Noutăți și sfaturi din lumea caselor inteligente
Beside the main features, VIKI integrates some smaller ones, but with equally important benefits to our comfort.
And because for many families the kitchen is the center of the house and the place where we spend the most enjoyable moments, we cannot overlook the benefits of an automation system in this space.
Continue reading “How smart is your life?” »
In a recent article we were mentioning the fact that although the installation of a home automation system it may seem a complex process, in fact it requires an activity of one or two days and a few minor adjustments.
But what are the components that make a smart home functional?
The first to be mentioned is the home server that orchestrate the communication between all electronic 
devices controling lighting, heating, or multimedia, by using VIKI’ s intelligence.
This “brain” of the house is called VIKI Central Unit.
To intelligently control the heating we recommend a kit consisting of a LCD radiator thermostat and an actuator for the central heating system,
and for the hot summer days when we need to remotely start the air conditioning , it will be possible via the dedicated Z-Wave controller.
In addition to the classic motion detection function the multi sensors measure the ambient temperature and the light intensity, all this information being then forwarded to the home server which will implement actions according to our previous settings.
In what concernes our home security, the sensors that have been mounted on the doors and windows will alert us if we forget them opened when we live home,
or when we prepare for sleep. Also a security alert, the flood sensor is particularly useful for our peace of mind when we leave home for longer period.
Smoke sensors, actuators for switches and other electronic devices which can be controlled via VIKI functionalities are available on http://vikiknows.com/tested_equipment.php.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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:
“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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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):
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:
All this will help you save time, energy and enjoy the time you spent at home.