If you've been following the articles on our site closely, you'll have noticed a mini series on Smart Home and, how to get started. No doubt you're also seeing this trend in the everyday world around us. The term Smart Home is being used more and more often. You'll find it when shopping for a variety of home products, whether it's door locks, video doorbells, or thermostats, refrigerators or washing machines.
DOES SMART AUTOMATICALLY EQUAL INTELLIGENT?
Do you know that feeling? You buy a robotic vacuum to compliment your smart bulb that you can control from your smart TV. Suddenly you feel like you're living in a smart home. While at first glance it may seem that SmartHome and IntelligentHome are synonymous, that's not quite the case. That's why, in this first part of a series of articles, we're going to look at the concept of a smart home and the difference between SmartHome and IntelligentHome. We'll start by explaining the idea of IntelligentHome and then compare the different levels of approach to installation using a real-life example. Finally, we will summarize a few benefits of smart buildings and especially smart homes.
To better understand these two concepts, it's easiest to imagine that SmartHome is a home that simplifies your living through a variety of apps, sensors, and pre-set scenarios. For example, "If I'm in the living room, turn on the light. When the washing machine runs out, send me a notification." However, these actions must be pre-set by the owner or a programmer.
On the contrary, IntelligentHome strives to learn and improve over time. The house recognizes that whenever the owner leaves, it turns off all appliances and lights. In the future, the house will do this on its own and just inform the owner of this action. Therefore, the essential difference from SmartHome is that IntelligentHome has artificial intelligence and the ability to learn.
SMARTHOME vs. INTELIGENT
- SmartHome/SmartHouse – It is mostly about remote control and surveillance. It is important to emphasise that in this type of household, the user is largely in control of the house's activities. Using the app, he or she can directly control the devices or set up simple automation scenarios. For example, "If there is movement in the kitchen, turn on the light, or if the washing machine is washing, send me a notification to the voice assistant.“
- InteligentHome/InteligentHouse – An IntelligentHome performs all the functions of a SmartHome, but some or all of the control is carried out by artificial intelligence, which performs autonomous actions based on monitoring the behaviour of the home's occupants. The IntelligentHome can respond dynamically to changes and continuously learns and improves over time
IntelligentHome is controlled by artificial intelligence (AI). However, this does not mean that AI is not also present in SmartHome. However, its role here is more of a supporting role than a controlling one. This is the case, for example, with voice assistants such as Siri or Alexa. These assistants, of course, make it much easier for us to enter commands or control smart devices in our home.
Whether we dream of a SmartHome or are tempted to have artificial intelligence in the house, it is advisable to contact an integrator who can help, advise and guide us in both cases. An integrator is the person or company that is responsible for the implementation of all the devices that are to be controlled or monitored. His role is already important in the project phase, when he works closely with the investor and the various professions in order to coordinate all the processes. At the same time, the integrator ensures the recovery, configuration, programming and testing of the entire construction.
POZNÁŠ VÝHODY INTELLIGENTHOME?
All these possibilities are very interesting and can get people really excited, but what benefits can we expect from such an IntelligentHome? There are of course several benefits, although the main theme is sustainability, efficiency and not least the comfort of living.
- Recognising your habits, such as coming and going from home, the smart home can effectively and efficiently use it to autonomously create scenarios for controlling lighting, heating or cooling, thus not only increasing the comfort of living, but more importantly reducing costs and the carbon footprint.
- It can analyse residents' reactions to weather changes, such as closing windows, putting things away from the patio or parking the car in the garage, and predict these actions and make them autonomous in the future based on weather forecasts, including putting things away using humanoid robots and parking the car. Only a few cars currently have this capability, but we are building a house, so to speak, for life, so it should be ready for the arrival of new technologies.
- Using geolocation and meteorological data in combination with a light sensor, it can evaluate the optimum blackout position and angle of the blinds to achieve the highest possible heating or cooling efficiency.
Of course, there are many more benefits presented by the IntelligentHome concept, and it is up to the creativity of the owner and integrator to decide what solutions they decide to implement to make these benefits tangible. Last but not least, the investor's own budget also plays an important role ?
We are already preparing the next part of this series of articles about integration and the role of the integrator. We hope this concept has intrigued you and got you thinking about what your smart home could one day look like.
Tomáš Feterik & Tomáš Lörinc, authors
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