Apple smart home in home improvement, features and device systems, compatible products

Close Horizons

At the beginning of the 20th century, an electric light bulb was reputedly unheard of luxury; in the middle of the century, an unassuming color TV played the role of gift of fate. Since then, the idea of ​​comfort has changed a lot, and people are used to relying on a variety of gadgets that can facilitate daily routines. Leading IT companies took the next logical step and, it seems, took away a fantastic piece of bread from science fiction writers and screenwriters, making the idea of ​​a smart home a reality.

Smart home systems began to spread more than a decade ago, and at the dawn of their appearance they were extremely complex and expensive to set up and maintain. Today, the situation has changed, and to make your home smarter, you do not need a fantastic budget and radical changes. If you have already set such a goal, you can move to it at a speed convenient for you, starting with a single device (for example, a smart kettle).

Smart benefits

Accessibility is a pleasant, but not the main advantage of a smart home, it has other convincing advantages:

• Savings . The smart system will help to save energy if the lighting, appliances and heating devices are combined into a single network. So, thermostats can work smoothly with radiators, and blinds - with lighting; help them in this control center and Wi-Fi.

• Comfort . A simple click in the application on your smartphone - and the house will welcome you with outdoor lighting, a new episode of your favorite series and a comfortable temperature.

• Security . In the arsenal of smart housing, there are many options, from the "night watchman" function with motion sensors, to cameras that track movement around the site, and send a report to your smartphone. The system can simulate the presence of people, even if you left for a long time.

• Perspectives . Gradually, you will be able to add this or that device to the network, increasing the comfort and safety of life, and this can be done in rental housing. If you want to improve the life in a rented apartment, the best wireless devices. When moving, they do not deliver a lot of trouble.

How smart the house

Currently exists several levels of intelligent housing:

• Basic . All smart devices work as independent units; Motion sensors are tied to a video camera, electrical appliances are turned on by timer. You can call such a smart house, but only with a stretch.

• Smart Automation . All processes can be controlled remotely by sending a command from a phone or tablet. The house will grow wiser, and will listen to your voice, distinguishing from all the other two-legs. He will not follow the bad advice of your own offspring or friend who has run away; Access rights and the ability to reprogram the settings will only be with you.

• Intelligent Control . Not a common option, but technology does not stand still, and the day is near when artificial intelligence will become mundane, like a grandmother’s refrigerator. The computer controlling the house will be endowed with the ability to self-learn; Your desires will be guessed, and you will quickly get used to the fact that the responsibility of the smart home will be ordering products and selecting new movies to watch.

What it can

Apple has implemented the home concept intelligence among the first. In its performance, all devices (alarm, air conditioning, lighting, blinds, sockets and much more) are connected to the control center, in the role of which is the iPhone, iPad or Apple TV.

The system is easy to manage. Intellectual home appliances, once connected and configured, can save the owners from a lot of pesky affairs. The control unit easily copes with many responsibilities:

• Adjusting the temperature and humidity in rooms . The system will turn off the heating when you leave the house, and turn off the air conditioner if a window opens.

• Dimming . You can set the backlight at the garage door, festive illumination or romantic lighting of the living room.

• Prevents damage in case of emergency situations . Safety concerns are taken with a variety of sensors. Smart home is able to track the deterioration of the weather and lower the roller blinds in the attic. There will be no leakage in the water supply or heating system either.

How does the smart home

Dream dreams but housing performing voice commands is an objective reality. Leading companies have developed various smart home concepts.The Apple home automation system, implemented using an iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch, has the following features:

• General control of appliances, lighting, and all sorts of sensors (for example, opening windows ) o there is with HomeKit application (through its own interface), or using the Siri helper. The management of voice commands is available.

• HomeKit is installed on any gadget running iOS ; it can be either a tablet or a smartphone, or a TV or, for example, a smart watch.

• The main advantage is that you do not have to rush between gadget applications, changing their settings. All management will be concentrated in HomeKit .

• Scenario control . You create scenarios of work, both individual devices and the entire system.

• Important advantage of HomeKit . The application is designed for an ordinary user who does not have the time and desire to learn the basics of programming in order to connect another device or change settings.

• An integrated approach . The creators of HomeKit have taken care of convenience - the application can be associated not only with Apple native accessories, but also with products from third-party manufacturers.

• Security . Unlike other systems, HomeKit does not go to the cloud server; All devices are connected to a local Wi-Fi network. The likelihood that management will be intercepted by an outsider tends to zero.

• Restriction . As the hero of the film “Only Girls In Jazz” used to say: no one is perfect. So here: HomeKit can only be installed on the latest generation of Apple gadgets. You can find out if your phone or tablet is among the lucky ones by visiting the company's official website (there is a list of supported models there).

Apple products: from which to build a smart home

Gradually housing, endowed with intelligence, ceases to seem fiction. The merits of smart homes have been appreciated in many countries; Some construction companies (laid back in Japan and the USA) began to equip new buildings with smart lighting fixtures, locks, air purifiers and much more. For the smart home, Apple has developed many devices that support HomeKit technology. The following apple gadgets are popular in Russia:

• Weather station Eve Degree Connected . You will be aware of the current atmospheric pressure, temperature and humidity of the air at home and outdoors. The data is displayed on your smartphone and on the station display. Since the sensor works with Siri, you can simply ask about the temperature.

• Eve Room Air Analyzer Room . Unlike the weather station, it provides data not only on temperature and humidity, but also on the quality of the air in the house. Measurement data is accumulated, and you can view the history for the selected period (week, month or year).

• Surveillance camera . The device registers the movement, records video and sends a message to the owner. The camera height of just over 13 cm has the function of night vision and two-way sound transmission.

• Intelligent multicolor LED lamp . For room lighting you can choose any of the millions of available color and white shades. Thanks to the built-in Wi-Fi unit, the lamp is very easy to integrate into the network of devices.

• Eve Smart Water Flow Controller Aqua . It will be useful to owners of lawns, beds and beds. The smart device will turn on and off the watering system according to the schedule you created, track water consumption and block the system from children.

• Wireless motion sensor Eve Motion . Responds to your appearance in the house, manages the connected accessories and includes scripts.

Compatible products for smart home

Particularly nice that Apple’s smart home system can add not only devices from this legendary company. More than 50 global companies produce smart gadgets compatible with the Apple platform and integrated into the HomeKit system. Finding the right intellectual technology is easy. The competition here is great, so there are some very interesting options, such as the August doorbell, which allows you to lock and open the door autonomously.It can be supplemented with a camera called August Doorbell Cam, which will send photos of the guests in your absence to the smartphone.

Another interesting device is the intelligent Withings Aura system with an alarm function that helps its owners get enough sleep. The device analyzes the duration and quality (phases) of your sleep, as well as data on the microclimate of the room (light, temperature, humidity, noise). Aura even wakes up with the mind - selects the phase of REM sleep, when the body is most ready for awakening.

System features: comfort scenario

Of course, you can, without sparing time, change the settings in each device separately, but the beauty of Apple’s intellectual is that it is designed for screenwriting. It's about automation. You will be able to set up the system so that it launches one or another script (set of actions) upon the occurrence of a certain event, freeing you from unnecessary gestures.

You can use ready-made scripts embedded in the system, modify them, and, in the face of creativity, create your own, realizing them with one touch. The following ready-made scripts are available in Apple's Smart Home:

• Morning Scenario . According to the scenario, the heating is turned on first, 20-30 minutes earlier than the alarm sounds. Lighting is turned on where necessary, a toaster wakes up in the kitchen, and a coffee maker starts working. All these operations do not require daily planning, and, after a one-time setup, are launched with one click.

• Scenario "I left " Once at work, you do not have to be nervous, wondering if the proverbial iron (or gas) is turned off. The smart home will take care to block the doors and windows, turn off the appliances, and put the air conditioning system into an economical mode. You can get rid of all these worries with one click.

• Scenario "I'm at home" . In the evening, an obliging house will open the garage door in front of you, remove the lock from the front door, set the optimum air temperature, without wasting any joules of energy. Mindful of your habits, the system will light the lighting in the right rooms, boil the kettle and turn on the TV.

• Night script . You calmly go to bed, knowing that the doors are locked, and the heating is transferred to economy mode. The problem of night movement is solved by motion sensors and lighting tuned to the minimum power.

• In addition to the basic , there are such scenarios as “Dinner” and “Cinema”, as well as “Romance” and “Party”.

About the walk through the smart home in the following video:

Additional features

HomeKit application, In addition to household chores, he does not hesitate to enter the big world and implements the following functions:

• Managing home settings from the outside . Technology does not know the limits: even being in another country (on another continent), you can view the results of video surveillance, or mimic the presence of the owners (this will require a separate scenario).

• Track your movements . The smart home will capture your movements and launch the desired scenario as you approach.

• Running the script by time . You do not need to send a signal to the system from a smartphone; It’s enough to tell HomeKit how long the gadgets are activated, and she will do everything herself.

• Scenarios for individual devices . Nothing prevents you from setting up, for example, a motion sensor on a situation; then in the evening it will turn on the lamps by 95%, and at night by 15%.

Conclusion

Smart home is one of The main, and, already obvious, long-term trends. If you decide to equip your home with a similar system, remember about the compatibility of devices and be careful when choosing. It is believed that the wireless version of the intelligent system is more suitable for a rental apartment. In their own homes, a stationary (wired) system is considered more practical, so as not to worry about replacing batteries.

Of course, the components of a smart home consume a considerable amount of energy. But, if the system is well debugged, and all elements work in concert, then the processes will proceed with maximum savings. Today, Apple's smart home boasts a huge variety of accessories and features, controlled by a pair of touches. But make no mistake - he can not read thoughts. Yet.