Smart Home, Its Time For Business

COVID19 made my investment in smart home technology more understandable (but ironically, still unnecessary since I live alone). But the largest advantage to be had is reducing high traffic touch points in the home.

We touch so much everyday without realizing it. And those same things are shared with others.

But first, let’s talk about privacy. Privacy concerns are legitimate and you can always set up various methods to either protect your privacy, or increase convenience. It is up to you. My setup is nearly entirely private (except for the Google Home’s distributed throughout the house).

One example is light switches. We are all in the habit to turn off lights when we leave a room. My house is wired up (or I should say – unwired) to be a logical network of lighting. Rather than a simple physical switch, it can respond to various inputs. And because it is logical, it can tie into various inputs like if it is dark in the room or not rather than just simply going on and off all times of the day.

While motion detection is one method to determine lighting, it also uses automation and presence detection to react in different ways. As night falls, and I am in my office, the lights come on automatically in the room as the curtains close. Or when I return home, the outside lights come on if it is dark outside. But sometimes it gets more complicated and you just want to override. That’s when voice commands come in handy.

Without the need to touch anything, you still have full control of devices that otherwise would be physically handled.

Of course, you might be wondering – well if it is just light switches and curtains (and thermostats – I haven’t showcased that yet!), you might wonder what any of this has to do with business.

Well, the point is that a lot can be automated to be more intelligent and respond better to your interactions, presence, and conditions of the day – and even make things much more economical too! For example, I have a dehumidifier that reacts to time of use policy; when I use my desk-phone, all audio is paused and automatically resumes once the call is over; doors can unlock automatically for the right people (and stay locked for the wrong people). Additionally, you can have workstations prepare and shutdown on their own as certain employees come and go, or based on time.

If there is anything you do on a regular basis in a predictable manner, you can probably automate it.