Your car is opening the garage door by calling up your voice assistant. An audiobook is using Amazon’s Whispersync or Google tech to pick up reading your New York Times bestseller in your car. It’s picked up the narrative at the same place you stopped at in bed the night before. The technology behind your […]
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Different Smart Home Assistant Form Factors
The Virtual Assistants you’re hearing about on the news and in tech articles are a direct result of artificial intelligence. The earliest examples of these pseudo personalities didn’t even have a cozy electronic processor to inhabit. These were the chatbots that represented the first generations of consumer-friendly smart interfaces. Regarded as simple computer programs, a […]
What is a Smart Home Assistant?
Pull away from the circuits and codes. Knowledge of that abstract coding is handy, especially if you enjoy following developments in artificial intelligence, but too much conceptual thinking can cause headaches. So pull your focus away from all of this talk about software architecture. Instead, let’s strip things back by assuming a clutter-free stance. At […]
Naming Popular Smart Home Speaker Artificial Intelligence Systems
Four big names dominate the AI consumer smart speaker market. This isn’t a scenario where IBM and its Watson Cognitive Technology engine has a place, nor is it one where Google’s DeepMind can make inroads. No, in the grand scheme of things your device will mimic the capabilities of these globally adept machine services, but […]
About AI-Powered Smart Home Speaker Voice Recognition Systems
First of all, what is artificial intelligence? You know what it’s not. It’s not the HAL 9000 computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey, nor is it the calming tones of Jarvis, Iron Man’s own inbuilt virtual assistant. Movies tend to have an interesting take on how you’ll eventually interact with an Artificial Intelligence, but such […]
Smooth Wi-Fi is Essential in Smart homes
Nowadays, a modem router device is supplied by your broadband supplier, this piece of hardware not only interconnects your household with the Internet, but it also radiates a Wi-Fi signal. Not always but in some instances, your router can affect the performance levels of your smart home. On occasions, this piece of hardware may not […]
2012 Mini-Podcast Smart Home Course
Here is a mini-series of podcasts that I recorded way back in 2012 and 2013! Alot has changed since! In this first episode of this mini-podcast series, you’ll get to hear Gerard’s thoughts on the following: A trip down smart home memory lane Some details about the evolution of smart homes Ideas about the smart […]
Smart Home Radio Show – Recorded in 2013 and 2014
Here are some recordings I did with some smart home pioneers back in April 2014. Here is the first recording of the show, where I answer some questions from blog readers of the time. In this second episode of The Smart Home Radio Show, I chat with Charles Smith with Centralite – one of the […]
[Infographic]: 10 Things You Need to Know about Apple HomeKit Smart Home Automation System
Before choosing a platform and vendor for your smart home; here are 10 things about the Apple HomeKit ecosystem that you need to be cognizant of. 1. HomeKit consists of Three Different Parts The elements of An Apple HomeKit end-to-end system are iOS device(s), various smart home products, and optionally an Apple TV. 2. Setting […]
Essential Guide to Smart Bulbs and Smart Lighting Control
Lighting control is projected to be an extremely fast-growing sector over the next five to ten years. In fact, according to a recent builder technology market study conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association, lighting control represents the second-biggest increase of any home technology subsystem, eclipsing home theatre, multi-room audio, and structured wiring! Lighting control takes […]