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How to get started with home automation

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We are all fascinated by technology, but this fascination goes often to the point to which we understand how things work and learn how to use it without too much hassles, and most of the times even without touching the user’s guide.

We often get asked whether VIKI the home automation system requires major changes in the configuration of the house, or if after installation will require periodic intervention from a specialist. The answer is in both cases negative.

Installing a home intelligent automation system

Whether it’s about a house under construction or a flat already compleatly furnished the installation is as simple because it does not require dedicated wiring. Depending on the configuration chosen there will be sensors that record motion, lighting, heat and humidity, and all the electrical switches and  devices will be upgraded so as to communicate with the house server.Scenariu-VIKI-4_1

Each device in the installation kit is configured with VIKI intelligence by our technical staff, before being sent to the user’s house, according to its specifications and preferences. Installation can be done by a  electrician or home security systems specialist.

Configuring the Home automation system

Certainly a home automation solution involves some changes in the daily routine of the users.   Once the system is installed in your home will learn all the family members related habits regarding lights, climate and multimedia devices and know when  is the right time to put them into action. Of course there is no need to quit operating the light’s swithers or the remote controlers, they will operate as before, only that now you have  VIKI’s predictive intelligence .

But what happens when your routine changes completely or if there will be  another  member in the familly ? Will you need to turn to a specialist for reconfiguration? Of course no, because VIKI is an adaptable system that reconfigures alone with the changes they register is user’s habits.

Even if apparently installing an home automation system seems a complex process, once you established the configuration and desired facilities, integrating the system in your home is a process of maximum two days with results that are going to surprise you.

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Home Automation Trends for 2016

With the beginning of the year and the information that arrived to us from the latest CES (Consumer Technology Association) where large electronics manufacturers presented their latest products,  we decided to make a list of what 2016 looks for the home automation environment.

1. From Smart Home to Intelligent Home

A smart device is more or less a gadget that can be automated and controlled via the Internet from a phone, tablet or application. Instead, a intelligently device comes  with a series of algorithms which gives it a kind of its own intelligence, and it’s capable of undertaking a series of actions according with our previous behavior. In the scenario where a user listens to music in a given weekday, in a certain time frame and in a particular room of the house, VIKI will know to reproduce this behavior, even without user’s  intervention, at exactly the right moment and the favourit playlist.

2. Live Smart. Save Energy

Starting with  thermostats that automate the control of  the temperature, applications that let you do this remotely, we reach to a more complex system that monitors consumption and reminds you when you should stop and start the heat.  VIKI not only that  identifies when someone is at home and maintains a certain temperature in the rooms, but knows when you’re about to get home and is waiting for you with a warm and welcoming home.

Moreover when you go on vacation and forget to announce it,  it stops automatically the heat and keeps it at a level favorable for the plants.

3.  Home Safe Home

Security is a major concern for any family and must be an important feature for every home automation solution. Starting with various security systems that operate individually and are designed more to supervise,  we get back to VIKI who has the role to tell you when you forget your windows or doors open or to facilitate the access to the house only with your mobile phone.

Therefore,  although the home automation market is growing and more and more smart devices appear every day, for the users,  the only thing that remains important is to make their lives easier giving them comfort and security.

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VIDEO: How to control your TV using the smartphone or the tablet

viki control multimedia

Developed with the purpose of making our time in front of the TV more enjoyable, remote controls have become absolutely essential, just too many and too often lost.

You can’t find your remote? Surely your phone or tablet are always at your fingertips where you have VIKI’s multimedia control feature  from which you can control your TV, the audio system, and the home theatre.

Possibility of on / off directly from your phone or tablet tv,  all available channels list and with the possibility to change them with a simple click. See the video below:

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From a connected home to a smart home

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What does a smart home really mean? Can we name a ”smart” home any home with a few gadgets, like thermostats, locks and different sensors connected to a router? Is it enough to buy different online automation equipment that allows temperature control or notify us when we forget the lights on? In any of the above situations we are talking about a connected house, but not a smart house, because intelligence implies interoperability between all these devices, and not a fragmentation on criteria regarding the communication of these devices.
Moreover, it is not enough for these devices to communicate with each other, this communication must also be smart and this is what VIKI is trying to do, to create a common language while integrating various electronic devices and teaching them how to operate under its ”wand”.
A ”smart” home means a complete system for analyzing human behavior, lifestyle and events in the area, thus generating scenarios that mimic our behavior in interaction with the home, but which can also give us suggestions for improving our lifestyle. such as a shopping list, a weather warning or even dinner recipes based on the nutrition plan.
A question that arises here is related to privacy. If we are being watched 24/7 and all of our behavioral information gets stored somewhere in the cloud, how comfortable will we feel about it?
In our vision, the VIKI smart home is like a personal assistant, friendly, loyal and keeping your secrets “safe”, because it stores all the information about you in a cloud of the house, which can only be accessed by the users designated by you. Like a personal assistant, VIKI will have to be taught how to behave and what its tasks are, which is easy to do in the first weeks after installation. You just need a little consistency in learning the system, and in a few weeks you will no longer need your tablet or phone to manage things.
Therefore, a smart home like VIKI means more than just a set of smart objects, it means orchestrating them so that we can save energy, optimize costs and increase comfort.

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The lights in your house controlled from smartphone? VIKI Knows!

Another VIKI functionality that brings together energy savings and confort is the lighting control.

Lights forgotten on are no longer a problem, and the right intensity adjustments depending on outside light is from now on VIKI’s task.

With smartphone or tablet, classical or touch Vitrum switches we present you a brief demonstration of lighting control function.

Moreover, you can even see how you can easily adapt the classical wall switches to operate smart under the command of VIKI.

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VIDEO: How to control your home acces with VIKI

One of the main facilities of a home automation solution is the security of the home, and when it comes to safety one thing we must pay special attention is the house acces.

Lost or misplaced keys, the front door forgotten opened  or facilitating access to the house for someone when you’re not nearby are  situations that we all have been into, and for which VIKI is the solution.

With the Access Control feature you can open or close the door  with a simple click on your iOS or Android smartphone and also you can view the status of the doors and windows even from hundreds of kilometers away.

How easy is to operate it you can see in the footage below where we used for demonstration a YDM 3168 (Yale) lock from ASSA ABLOY. (romanian language only)

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MnemoniQ: makes you feel at home, no matter where you go

If until now we have talked about the ways in which VIKI can improve our lifestyle and the  time we spend at home, you should know that we are implementing a solution even for those who travel a lot.  The goal: to feel like home anywhere; The name: MnemoniQ.

Be it a hotel or vacation home where you often go with your family, now it’s very easy to take your home automation preferences with you. If at home you’re accustomed to a certain temperature, light settings or a relaxing audio ambience  while dinning, using MnemoniQ you can have the same facilities wherever you go.mnemoniq

With this feature, the preferences that VIKI had learned and applied at home can be replicated by means of the smartphone to another location, where it will operate identically. The only condition is to have a VIKI system installed in that location too.

“HOME is where VIKI is!“ is not just a status, but rather a purpose  for VIKI – to give you the best experience at home or wherever you might go.

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Home Automation: from Vitamine to Painkiller

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In less than 10 years a typical family house will contain somewhere around 200 smart objects, from the refrigerator to the washing machine,  all devices with a certain  level of “intelligence” and “communication skills”.

The solution for the control of all of the device’s is not a specific application for each device but rather one solution that controls everything and which anticipates your action and your preferences based on your previous behavior – a Connected Home

From here arises the need for home automation, a need that did not exist until now and that is why it was difficult for the industry to develop. Although the home automation solutions have emerged more than 20 years, there is still a small percentage of the population using them.

But with the significant growth of electronics and the gadgets we buy, intelligent home control is a must, as confirmed by the studies below:

iot“How the next evolution of the Internet is changing everything” the Cisco report which highlights the fact that by 2020 there will be about 7 internet connected devices per capita.

And according to Strategy Analytics, 30% of  Western Europe homes will hold  by 2019 a certain degree of  inteligence. What the people who look for an automation solution consider as essential? Firstly the  safty of their homes  and the energy efficiecy.

The Smart Home report results performed on a sample of 1,600 people in the US and Canada confirms this:

  • for 90% of respondents security and personal safety and that of the family is the main reason for which they would purchase such a system.
  • 70% are led by lower energy costs through  smart monitoring and control.
  • and for 48% the motivation comes from the usefulness given bz automation itself

As one of the first developers of smart homes in Romania, we are delighted by the fact that we managed to raise attention and to make people want to benefit from a smart home solution.

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The easier, the better

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We all agree that the house automation systems can bring to our homes benefits regarding our comfort and security, but there are few aspects that one has to question before acquiring such a product. We might call them problems of the home automation industry, but here’s VIKI and it might be the solution.

1. Most home automation systems are designed for houses under construction.

That is not the case for VIKI, which works  both on wired and wireless technology. The  system can be  installed without major changes in any building, be it an already furnished apartment or a house under construction.

2. Changing  the default user’s settings and preferences, always require resorting to the specialists who installed the automation system.

Most automation solutions are  being configured when installed with the preferences in terms of lighting, climate or irrigation  that the users have at the moment. But what if this preferences change over time? Normally one has  to appeal to those who have installed the solution, wait for  their intervention and most likely pay an extra cost for this service.

VIKI is a proactive solution that adapts to the behavior of the house inhabitants and change with it. All you have to do is give it a few days to memorize the settings you do manually,  and after that it will automatically learn what should do. If  you prefer after a while  a different temperature, or diverse music in different rooms, you can set it by yourself and the solution will learn it.

3. Too many different automation applications or too many remote controls.

Even if you already own  certain automation systems for automating gates, blinds, or even mobile applications that control heating and lighting, the goal of an intelligent and effective home control is a unique application from which you can control your entire house.

VIKI aims to be the brain of your home, offering not only the intelligent control functions, but due to the adaptative algorithms it generates savings on electricity and heat and the comfort and pleasure to stay at home, all in one single application.

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