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A day in the life of a SMART HOME
FAMILY
"It's Friday morning." Last
night the bedside control was set to awake us at 6:00 a.m. At 5:45
a.m., the temperature automatically adjusts for morning comfort.
Soft music plays at 5:55 and the table lamp turns on. At 6:00 the
lamp brightens and we awaken to news on the television.
The security system automatically changes to activity mode. As our
feet touch the carpet, more lights come on. At 6:45 lights and music
in the children's rooms have awakened them.
As the last one leaving, I set the security system to
"Away" mode. All unnecessary lights and potentially hazardous
appliances such as coffeepots and curling irons are turned off.
Thermostats adjust the environment to maximize energy
conservation. I leave knowing that our Home Management System
will notify me if anything wrong occurs.
During the day, the system adjusts the outdoor
lighting appropriately. At dawn all perimeter lights automatically
turn off. At night the outdoor lights glow at 75% brightness to
conserve energy. If the driveway is used or motion is detected at
the main entrance, our outdoor lights automatically brighten to 100%
for five minutes and the monitoring system identifies the guest. The
swimming pool pump will cycle on schedule and the lawn will be
watered, unless it rains.
Friday
afternoon A quick telephone call to the system
tells me that at 3:38 p.m. the kids scanned their smart key in the
system. TV's are not operational until 5:00 p.m. and the house is in
activity mode, meaning the children can play freely inside or study
while the outside of the home remains secure. They are home and
safe.
Friday evening Upon my
arrival the driveway sensors illuminate the lights to full
brightness. As the garage door opens, entrance lights turn on. My
intelligent home anticipates each step as the entryway, hallway and
stairway lighting turn on as required and then turn off five minutes
later. If someone tries to enter the garage while I pull in, I can
tap the garage opener and panic buttons on my remote to open the
garage door and trigger an alarm to a monitoring service or directly
to the police. The lights will flash on and off and a siren will
sound. When we decide to watch a movie as a family, a tap on the
theater scene button activates the entire room: Blinds close, lights
dim, the screen drops from the ceiling. The movie begins. Since all
three children have dropped off to sleep, we pause the movie and
carry the kids to bed. While upstairs, we decide to watch the rest
of the movie from our bed. A click on the remote turns the TV
downstairs off and our bedroom TV comes on. As the movie ends, one
button (sleep mode) shuts the entire house down for the night and
secures it appropriately.
Saturday morning
We are packed and ready for the two-hour drive to the
cottage. From the cellular keypad we activate the cottage controls.
The temperature adjusts and water heater turns on. All is ready when
we arrive.
Saturday afternoon Deciding to go to the lake, we realize we did not tell
our parents that we went to the cottage for the weekend. So we call
our telephone system and leave a message to their personal voice
mailbox on our system. Now when my parents call our home, they will
enter their personal code to leave a message for us and retrieve the
message we left for them. If anyone leaves a message on our home
phone it will automatically be forwarded to our cottage system.
Saturday evening after
returing from the lake, we decide to create a Photo Album using the
video I took with my camcorder. I use the computing-internet system
to take snapshots of the best scenes on my video. The system
instantly creates the Photo Album and stores it to our internet
address. The kids are able to see and talk to their grandparents
through our videoconferencing system to share the excitement of our
weekend. Since we created an electronic Photo Album of the events,
we are able to view the pictures at the same time and
videoconference with my parents. Best of all, there are no long
distance charges since we use the broadband capabilities of the
system
Now is the time to let your home
work for you!
NextGen Technologies will
custom design a Home Automation System which will allow for the
interactive lifestyle that you deserve. |