The Most Rapidly Advancing Home Automation Features in 2020
Technology Moves Fast in These Three Areas
It's safe to say that technology moves fast these days. We have now come to expect annual (or even quicker) updates to smartphones, tablets, operating systems, and apps. Since the innovation in smart devices like lights, thermostats, and security cameras are primarily software-driven, these devices are also rapidly gaining new intelligent features.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is also driving advances. AI machine learning technology lets smart devices get smarter, detecting patterns and anticipating your moves and desires based on behaviors. What are some of the areas benefitting most from all this AI and software prowess? It’s hard to pick three areas, but we think these three have shown incredible leaps forward in the past couple of years, with much more to come. Keep reading to see how security cameras, voice assistants, and smart lights will enable more advanced home automation in your home in Alpharetta, GA or the greater Atlanta area.
Tunable Lighting
Tunable lighting is the ability of smart LED lights to adjust their color temperature on the fly. In some light bulbs and fixtures, they can also change to a full spectrum of colors. We have referred to this as human-centric lighting with products from Ketra, as it provides the ability to adjust lighting in a way that meshes with our Circadian rhythms. These rhythms are how our bodies react to light, affecting everything from mood to energy and sleep patterns.
Smart lighting control can already automate tunable lighting based on time or scenes that you might define for an activity or mood. You might look for further refinement of that automation in the near future. How about lighting that automatically adjusts with the weather? Based on the day's sunlight, your lights might adapt at home — less light on bright days, more on cloudy and gloomy ones.
Your motorized shades can play along too. Or, how about lights that blend in some color based on the music you're playing? You can tell the system how subtle to be, but it will do it for you. Or, perhaps your smartwatch detects stress with elevated heartrate? Your lights might turn to a warmer hue to relax you. It's all possible as everything becomes more connected and integrated.
Voice Control
Not that many years ago, the type of intelligence in voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri was viewed as a “holy grail” of artificial intelligence. Today, the understanding of voice in many languages is commonplace. Are there any areas for improvement? Of course.
Conversational commands, a better understanding of context, and so much more are possible for home automation purposes. And many of these features are already coming in 2020. Advanced voice command systems like Josh.AI already do a great job as a voice assistant optimized for home control. But all of these will see many improvements with greater understanding of intent, predicting your preferences and asking you if you want something like lowering your shades on a hot afternoon or just doing it based on patterns and routines. Already this year, Amazon and Google released new capabilities that app and device engineers will be able to leverage for more natural voice control experiences.
Video Analytics
As security cameras get better resolution, machine learning video analytics becomes more powerful. Cameras can now detect people, animals, vehicles, and read a license plate if they get a view. Many systems can now let you set up motion zones so that only motion detected in part of a field of view merits an event alert.
Can AI make cameras learn to pay attention to specific movements and not others? Over time, yes. Look for training features where you can tell a system what matters and what doesn’t. And over time, the video surveillance will figure it out for itself based on your interactions. Also, look for even more object detection in the future. Do you need to know the make, model, and year of the car that pulled up in your driveway? It will be detectable. If it’s your friend’s car, your security system will announce their arrival.
Are you looking forward to more advances in home automation? GHT Group can show you how to get started with systems like Crestron and Control4 now that can grow with you into the future. Contact us here or click the button below to start a chat with us immediately. We look forward to working with you!