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A day with VIKI – 24 hours in 4 minutes [VIDEO]

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The idea of a connected home has been around for many years, in the way of controlling the home from your mobile phone, tablet and, more recently, with the help of a virtual assistant. Nowadays, there are countless solutions that allow you to turn on the lights, turn the TV on or off, set the room temperature. But can they be called “smart”, as long as the action is initiated from the phone, tablet, voice or pre-programmed by a technician who hard-codes the actions of the “smart” house?

We dare to say, after many discussions with users of smart homes and specialists, during the event IMWorld 2018, that only the VIKI system behaves like a true virtual butler, who knows your habits and preferences.

VIKI has that added artificial intelligence needed for any connected home solution, so that, once installed, it will turn your home into a truly intelligent one. VIKI means more than just connecting devices to a common database, implementing algorithms to learn user preferences, managing to become a partner. Specifically, VIKI intelligence will learn by itself to control the lights, the temperature, the windows blinds, the multimedia equipment in the house, analyzing the current context and acting on the patterns identified in the previous experience.

VIKI is no longer just an idea, it is a reality, implemented in homes as real as possible. We spent a day with VIKI in an apartment in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and we observed it “at work”. Within a few weeks after installation, VIKI learned the preferences of the owner of the house. VIKI turns on the radio with the favorite news program in “Good Morning” mode, it raises the blinds, brews the coffee and turns on the right lights, in the right rooms.
When the owner leaves the house, VIKI locks the door, turns off the lights and continues to “work” during the users’ absence: it waters the plants, it lowers the blinds if the sun is too strong, it watches that everything is in order and it sends alerts on the user’s mobile phone if the sensors detect smoke (fire alert), gas or water (flood alert), if a door or window has been opened (break-in alert).

For each scenario, VIKI knows how to act: it permanently learns when the user is at home and performs pre-programmed actions when the user is away or is resting. When the user returns home, the temperature is just right, and the lights turn on when needed. In the evening, it’s VIKI, again, that creates the proper conditions for relaxation and rest.
We invite you to watch the video to understand why VIKI is special and unique in the field of home automation systems.

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Should we automate the central heating with DANFOSS LIVING CONNECT Z or Stella Z Eurotronic?

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After a 2016/2017 winter with many nights and days below 15 degrees Celsius, we can draw some conclusions about the use of thermostatic heads to control heating on radiators, connected to a classic apartment boiler.

Both Danfoss Living Connect and Stella Z are robust products in terms of manufacturing, with an obvious design gain for Danfoss. This, through the LCD screen on which you can view the temperature and the status signaling icons, as well as the manual temperature adjustment buttons, brings an extra ease to use.
Continue reading “Should we automate the central heating with DANFOSS LIVING CONNECT Z or Stella Z Eurotronic?” »

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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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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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