By Rabindra Rooplall
AFTER introducing the world’s smallest personal computer – a device that can fit in the palm of your hand- to the local market President of STARR Computer, Michael Mohan says technological advancements are rapidly evolving and the company will be looking into the concept of Smart Homes.During an exclusive interview with this publication, Mr Mohan related that Smart-Homes, also known as automated homes, are a recent design development.
He explained that Smart Homes incorporate common devices that control features of the home. Originally, smart home technology was used to control environmental systems such as lighting and heating; but recently the use of smart technology has developed so that almost any electrical component within the house can be included in the system.
Moreover, Mohan said the smart home technology does not simply turn devices on and off, it can monitor the internal environment and the activities that are being undertaken whilst the house is occupied.
“The result of these modifications to the technology is that a smart home can now monitor the activities of the occupant of a home, independently operate devices in set predefined patterns or independently, as the user requires.” He explained, “Smart home technology uses many of the same devices that are used in assistive technology to build an environment in which many features in the home are automated and devices can communicate with each other.”
With the important development of the internet and the high speed access, the potential of home working and teleworking is becoming possible.
He underscored that those smart objects can be just a light that we can control, a refrigerator which knows its state and is able to supply in line by itself, telephony, security systems, videos on demand, …all those objects will be connected on the home network to give their states or receive instructions. Home networking allows the home to become fully connected, controlled externally as well as internally. The residential gateway offers an external access by the way of Ethernet or Internet network. This gateway makes it possible for the house to connect new services and to download them. The service provider is in charge of the new services for inhabitants and their accessibility.
“In a schematic way, a smart home can be described as a house which is equipped with smart objects, a home network which makes it possible to transport information between objects and a residential gateway to connect the smart home to the outside Internet world. Smart objects make it possible to interact with inhabitants or to observe them.” Mr Mohan pointed out.
“In just a few years, you’ll awake in the morning to the sound of your alarm, and the hidden sensors in the room will know you’re getting up. The lights will automatically but gradually turn on and the thermostat will warm the rooms you’re about to use — the bathroom, the kitchen and, a few minutes later, your car…The coffee will start to brew. You’ll get push notifications about the weather. Your kitchen will remind you which ingredients you’ll need to pick up on your way home from work and the items you’ll want to include in dinner that night before they spoil. When you leave the house, you’ll press a button via an app that will self-drive your car out of the garage,” Mr Mohan emphasized.
A Smart Home is really just a collection of technical home automation concepts that are implemented by your installer and integrated together to meet your goals and expectations the client. A good job entails providing the highest quality of integration between the chosen ‘Home Automation concepts’ using products that are stand-alone products, well supported in the market and can be enhanced by cross-linking with other Smart Home systems.