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| EMagazine Volume 5 Issue 3 June / July 2000 |
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Toys Article - June 2000 - [HTI Home Page] |
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Whether the motivation is mere security or attempting to soften the emotional letdown of driving away from the vacation home after a relaxing weekend - remote access (even visual access) to your vacation property is now within reach. Thanks to the Internet, it can be simple. Thanks to wireless home automation technology, it can be affordable. And, it can make that get-away seem a little less far away. |
Being dislocated from a vacation home, especially a place you really love, can leave an owner wondering what's going on there. This interest usually isn't completely security oriented, though the incidence of vandalism to vacation properties is a growing problem facing owners. Vacation homeowners also possess a compelling emotional connection to their remote get-aways. Even the most dedicated office worker's mind can wander to thoughts of his or her vacation home throughout the weekdays they're back in the city. Did last night's wind take down trees? Or, is there a beautiful sunset across the lake this evening?
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The right combination of wireless home automation device hardware, and unique software architecture is how remote access to the vacation home can occur. An Internet-based home automation system allows the property owner to stay in touch with the vacation home for practical and even emotional reasons - whether he lives a short distance away, or across the country.
The key to creating a system that can be allow you to interact with a property miles away requires abandoning some old paradigms surrounding home automation. Historically, home automation depended on the homeowner managing in-home control panels or a PC located in the home. This would be fine for when you are inside the vacation home, but is no help when you return to the city. Also, historically, remote contact with your property was limited to basic functions managed via the telephone.
Instead, if the interface is moved onto the web, the property can be easily accessed and the automation controlled in complex ways from anywhere on the planet where an Internet connection can be made - even from a web phone. Solving this interface issue not only opens new home automation capabilities for a primary homeowner, it now allows vacation homeowners to keep tabs on their properties while away from them - and even allows that nightly view of the sunset over the lake. The moment you combine proven home automation hardware (including color cameras) with specially-designed software, homeowners may view a picture from inside or outside their vacation home, turn on lights, adjust the thermostat and water heater, learn of a drop in temperature or be notified of the entry of an intruder, to name a few capabilities- and they can do it from anywhere on the planet where an Internet connection can be made.
This capability gives whole new meaning to "opening the vacation home for the weekend." Instead of spending the first hour after arriving on a Friday evening warming or cooling the vacation home and getting it readied for the weekend stay, a "routine" may be selected from a pick list on a computer screen prior to leaving the office in the city. Upon arriving, the vacation home has already been instructed to reach a temperature of 70 degrees, turn on the water pump, turn on the water heater, turn on a lamp to light your arrival and deactivate the door sensors as you drive in the driveway.
BeAtHome.com, a Fargo, North Dakota-based company, has proven such an Internet-based home automation solution can be designed. BeAtHome's solution relies on widely used technologies (i.e. ITI Wireless, Ethernet, 2.4 GHz wireless video cameras, X10) to communicate via wireless, radio frequency and existing home wiring - an important framework for vacation homes for which it may be difficult to justify retrofitting with upgraded wiring. Emerging technologies (i.e. HomeRF, CEBus) will be integrated into the product offering as they become more widely accepted and available. A proprietary Internet Appliance manages the wireless, in-home devices and communicates with a personal MyBeAtHome web site uniquely created for each customer. This communication occurs via a traditional phone line from the vacation home or can communicate over cable or DSL should they be available.
From any place in the world where there is Internet access, the vacation homeowner can log on any time to his or her personal and secure web page to check on his or her personal and secure web page to check on the vacation home. This includes viewing images from inside and out that can be captured, sent, and archived.
This kind of visual remote access, topped with the notification capabilities programmed into the software architecture, allows homeowners to not only see and hear from their vacation home, they've just gained a security system unlike any traditional offerings on the market. The notification capabilities in the software allow the property owner to dictate that alert messages about things such as water being detected, the presence of smoke, a drop in temperature or the breaking of glass are sent via a phone call to your office, pager, cell phone or e-mail at the first sign of out-of-the-norm events at the property.
Whether the motivation is mere security or attempting to soften the emotional letdown of driving away from the vacation home after a relaxing weekend - remote access (even visual access) to your vacation property is now within reach. Thanks to the Internet, it can be simple. Thanks to wireless home automation technology, it can be affordable. And, it can make that get-away seem a little less far away.
