Thanks to the cutting-edge work accomplished by the brilliant Google techies, the Smart home has truly arrived. Their recent accomplishments on “demotics” have made the creation and use of smart home apps easier than flipping a light switch. Derived from the Latin word “domus”, demotics is the interaction of information technology, electrotechnics, and electronics that makes a home become “smart”.
The litany of connected home-based devices is subservient to the Google Assistant, the ever-present virtual helper which is able and willing to fulfill your every command. Verbal commands directed through the Google Assistant such as “turn off the lights in the living room” are all that is required to activate Google Assistant and to comply with your commands. This type of home automation is capable of sharing information among family members, and the Google Assistant gateway can be accessed via a smartphone or other device. Best of all, you don’t even have to be home to activate commands. So, if you’re at the office or driving your car, the hub can notify you that someone just rang your “smart” doorbell, you’re able to access the doorbell’s camera and converse with the individual at the door.
Maybe it’s Not Avon Calling
The doorbell/camera is just one of the devices that can be purchased through Google’s Nest line of smart products. The Google software is open source, giving developers an opportunity to share their app ideas with a diverse range of products within the Nest. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) protocol permits the networked systems to access all aspects of the IoT. The Google developer’s platform actually allows the development of a new app to happen in minutes rather than weeks.
The myriad applications of these in-home applications are only limited by one’s imagination. And developers are proving that they have no limits to what is possible in today’s domicile. Apps that are already being introduced to Google’s Nest store run the gambit of useful products, which include:
- Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC): remote control of all home energy monitors over the internet. It incorporates a user-friendly interface that gives the homeowner complete environmental control inside the home.
- Lighting control system: a “smart” network provides communication between various lighting system inputs and outputs. Google Assistant employs one or more central computing devices to monitor all the interior and exterior lighting.
- Occupancy control system: it is possible to know who is in the house at all times. Using a motion detector app, occupancy of the home is monitored by using smart meters and environmental CO2 sensors. The system can be built into the building automation system to trigger automatic responses. It can also be used to determine energy efficiency and comfort applications in the home.
- As with many Nest devices, a home system can manage control of “smart” appliances and integration through a smart grid and a smart meter, For example, it can monitor and control solar panel outputs at any time of the day and run washing machines remotely when energy is at its optimum peak.
- Managing home robots such as robotic vacuum cleaners and household security systems encompassing services such as remote surveillance of security cameras over the Internet access control and central locking of all perimeter doors and windows.
- Indoor positioning systems (IPS) consist of a network of devices used to locate people or objects that GPS and other satellite technologies fail to provide their exact location.
- Other apps offer Home automation for the elderly and disabled. These apps permit older adults and people with disabilities to remain at home, rather than unnecessarily being relocated to a retirement home.
The homeowner’s interface is user-friendly and the devices under its control are ubiquitous, distributed throughout the home.
For more information on how you can incorporate Google Assistant and the complete line of smart devices available to your home, office or manufacturing facility, contact us.