gear under one app, and also helps you build pre-programmed capabilities, all in the name of realizing a truly automated home.

Once connected, you control all of your gadgets from the central Revolv app. Revolv currently works best with Z-Wave, Insteon and WiFi products, and it's available only for iPhone users. However, the company plans to expand to hundreds of other products and to add Android compatibility, too. You'll find similar consolidation hubs from companies such as Insteon and SmartThings.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 809