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(Română) Cu sau fără întrerupătoare în casa inteligentă?
How does Artificial Intelligence know if you’re having dinner or taking a shower?
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?” »
Technologies for user identification in VIKI
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” »
You can now control the smart home VIKI with your voice
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.
VIKI is inviting you to Pro Invent 2017! Cluj-Napoca, March 22-24
VIKI will attend the 15th edition of the International Exhibition of Research, Innovation and Invention “Pro Invent” in Cluj-Napoca, hosted between March 22 and 24, 2017 by the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, under the auspices of the Ministry National Education and the Ministry of Research and Innovation.
The event will take place in the Complex of the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca and brings together universities, institutes, research centers and stations, companies, inventors’ associations, individuals from the country and abroad, in order to arouse the interest of potential users and the general public.
Continue reading “VIKI is inviting you to Pro Invent 2017! Cluj-Napoca, March 22-24” »
VIKI Meetings: Episode 2
As we already announced in a previous article, the VIKI team started a series of meetings-seminars, organized in order to present this intelligent system of home automation to those interested – architects, builders, specialists etc., decision makers from companies with an interest in promoting, installing and / or designing VIKI.
Continue reading “VIKI Meetings: Episode 2” »
Meet VIKI!
The VIKI team has started a series of meetings-seminars, in order to introduce this smart home automation system to those interested – architects, builders, specialists etc., decision makers from companies with an interest in promoting / VIKI installation / design.
A first meeting has already taken place, and some of the participants were later able to visit a “VIKI site”, a house where the system is currently being installed.
Continue reading “Meet VIKI!” »
How to get started with home automation
We are all fascinated by technology, but this fascination goes often to the point to which we understand how things work and learn how to use it without too much hassles, and most of the times even without touching the user’s guide.
We often get asked whether VIKI the home automation system requires major changes in the configuration of the house, or if after installation will require periodic intervention from a specialist. The answer is in both cases negative.
Installing a home intelligent automation system
Whether it’s about a house under construction or a flat already compleatly furnished the installation is as simple because it does not require dedicated wiring. Depending on the configuration chosen there will be sensors that record motion, lighting, heat and humidity, and all the electrical switches and devices will be upgraded so as to communicate with the house server.
Each device in the installation kit is configured with VIKI intelligence by our technical staff, before being sent to the user’s house, according to its specifications and preferences. Installation can be done by a electrician or home security systems specialist.
Configuring the Home automation system
Certainly a home automation solution involves some changes in the daily routine of the users. Once the system is installed in your home will learn all the family members related habits regarding lights, climate and multimedia devices and know when is the right time to put them into action. Of course there is no need to quit operating the light’s swithers or the remote controlers, they will operate as before, only that now you have VIKI’s predictive intelligence .
But what happens when your routine changes completely or if there will be another member in the familly ? Will you need to turn to a specialist for reconfiguration? Of course no, because VIKI is an adaptable system that reconfigures alone with the changes they register is user’s habits.
Even if apparently installing an home automation system seems a complex process, once you established the configuration and desired facilities, integrating the system in your home is a process of maximum two days with results that are going to surprise you.
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.
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.
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.