Its been almost a year since I posted a blog here. Life gets in the way sometimes, and I'm sure its happened to my readers.
As a deaf person, I'm very conscious about knowing whats happening around me. This applies especially to a household. Many deaf people get a dog mainly so that the dog will be their "doorbell" - it'll bark when someones at the door or if something happens, so they act as an early warning system for most people. However, I'm allergic to dogs/cats so this isn't really much of an option for me.
We recently moved to a two family house in Rockaway, New York (a part of Queens) and are now one block away from the beach.
I've used this as an excuse to really do a lot of home automation upgrades to our new home, to see what I can and can't do, especially in the way of smoke alarms, lights flashing for notifications, etc. I have a lot of great ideas and will be posting a series of blogs here about specific products that I've used, and what I liked/didn't like about them. Hopefully this will give other people (especially deaf) ideas on how to utilize today's technology to enhance your home experience.
Right off the bat, we've purchased four things.
1. Lockitron which is lock you put on your deadbolt and you can program it so that it'll open as you walk up the door, or you can open it remotely via an app on your iphone/android.
2. Doorbot - This is a webcam doorbell. You'd install a device where you'd normally put a doorbell. It has a webcam on it, so whoever pushes the doorbell will be on video. You'd get a notification on your phone (regardless of whether you're home or not) that someones at the door, and you open the app and see who it is. You can see them, but they can't see you. You can also "talk" like an intercom through the app. This wouldn't work for a deaf person, but I like the video aspect, so I don't have to go downstairs and peek through the peephole. This also has a tie in with the Lockitron so you can unlock the door via that while in this app.
3. Nest - This is a well known company. I've wanted this product for a long time and finally got an opportunity to get this. We also bought 5 of their Nest Protect (smoke/carbon detectors). I'm looking forward to having some fun with these. The Nest is a "learning" thermostat that learns your normal daily behavior and will program the thermostat to save energy based on your normal behavior. Naturally, there's an app, and you can adjust the thermostat remotely.
4. Philips Hue - This, and number 5 will be the key to the whole system of home automation. The Hue system, albeit on the pricey side, has a lot of applications. Its a wifi-enabled network of lights. You can buy several different types of light bulbs and they connect (up to 50 at once) to a device called the Bridge. Depending on the bulbs you buy, they can change color, to as many as 64,000 different colors. Some bulbs are designed to be like a regular bulb - in a lamp. Others are more of a floodlight type (that you'd put in recessed lighting) and they have stand-alone lamps called the Iris and Bloom. They also just released the Lux which is white only.
And this next part isn't a system we "bought" but a service thats available to everybody.
5. If this, then that. If this, then that is a service where you can enable "channels" of various things - from ESPN to the Nest to the hue. You set up a trigger, "if this" and then if its triggered, an action "then that." To give you an example, I can set it up so that If the Baltimore Orioles start a game, then my philips Hue lights blink on and off. I can do the same for any team.
I can even make it blink for every score. I can also make it so that my lights turn on when I arrive home based on the Lockitron. I can even make my lights change color based on WHO comes home. "If Simon comes home, then turn lights blue." "If Sarina comes home, turn lights orange" and so on. All of this works with the If this then that system.
I'll be posting pictures of my various gadgets and will devote specific blogs to each of the systems above. If anybody has any questions about any of these, feel free to let me know. I'm looking forward to playing with these toys!
