Ideas to Make Your Home Smarter

Artificial intelligence (AI) and connectivity are two of the areas of the technological world that have. had the greatest development in recent years. Both the arrival of high-speed broadband and 5G mobile networks that are being deployed around the world, as well as autonomous devices, are topics that are not alien to most users.

In its evolution, both AI and high-speed connectivity have made a big splash in homes, providing
solutions to routine tasks, and even allowing you to maximize and take advantage of free time. In this article, we will see different options that, supported by these technologies, will allow you to set up a smart home without complications.

Improve Connection

Almost all households have an internet connection. Regardless of the ISP and the chosen plan, the truth
is that we can almost always improve the speed and quality of the connection inside our home. This
topic is crucial because it will be the heart of our smart home and connected devices.

Normally the routers provided by ISPs do not waste quality. In addition, with our own router, we can control certain parameters and accesses.

When choosing the most suitable one, a good idea for Wi-Fi to reach the entire house is to buy along-
range router (also known as wall breakers). The latter is an inexpensive router with a transfer rate of 1200
megabits per second and four 5dBi omnidirectional antennas.

Another option is to convert your home’s electrical grid to send data using powerline technology. Using
the Devolo firm starter kit, we can connect a device to the router and an outlet and transmit data to
another point in the house (where we must connect another Devolo device included in the box).

Home Appliances

Brands like Samsung and LG already have their own connected product ecosystems. In the case of
Samsung, this bet on its own assistant called Bixby that can interact with other equipment such as
televisions, speakers, refrigerators, and washing machines.

 In turn, the technology has a hub that must be connected to a router and which will be the center of experience for the brand's artificial intelligence proposal. If you want to see this technology working, you can visit Samsung's smart home located in the
Palermo neighborhood (Armenia 1644). Get more information on home depot appliances.

For its part, LG has its ecosystem of products encompassed under the ThinQ brand. Using Google
Assistant and Amazon Alexa, offer a series of connected products ranging from refrigerators, to air
conditioners, washing machines, televisions, and speakers.

Forget About Cleaning

Sweeping and mopping every day can be one of the most routine tasks of our lives. Luckily, there are
already a series of solutions to delegate this task to connected robots that walk around our home
cleaning the floors.

We tested (and that is why we recommend) the iRobot Roomba 980, one of the most complete
solutions on the market. Among other things, it maps the house, improving cleaning times every day. It
also allows operating the robot through an app installed on the smartphone, being able to check the
cleaning remotely.

If we are looking for a cheaper alternative and also obtaining excellent results, the Ava Mini from Smart Tek may be the solution. At just $ 16,000, it leaves no dirt unraveled It includes a charging base that, like the
Roomba 980, will return to charge autonomously. The Ava Mini can be programmed via your remote
control to automatically start your tour each day at a specified time.

An Online Personal Assistant

Google Assistant is one of the many technologies (along with Alexa and Siri, for example) that can
become a true personal assistant to remember appointments, schedule events, and answer emails with your
voice, make phone calls, and program and send instructions to connected devices in our home.

In addition to being able to use Assistant through our cell phones, a good idea is to add a smart speaker
that allows you to interact with this software without pressing buttons or holding the phone with your
hand. One of the options sold in the country is the JBL Link 10, a 360-sound solution that includes Google
software and can become the smart experience center in our home.

With The Help Of Cameras

Keeping an eye on our home when we are away is not something new, but with the new wifi cameras,
we can have access directly from our smartphone just by installing an app. The highlight here is that
there are generic kits that are easy to install for as little as $ 2000. Also, outdoor cameras monitor the
perimeter of the house.

If you have a larger budget, you can purchase a kit with several cameras with a central DVR that will
provide greater scalability in our security system.  Another option is to purchase a Wi-Fi porter that
allows you to wirelessly check who is on the other side of the door using your phone. Although there are generic and inexpensive solutions, one of the best options is Ring brand products.

Let There Be Light

Another interesting aspect that we can control through our smartphone just by buying the indicated kit,
are the home lights. The Philips brand already sells its HUE lights in Argentina that allow you to configure them, program routines, and turn them on and off from an app installed on your mobile. 

A good idea is to start with the starter kit that includes the HUE hub that will need to be connected to the router and three connected bulbs. Then the proposal can be scaled up by acquiring more lamps of different types such as LED strips, dichroic, etc.

Another option is to turn a traditional lamp or table into a smart device. For this, we can choose a Wi-Fi
plug that adds almost any traditional device to our IoT ecosystem, it will only be a matter of plugging it
into an outlet and configuring it. Those from the national firm Solidmation are good, reliable, and can be obtained at affordable prices in Mercado Libre.

Attention With Safety

Setting up a smart home allows you to automate tasks and schedule routines; But one aspect that we
cannot ignore is computer security indoors, especially with so many connected devices.

As we said before, buying our own router will allow us to configure various aspects related to security
such as setting a secure password to connect to the home network or even filtering by MAC indicating
which devices in our home can have access to the internet.

We will also have to pay special attention to the configuration of each device that we add to our
connected home. One recommendation is to read the manuals and pay special attention to the access
required by each of these devices.