Whatever is fiction today, is the groundwork for tomorrow’s reality. This thought is experienced first-hand by every generation, and we the people of the ‘smart’ world are experiencing it at a rate like never before. The world today is changing at the speed of thought. Our workplaces, schools, public facilities and every institution is transforming rapidly in the throes of digitization. But most importantly, our homes are getting altered beyond imagination. Smart devices, from televisions to refrigerators, have added an unprecedented level of convenience and intuitiveness to our daily lives. We are operating our ACs while driving home from work, our refrigerators remind us of running out of groceries and our smartphones, well that’s a different story altogether. If you have not joined the smart home and smart room bandwagon yet, here are a few ways by which you can quickly, cost-effectively, and efficiently ‘tech’ify your room to experience supreme comfort and confidence-
Voice of God: Our virtual friends/assistants/voice-bots
A sweet voice fulfilling your every wish, seems straight out of a fairytale, isn’t it? But a majority of the urban population is living this dream-like existence, through the Alexas of the world. These voice-enabled assistance devices have reduced unnecessary movement across rooms massively, allowing us to switch devices on/off, playing our choice of music, setting daily task reminders, the works. However, we have still not realized the enormous convenience goldmine we are sitting upon these conversational assistance devices are able to unleash once combined with sensors, which we shall talk about next.
IR and motion sensors
When you enter a room, lights automatically light up, are illuminating each step of yours in the hallway. No, it is not a romantic poet’s eulogy, but a technology that can enhance anyone’s day-to-day experience. Wokring similarly proximity and motion sensors can also enrich an in-room experience. These functions can be combined with voice-assistance devices through existing modules and easy-to-learn plug-in code hardware such as Raspberry Pi. Raspberry Pi has the ability to interact with machines in the outside world for various functions such as monitoring child-camera detectors to warming birdhouses! It is bringing the world of technology, especially the how aspect of it, easier for people all over the world. Now, just a device and a software to develop the code can enable a device to do your bidding.
Power tracks
Power tracks can get rid of the age –old problem of having to go to the socket to charge your devices. These are long, tracked charging outlets that can support more than 25 devices at a time and have universally adaptable sockets that are compatible across devices. Friends have gathered and everyone needs to charge their phones? With power track, the case of ‘who goes first’ will not arise anymore.
Go wire-free
All over the world, the trend is to go wireless as it enhances convenience, reliability and minimizes the probability of accidents. Technologies such as Near Field Communication and Bluetooth can also be explored. For instance, paired phones can charge each other up when placed back-to-back, after they negotiate the appropriate host and client.However, this is not it and wireless technologies are only evolving and progressing as time does.
Use smart apps and let the machines talk
Machine-machine conversations are easing our work every day. Try to get all your electronic devices connected with your smartphone through apps that allow you complete remote control on them. Such solutions allow you to keep a tab on what’s happening at the home front electronically and enable you to remain secure and at ease!
Consumers today are asking for freedom and convenience when it comes to appliances. Freedom of positioning, time and shorter charging times. At this juncture, the truly smart ones need to make the transition towards smart devices as soon as possible, as this is the way the world is running towards fast.
-- Rohan Kumar, CEO at Indyro Global
