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Home automation means integration

Historically, the proliferation of home automation has been constrained by the diversity of proprietary protocols used by various manufacturers. This meant for the homeowner a large commitment to a single supplier along with the associated risks of this approach.

With the advent of IP Internet protocol, the notion of a number of standalone devices communicating across a common protocol is finally starting to appear.

The latest industry trend is known as the Internet of Things and is linking disparate elements in our lives from cars to medical devices that are swallowed. For the home it means connectivity from unexpected components like door-locks to thermostats and smoke detectors bringing them into a cohesive experience through another catalyst, the common interface of the ubiquitous smartphone.

The promise of all this emerging technology is the ability to track and adapt to individual behaviours that results from the data generated and a situational awareness of events based on multiple sensors making the whole house experience seamless.

This brings us to the crux of what is home automation about: it’s all about the experience for the users, who in most cases are family members from granny to the kids.

There is a term known as WAF or Wife Acceptance Factor which is often used humorously, but is none-the-less a significant notion to acid test the ease and willingness of a spouse to use a technology within the home. For instance, I may be happy troubleshooting a system failure through rebooting routers and checking IP addresses to resolve a failure in communications, however, If you have ever tried to explain that process to your spouse over the phone, you know it will not end well.

Invisible technology

The Utopian vision of home automation actually makes technology less evident in our environment and a great vision of this is portrayed in the movie on circuit at the moment titled ‘Her’ where you don’t even see keyboards around the home anymore and interfacing to technology is achieved through natural user interfaces such as hand-gestures, touch, or voice commands.

In the meantime while we wait until technology catches up to the dream and becomes more affordable, we need to consider the currently available leading solutions around today which follow the appliance approach to everyday use and maintenance – or in other words you switch it on and it does its job.

The Comfort Intelligent Home Control system designed by Cytech in Singapore is one of the best kept secrets of the home automation world.

Since designing the first system in 1996, the company has used innovative technology and design to create the Comfort system which incorporates an intruder alarm, home automation, voicemail and intercom creating a simple to operate, convenient and cost effective integrated solution.

The Comfort solution has security at its core as most of your home scenarios revolve around whether the home is occupied or not. For instance if the alarm is armed, and someone rings at the gate, the system connects the visitor to your cellphone as if you were in the home and let you open the gate if you are expecting a delivery or gardener for example.

All activities and events are announced through recorded voice prompts giving you a constant awareness of what is happening around your home and garden, eliminating any surprises when you are relaxing and at your most vulnerable.

Security is automatically activated in the evenings making it unobtrusive yet always vigilant. If the gate opens, it is announced or if there is movement at the pool it is also announced and even an SMS sent. If the gun safe, pool or garage is opened and the alarm disarmed by a user not authorised to open these, SMSs can be sent or a phone call can alert you.

Another scenario could be when you return home in the evening and when you open the gate, security and convenient lights are activated around the garden and in the passage for a preset time, giving you a safe lighted path to the keypad to disarm. Entering your personal PIN could also trigger an event to inform a parent of a childs’ or elderly parents’ safe return home via SMS or a phone call.

When you go to sleep, the system can progressively shut down the home starting with outside feature lighting, water features, pool pumps, and dim lights leading to sleeping areas over a period of time giving you a chance to get to your room safely. If you get up during the night, lights could be activated at their lowest level to guide you to the bathroom or kitchen.

You are immediately informed via the voice prompts of any events such as for example an intruder, fire, power-failure, fridge temperature too high, or flood detection as a few examples. You could quickly arm or disarm the alarm from your mobile phone so false-alarms no longer plague your neighbours when on holiday. If you are braaing at the pool and your guests arrive, pressing the gate button rings the cordless phone alerting you to their arrival. You press a key and the gate is opened to let them enter all from the back-yard.

Standard features

Intruder alarm: The intruder alarm features a dialler, telephone control, multiple security modes and home automation system. The system can be armed in various settings including Away Mode when no-one is at home, Day Mode which arms windows and doors and Vacation Mode which randomly activates home appliances and lighting. Should the alarm sound, the system can dial up to eight numbers such as central monitoring stations, mobile phones and pagers.

The Comfort system has 31 pre-programmed alarm types including intruder, fire, power failure which will automatically dial through to the appropriate telephone number. The Voice Station Intercom allows the user to listen to sounds via up to eight keypads in the home in the event of an alarm call to their mobile. An alarm tracking feature can identify the exact location of the intruder.

Home automation: The Comfort Home Automation System can control up to 10 switches, lights and appliances. This offers the user total

control of lighting, curtains, appliances, heating, air-conditioning, televisions, sound systems and projectors. There are various control options such as a handheld remote including the Philips Pronto or the RC01 which will operate the whole house, including the security system to arm and disarm.

A Voice Menu allows Comfort to be controlled from any remote or home telephone. Programmable Scene Switches are available in various styles and colours that can be programmed for any function. The Comfort Web-Server module allows the user to access, monitor and control the system via the Internet.

Voicemail: Cytech has developed a Voicemail Advanced Answering Machine which incorporates eight mailboxes for members of the family. Every individual user can access their messages using their unique PIN code via the home phone, remote phone or keypad. Messages can also be sent to other users within the same system. The user can have a dial-out service with their own designated contact number should a message be left.

Infrared remote control: The Comfort system can be controlled via a handheld infrared remote control. This allows the user to have complete control over devices that are connected to the system. There are 12 room keys, followed by four operation keys to control individual items within the chosen room and 16 scene buttons activate pre-programmed scenes. The bed-time scene can turn off interior lights and activate external lights and wake-up, which turns on heating, hot water or a radio for example. A keypad emulation mode allows the remote control to act as a handheld keypad for arming and disarming the system via a PIN code. A panic alarm can also be activated with this system.

Door station intercom: A door station intercom automatically dials a home telephone when a visitor presses the doorbell. This allows the homeowner to talk to the visitor and open the door or gate. An away mode is set when the homeowner is not at home, the system will call a mobile phone should the doorbell be rung and allows the homeowner to open the door for visitors. This system is an effective deterrent for intruders checking for unoccupied houses.

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