Smart technology has revolutionized our lives in ways that would have been unimaginable a couple of years ago. This area of technology has come a long way lately, with so many of us turning to smart devices on a daily basis for all sorts of purposes, for work, pleasure, or basic things around the house. Smart tech is all about making our lives easier and part of that is creating devices that are more intuitive and also have more functionalities.
Our homes are not only getting smarter today, they’re also getting savvier. Home entertainment now provides a world of options at your fingertips, but this just the beginning, as you’ll soon be able to control almost anything in your home with a simple tap on a screen, or even better, with voice commands.
By using only your smartphone and the internet you can also transform your home into one that provides easier living and boasts some high-life pizazz. Here are a few tips that will help you create your smart home plus some products with which you can make it happen.
Smart Lighting
The right lighting can have a powerful effect on a home, and make it look cozy and luxurious. To go for the smart effect, use smart light bulbs and, if they’re on the ceiling and a switch on the wall controls them, replace the switches with some smart ones.
A Noon Lighting System will do the trick. It’s expensive, sophisticated, and takes away the need for all the switches since you replace them with a single central lighting switch.
TVs of the Future
LG’s forthcoming Signature OLED TV R is much more than a simple TV. Unveiled early last year, this futuristic voice-control set is basically a dashboard that comes with Google Assistant and Amazon’s Alexa built-in, with five other modes that allow you to play your favorite music and set the mood and lighting in the room.
The feature that really sets it apart is the hidden 65-inch roll out screen that can turn any room into a modern home theater or shrink to a compact bar, also called the “Line View” mode, that allows to enjoy the views outside while playing music or displaying helpful info like the weather.
AI Personal Assistants
Alexa, Siri, the Google Assistant or Microsoft’s Cortana, they’re all very smart and can provide you with the right answers to your questions within seconds, but their AI will get even better in the future, as everyone is trying to fine tune their ideas. Samsung has unveiled in January a cool tennis ball-shaped robot called Ballie that could easily act like your personal assistant.
This smart voice-controlled assistant won’t just answer your questions, but it’s also capable of making real-time decisions based on your mood and previous requests, such as taking a picture only when the lighting is good or.. cleaning up after your pets before you even ask it to do so. It’s a smart companion that understands and supports you, your family and even your pets.
Invisible Charging
The growing number of smart devices in our lives has a few downsides as well: messy wires everywhere and lots of batteries that need to be charged pretty often. That’s where invisible infrared technology comes in handy. Wireless charging stands or docks for your phones are not really new, but what would you say about a solution for your entire home?
Wi-Charge offers ultra compact invisible infrared chargers that plug right into your light or power sockets. The R1 powers with pinpoint accuracy devices at up to 30 foot (9 meters) via infrared beams, so you don’t even need to place your phone on a dock.
Multiroom Audio
Multiroom audio really is the business and will infuse your home with a stylish smart touch. Get a speaker going in each room, and you can stream your favorite hits or just keep the party atmosphere alive and buzzing as your guests move from room to room. You could even send different songs or albums to each speaker. A Sonos speaker system for the job because it’s one of the most versatile.
If you’re going to add multiroom audio, you’ll need some smart speakers and a good internet connection to connect all your speakers, not to mention the other smart devices in your home. You don’t want it dropping out because you picked a poor deal. You’ll find good broadband deals on the Cable site.
Since you’re streaming music to each speaker, it’s worth considering a fast connection and allowing 10 Mbps for every internet user in your house (or 20 Mbps if they stream video games or movies).
Personalized Security
When you have lots of gadgets, you need to secure your home, and you can use smart technology to do it with style and sophistication. The August Smart Lock 3rd Gen allows you to lock and unlock your home without keys.
Using the August app, you can also send someone a key to let themselves into your home. With a smart lock, you can unlock your home by using fingerprint, a PIN no or your smartphone, instead of fumbling around for a key.
Smart Plugs
Smart plugs are a convenient way to manage your devices. You can schedule them to come on or off as you’d like. The TP Link Kasa Smart Plug HS105 does a fine job. You can plug lamps and more into it, set the timer, using an app, and let the plug do the rest of the work. It also has a high power-load, which will be handy for devices that need to consume more power to run.
A smart home is a sophisticated, luxurious home. It offers you convenience and shows your guests you appreciate some of the finer things in life. You can quickly set it up and then all you need to do is issue a few taps on a phone screen or a voice command to your phone or devices such as Alexa or Google Home.
Self-Sustaining Systems
Self sustaining homes are more valued than ever nowadays. With the increased number of devices and connectivity in your home you might want to have an advanced home energy management system. Green Lux Homes offer exactly that, designed by S2A to be the world’s “first electrically self sustaining, custom luxury homes”.
Combining tailor-made features, with high-end materials and smart connected living, these smart homes will have the potential to produce “surplus energy income” by producing more electricity than you need, that could be sold back to the grid, in theory.
Virtual Reality Home Fitness
We’ve all looked for different ways to stay active and fit this year, as gyms have been closed for months during the quarantine. Yves Behar’s Forme might be the perfect answer to this, an all in one fitness system that looks like a cool mirror, that also helps you stay in shape, storing high-tech resistance gear right within its structure.
This system features pullies and high quality aluminum arms that can be adjusted as you with for different type of exercises. But the best thing is that it can also display screenings of any fitness classes so you can get a yoga mat, sit down and follow your favorite trainers as you workout from home. Forme also comes with speakers, a microphone and a camera, so your trainer can also see what you’re doing.
Smart Home Hubs
With all these smart devices around your home, you will also need a central hub to control them all. The best option to integrate all your smart tech together is probably the Amazon Echo Speaker, but you could also get the Google Home hub or Samsung’s SmartThings hub, which is perfect to control your home’s lighting, electricity usage, security and much more.
Other options worth mentioning are the Securifi Smart Home Hub, the TP-Link Smart Hub, Apple TV 4K, the Wink Hub 2 hub, or the Logitech Harmony Elite, a universal remote that really lives up to its name.
