Home Automation | Blogul VIKI

Tuesday September 8th, 2015March 12, 2019

Meet the team

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.

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. “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.

“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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Tuesday September 1st, 2015March 12, 2019

(Română) Fii un beta-tester VIKI!

Sorry, this entry is only available in Română.

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Tuesday July 21st, 2015March 12, 2019

More than just an intelligent home. A lifestyle

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):

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Friday July 10th, 2015March 12, 2019

If we talk about intelligent confort, we talk about VIKI

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.

This 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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Thursday June 11th, 2015March 12, 2019

Imagine a world in which…

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.
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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Friday May 22nd, 2015March 12, 2019

VIKI, Internet of Things and 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.

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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Wednesday May 6th, 2015March 12, 2019

When life is better than the movie

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.

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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Tuesday April 21st, 2015March 12, 2019

Home sweet automated home!

What does your dream house look like? Certainly at least once you’ve imagined how big it should be, the design that you want to adopt, and how will you customize your personal corner. But have you thought about home automation?

Safety, comfort and more time for your little pleasures are just three of the reasons why you should choose a home automation solution. Energy efficiency and automation of all the intelligent electronic devices directly from the control panel support those mentioned above and the picture is complete after we add the artificial intelligence.

Home is where you should feel most safe, so with permanent video monitoring, motion sensors and VIKI which warns you when you forget any window or door opened, this is possible. And if we talk about vacations, your home is on “good hands”. The flowers will get light and water on time, and the air conditioning will not work more than it should, all under the supervision of VIKI.

About the confort such a solution offers you, would be much to say, but perhaps the most important is that after a long day when you return home, the room temperature is right, the blinds are drawn, the music is playing softly and the lights are dimmed. You just need to add a cup of hot tea or a glass of wine and relax.

As important as those mentioned above, energy efficiency is another solid reason for you to choose an automation system, with no lights or other multimedia devices forgotten on and effective communication between all connected devices even when not at home.

Whether it’s about an apartment or a house do not forget to include in your plans a system for smart homes, because the future is now!

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Thursday April 9th, 2015March 12, 2019

Apparently, appearances do matter!

White or Dark? City or Nature? If you have no idea what we are talking about, let us introduce you little by little into VIKI’s world.

12:38 PM, a sunny day with plenty of light flooding the house. It’s lunch time, and some music will go just fine. VIKI displays a screen in light tones. Some time later, with the night falling over the city, the office lights went on, sign that is time to hit send for that last email, and to take a relaxing break before dinner, while watching the news. But something is changed in VIKI’s display mode! The screen is darker, which makes it easy to be read. That’s because VIKI knows that evening came and it’s time to change the theme from Light to Dark. Nice job VIKI!

But maybe outside it’s a gloomy day, and all we want is to leave behind all the tasks of the day, and to go somewhere into the nature. How not always possible, we can at least select a Skin, according to our mood. Nature, it is!

As you can see from these shown above, VIKI display mode can be customized according to your preferences, but VIKI also knows and identify whether it’s day or night, without any additional command adopting thus the most appropriate display theme.

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Wednesday April 1st, 2015March 12, 2019

Welcome home Michael!

Michael approached the phone to the small white dot and suddently, with a sharp sound, the door opened. Stepping into the house , felt all the worries of a busy and tiring day dissolving. The lights went on, and as he took a few steps toward the living room, “Fur Elise” started to play softly. “Thank you VIKI!” he thought to himself while smiling.

His attention was drawn by the window blinds which were automatically lowering, sign that it’s almost 7 P.M, and Sarah will be home soon. He glanced at the wall, where some green lights were flickering on the control tablet. Curiosity made him get closer. “Welcome home Michael! Do not forget about today’s dinner with your parents, at 8 P.M.” read out loud.

Michael is the main character, even if a virtual one in our VIKI video presentation. But Michael, could be you or any member of your family, and your house – a home completly automated, smart and energy efficient.

According to your preferences, the house structure and the configuration chosen, VIKI includes features such as:

Lighting Control
Multimedia
Weather Forecast
Heating
Shading Control
Irigation and artificial light
Organizer
Digital Library
Security

More broadly about all these functionalities and how you can make staying home more pleasant, in the following articles.

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