Home Automation

The future is NOW!

Imagine transforming the way you spend your leisure time at home. Picture a home custom tailored to your interests and needs. You'll hear stereo sound in any or all rooms. Use in house paging to keep in touch with family in different rooms. View and record front door guests from your TV and speak to them from your phone. Your computers work together and share files. And your lights are automated. Finally, picture this home with its own dedicated Theater Room or a fully integrated family room with images and surround sound so clear that its Saturday night at the mivies anytime! Now that's a smart house.

Did you ever see one of those sci-fi movies set in the future where everything in the home is automated? Lights turn themselves off and on at the appropriate times, the coffee brews itself promptly at 6:55 every morning, the refrigerator compiles the grocery list for you, and the indoor temperature adjusts itself when no one is home. Well, that scenario is no longer science fiction. As computers in the home become more commonplace, and as residences get wired for internal networking, the opportunities to let computers and programmable electronic devices handle household tasks have already begun to take shape.

The Concept of Smart-Home Technology

In contemporary society, technology surrounds us. There are computers, or at least computer technology, in our cars, phones, home entertainment systems, and even kitchen appliances. Smart-Home technology takes advantage of existing electronics in conjunction with some specialized software to create an intelligent network in your home.

With the right computer programs and the necessary wiring, your PC can become the "brain" of your home, activating and orchestrating activities throughout the house via a nervous system of cables and devices that are linked together.

It's not as difficult or far-fetched as you might think. In fact, there are systems available to help achieve this. The systems come in varying degrees of sophistication and a range of prices. The objectives behind smart-home technology is to make your home safer, help conserve energy and help make your life more enjoyable by automating and simplifying routine activities. The growing trend of home automation typically involves controlling lights and temperature in any room of the house through remote control, computers or a system of timers or sensors. Smart-home technology integrates these activities and can also take care of things like disarming your security system and opening your garage door when you return home.

The more elaborate systems utilize the home PC as the hub for smart-home control, taking the personal computer a leap beyond its more typical uses such as word-processing and budgeting to governing and controlling actual activities in the home. Smart-home software incorporates easy-to-understand interfaces that divide the house into zones and enable you to set up schedules and control household activities on a daily or weekly basis.