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Yes or no when it comes to home automation?

Do people want to automate their homes and which functionality of home control they would like the most? These are the two question for which we found answers among the JCI Danube Conference participants , where we have been invited to talk about VIKI in a smart city context.

The  results are as we expected, 65.38% of those present take into account the installation of a home automation system in the near future . Surprisingly 7 out of 10 women said yes,  they would like to live in automated home environement.

Da sau Nu pentru automatizarea locuintei

As for functionalities, the top choise was the heating control,  motivated by the benefits it brings in terms of comfort, but also by the money saving  benefits that we talked about in a previous article.

Functionalitati de automatizare a locuintei

Door lock controlled from the mobile phone and Lighting Control follow in respondents’ preferences. Heating, Lighting, Home Acces and Multimedia  are part of the first version of VIKI, which wil be released at the begining of 2016.

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The smart heating control

viki scenariu temperatura

One of the most appreciated features of an automation system is certainly the possibility of a better management of the house heating.

Finding the house always at the prefered temperature, controling the heating from your smartphone even when you’re not home, smart zoning, auto standby mode when you leave the house and forget to stop temperature are just some of the “skills” that VIKI has.

I’m coming home

Neither too warm nor too cold, when you arrive home the house environment must be at a optimal temperature. This was our starting point when we design the “I’m coming home” feature with which  you  can announce the house  that you’re on the way home directly from your phone. VIKI will start to adjust the temperature automatically, so when you arrive home it will be just how you expected.

Smart Zoning

Once you get home you have the possibility to program different temperatures for each room and you can do that either from your phone, your tablet or the smart thermostat mounted directly on each radiator. Furthermore, VIKI will remember your preferences and it will replicate them without you being always concerned about  starting and stopping the heat.

Smart Living

Intelligent control also means and effective management of the resources. There are 3 features linked to VIKI’s heating intelligent control, which will guarantee a lower heat consumption by up to 30%.

Standby Mode: when in a room is not recorded activity for more than 2 hours,  VIKI turns off the heat and will maintain it around 18-20 degrees. In other rooms where you make your presence felt it will maintain it at the desired value.Scenariu-VIKI-4_1

Away Mode: there no need to ask yourself if you switched off or not the heat, when you left for  office in the morning. Once VIKI has registered that everyone left the home, will switch to Away mode, which means that  for 8 or 10 hours while nobody’s home it will keep the temperature at  an average  of 15-18 degrees.

Vacation mode: if between 48 to72 hours the system does not record  any activity in the house, it will automatically switch to holiday mode  maintain the required temperature for plant survival,  assuming you went on vacation and forgot to announce it.

VIKI’s temperatures and scheduling  scenarios can be adjusted according to your preferences, and you can change yourself, without needing the intervention of a specialist.

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The easier, the better

viki clima incalzire

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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Meet the team

viki echipa

Two companies, ten people, different backgrounds and interests, but one common goal: to offer a unique experience in what concernes the automation of the intelligent homes.

VIKI means more than a project for us, VIKI has become a part of our team and we hope it will become a  “virtual member” of every familly who will receive it in their homes.

QSound Soft and Napoca Software are both IT companies located in Cluj-Napoca, operating on the Romanian and international market for over ten years.echipa VIKI

Napoca Software has developed and implemented projects for romanian customers such as Commercial Manager, a radio advertising automation application, or Columna, a inventory managing application for retail stores. The company founded in 2003 is also developing complex projects with clients from other countries.

QSound Soft  in known for the most used radio automation and broadcasting software in Romania, having more than 250 radio stations as clients. Apart from the radio software modules,  another field of activity is dedicated to in-store music systems for HoReCa and Retail operators, and InfoTrafic, our own radio station.

Dan Chiuzbăian, CEO QSound Soft and Project Manager for VIKI is the man behind the idea. Dan & Rhynno“In the last years the development of IoT (Internet of Things) exploded, many equipment manufacturers and interconnecting technologies reaching the market. The attention of market players focused on developing products but also interconnecting them. Our project tries to bring more value to this growing market: artificial intelligence that imitates  the human behavior. Since the beginning of the project (2012), the team developed algorithms that analyze the context in which the user is, evaluate possible actions and determine the known preferences of the human factor, then acting to satisfy them. This is the major innovation of the project and the way in which VIKI is different from other home automation solutions. “

Florin Roman is theTechnical Manager and the man responsible with the implementation and coordination of the team.Florin

“VIKI means a daily challenge both for me and for the team. We joined with confidence into this project, driven by the idea that in this field you can always discover something new, something that no one has  thought yet. “

Our motto “None of us is as smart as all of us.” and a lot of  work.

The VIKI team 🙂

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More than just an intelligent home. A lifestyle

viki a1

VIKI, the house of the future lives in  Cluj and VIKI, the smart house butler  are two of VIKI’S  media appearances of this week.

VIKI confirms each passing day  that yes it can be done. We started with an idea that seamed taken from a science fiction film but with the clear purpose of bringing the future at home as a user-friendly smart home  solution. Easy to operate, intuitive and with a great “sense of observation” given the multitude of sensors installed in each room, VIKI gives  the necessary intelligence to the objects connected to imitate the human behavior. It would be a unique product that not only controls the equipment in the house through mobile phone or tablet, but able to learn and reproduce human behavior in what concern the use of electronic devices.

Far for being only a technical solution which opens and close doors with a multitude of strange looking devices all around the house , VIKI should be looked at as a way of living. We wish  that the entire family would “adopt” VIKI and feel confortable using it,  be it wife,  children and even pets for which we have developed a special feature.

More now you can take your preferences stored by VIKI  at home, at the office or in vacation. The preferred settings for temperature, lights and music scenarios, will be automatically transferred to the new location, be it a hotel or a vacation home with the Mnemoniq function. The condition is to have installed a VIKI system even there.

And because pictures say more than a thousand words, we present you the interview we  gave to Antena 1 news (romanian only):VIKI, majordomul virtual

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If we talk about intelligent confort, we talk about VIKI

viki control multimedia

Although more and more intelligent devices make their appearance in our homes in order to improve our lifestyle, there is always a risk that the whole process of automating our homes, becomes to demanding for the user. The reason? Too many devices and apps  lacking a common language that can create a really smart and interconnected environment.

rsz_multiThis is the problem for which VIKI is the solution. An intelligent system able to integrate different automation systems and various technologies into a single solution with multiple automation functionalities, all in a single interface.

Relying on comfort and simplicity, VIKI will integrate and automate all smart electronic devices in the house giving users precise control over the home’s environment. Convenience, comfort and security are essential things for anyone and  VIKI’s main objectives.

Lighting, climate, security and multimedia, are all functionalities that can be controlled from your mobile phone, whether you’re home, office or maybe thousands of kilometers away. More than that, VIKI is not only a system that is configured when it is installed and after that the same settings are applied, VIKI is a system that will learn and adapt all the time. If your habits and configuration changes so does the smart house.

Beyond the technical aspects of the solution, the single most important benefit is the safety that comes from  the full control you have on your house and “peace of mind ” it brings.

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Imagine a world in which…

viki monitorizare casa

Imagine a world in which your home is a oasis of relaxation after a busy day.  It’s not about a house on the beach, but exactly your home, where you can spend the whole year in the most pleasant ways if you choose to integrate a intelligent home automation system.

Why should you take into consideration a smart home system?

You only need to know that according to MarketWatch, until 2020, there will be 29.5 million devices from refrigerators to cars connected by the Internet of Things, as opposed to 10.3 million in 2014 . And if you are a new technologies passionate using various gadgets and  spending 1/3 of your every day time on the Internet,  a smart home solution it will be just what you are missing.

How can a smart home help you?

We choose to emphasize just three main reasons:

  • The system “learns” from user behavior and choices which are made in the period after the installation. After that VIKI will work according to the user preferences expressed before.
  • Connectivity, accessibility and  permanent monitoring: You can 24/7 monitor whatever is happening at home, whether it  pets being left alone or plants that need to be watered while in vacation.viki pic
  • Smart appliances: just imagine that you dont’t have to wake up 10 minutes earlier anymore to make the coffee, because at the moment when you step out the bed, VIKI has already “communicate” the task to the coffee maschine, and the TV in the living room is turn on on the news channel.

All this will help you save time, energy and enjoy the time you spent at home.

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VIKI, Internet of Things and Downton Abbey

viki casa downton abbey

Probably most of you have seen at least one episode of the already famous British series Downton Abbey, which focuses on the Crawley’s and their life at the castle in the late 1930s. Just as likely you’ve been impressed by the multitude of servants and valets who provide services and maintain order of the daily tasks. But if Downton Abbey would be a smart home, fully automated, how do you think this would change the screenplay?

Certainly we all have favorite characters, but we will have to give up to some of them, because tasks such as opening doors, turning on lights and heat or playing ambiental music will be successfully met by this new intelligent valet equipped with learning capacities. No, we will not give up, Carson, the main butler because VIKI needs the right instructions in order to learn to operate  according to the house rules. Carson will certainly be delighted by the decrease in electricity bill and with the fact that VIKI warns him if any window of door remains open over night.Automated Downton Abbey

The question here is whether the smart home system will handle such a large number of interconnected objects and persons who are in constant motion, and  even pets?   The answer is yes, up to 230 equipments and an unlimited number of users.

Certainly the castle and the story would not have the same charm, as no house automated in this way was  possible in the 1930s. However now that we no longer have butlers and valets, there is Internet of Things concept (IoT) which involves the interconnection of all smart devices and smart communication between them.

Basically starting with your phone, TV, lights, kitchen appliances and in the not too distant future your car will all speak the same language.

If you don’t have  already an automated home, certainly in 10 or 20 years, this will be a must, and VIKI an option to take it into account starting from now.

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When life is better than the movie

viki video control

It is said that if you can imagine it, you can achive it. Movies are inspired by the real life not vice versa and we can prove it: VIKI

How many times have you imagined the lights in house wenting on at the clapping of your hands. Well, with VIKI, there’s no need to clap your hands anymore, is enought to move from one room to the other. But where do these ideas of a smart home come?

You do not have to be a fan of science fiction literature, because the film industry is doing its job brilliantly when it comes to this. And if we go back to the initial statement if someone could imagine a solution for the house that can make certain tasks by itself,  why wouldn’t that be real.VIKI Video Control

V.I.K.I, to some it may sound familiar, someothers may even know where it comes from, but for the rest, we have to say that the name is the acronym of Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence, and yes is the name of a character, actually an intelligent robot from a movie. The movie character was saving the mankind, our VIKI is saving time and energy.

What VIKI knows more you will find out by following us on the way to launch this project.

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