If you follow tech stories, then I’m sure you’ve noticed the growing buzz around “smart home” technology. Like any young tech niche, a lot of people are putting off getting a “smart home”, mainly because they think that it will turn out too expensive, too complex to use, or they’ll run into some other problem. However, there’s a range of great benefits offered by smart home technology which outweigh the potential difficulties…
Comfort
Perhaps the biggest selling point of smart home tech is the fact that you can set it up so that it’s perfect for your tastes and preferences. When you’ve got all your electronics linked up to a smart home interface, you can set your lighting, your heating and air conditioning, and various other things set just the way you like it. You can even automate various things, like having music play at certain times to wake you up in the mornings or have a coffee maker start boiling in time for when you come downstairs. There are all kinds of ways that smart home technology is able to make your home a perfect little nest of comfort!
Security
Image from Wikimedia
If you can do without the comfort element of smart home tech, then you may want to invest in it as a way of making your home more secure. This is a niche that’s been growing steadily, and cropping up again and again on major security blogs such as Alarm Reviews. With smart motion sensors, you can set them to only be active at certain times of the day, like when you’re at work. If the sensor is triggered in that given time period, an alert will be sent to your phone. You can also make CCTV cameras a part of the system, and check on your home whenever you like with a smart device or a wall terminal installed in a certain area. Yes, you’re going to have some false alarms when you first set it up, but just like the heating and lights, smart home security features have a range of customisation options. You can choose certain sections of the screen to detect movement or not, so that you’re not constantly getting alerts when your cat triggers a motion sensor.
Help for Those Who Need It
While it’s certainly not widespread, we’re seeing a gradual increase in smart home technology being used to make life easier for the elderly and disabled. Blind people, for example, can make use of voice-activated controls for their TV, stereo, heating and so on. People with conditions that effect their muscles can also use smart home tech to lower blinds, switch on lights, make phone calls and so forth. It’s even possible to set up automatic doors with motion sensors if you have a regular guest who has trouble opening doors. There are even smart pillboxes these days, which will keep track of the medicines they hold, and trigger alerts when it’s time for them to be taken. This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of smart home accessibility.
