Plants of any kind bring life and beauty into our environment. Whether they are green or with colorful flowers, the plants on the balcony and in the house bring nature closer to us, even if we live in large urban areas. And air quality is much improved in any enclosed space where there are plants.
A balcony, no matter how small, can be an isle of peace and relaxation when we return home. And in the past months, when we had to spend even more time indoors, we all felt the importance of such a “green corner”. And gardening, even if it only means watering the flowers for a few minutes, relaxes us and frees us from the worries of the day.
Now, however, we return to our hectic lives, thinking about summer vacation and less about our green corner from home, which could suffer because of this. What do we do if we don’t have time, in the evening, to water all the flowers after a hot day? Or what do we do if we plan to go on vacation and do not have reliable friends, who could come at least periodically to water our plants? Continue reading “VIKI, the skilled gardener! How does the house take care of your plants, in your absence?” »
In the last 8 years, together with an extraordinary team, I have developed and implemented a technology through which the environment in our homes adapts to the needs of the family through the automatic control of environmental facilities, using artificial intelligence algorithms. In homes where we implement this concept, lights, air conditioning, shading or ventilation, multimedia devices and almost any electric equipment show a behavior ‘synchronized’ with user expectations. To put it simple, the house anticipates the user’s needs, without the user having to interact continuously and explicitly with the house, through buttons, remote controls, smartphones or voice. But how do these things happen? What are the mechanisms that lead to this way of ‘functioning’ of the house?
Smart home technology has evolved a lot in recent years, and IoT (Internet of Things) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) have become a reality in the world we live in. From the dozens of discussions I’ve had with specialists and potential beneficiaries of such use of AI, the question has often arisen as to whether society is ready to leave its life in the hands of artificial intelligence. And the answer was: It depends on intelligence! Continue reading “How does Artificial Intelligence know if you’re having dinner or taking a shower?” »
The house of the future is the house where technology blends harmoniously with your lifestyle, ensuring a perfect balance between comfort and relaxation. Intended for the whole family, VIKI technology is more than home automation. Our system automatically adapts to the changes in the environment in which it is installed, without needing a manual reconfiguration of the settings at each change of the family’s preferences.
In these processes of learning and reproducing the behavior of the users depending on the environmental context, the requirement to detect their presence in the respective location and to automatically identify each individual who is in the respective space is critical . Continue reading “Technologies for user identification in VIKI” »
Innovation, technology, cloud computing and platforms, large data and analytics, mobile solutions, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, artificial intelligence and speech (AI), all of these are accelerating the digital transformation of our homes and influence the creation of new products and services.
According to Microsoft, by 2020 there will be 30 billion connected devices in the world and 50 GB of data will be generated daily in a smart home. We ask ourselves what trends will influence the acceptance, growth and sustainability of the smart home? Continue reading “Smart home trends by 2020” »
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.
The VIKI Knows team presented the smart house that learns your habits at the ExpoTech technology exhibition, organized by TechFest at Iulius Mall Cluj, on the weekend of November 3-5, 2017.
The event is dedicated to both connoisseurs and technology enthusiasts, as well as the general public who are interested in smart systems or devices. TechFest hosted start-ups in the field, which presented new technologies and trends of the future. Continue reading “VIKI Knows attended ExpoTech 2017” »
The basic functionality of a home automation system is certainly the possibility to group user needs into what VIKI calls Scenarios and ways of managing the home environment.
Activated by artificial intelligence, voice, from smartphone or tablet, VIKI scenarios and modes help to increase your comfort when you want to forget about daily worries and optimize energy consumption in your home. Let’s give you a few examples: Continue reading “10 memorable moments with VIKI” »
The rainy and cool season is here, the season with capricious and often surprising weather – as we have seen in recent days. We no longer sleep with the windows open at night, but in the morning we have to open the windows, let the fresh autumn air enter the house. It’s just that in the morning we are too hurried and sometimes inattentive, forgetting to leave the house in order, so that when we return we have the comfort and peace that we have been waiting for all day.
VIKI helps us, again. The scenario is well known to everyone: in a hurry, we leave the windows open in the morning, forgetting to check the weather forecast. A few minutes of rain is enough, if it is torrential and the wind is still blowing, on the way back we may find a small flood or at least wet objects around the window.
VIKI and Alexa became closer friends this summer. The last time we told you about the “relationship” between the artificial intelligence VIKI and the Amazon Echo Dot (code name: Alexa) was in May, when compatibility tests were in progress.
Since then, the VIKI team has been able to integrate more and more voice commands into the application, commands that VIKI is currently able to execute promptly: setting a room temperature, displaying the weather forecast, opening the door, turning on / off the TV, playing / stopping the music player and more.
Thus, now we can talk directly to our virtual “butler”, and soon we will not need (too much) phone / tablet anymore, it will be enough to use our voice in order to control the intelligent house VIKI.
The proof can be seen in the latest video shot by the VIKI team during the tests.
The VIKI team is always looking for partners to help us bring this smart home automation system as close as possible to buyers across the country.
For this purpose we promote the application by attending profile events and online trying to make it popular among those interested – architects, builders, specialists in the field, decision makers from companies with an interest in promoting, installing or designing VIKI.
