Making more of smart devices
YOU asked: I have bought a Google smart speaker, but apart from asking it to tell me the weather and requesting the time, what can I use it for?
Laser Corporation managing director Chris Lau understands the frustrations of people who excitedly bought the voice-activated speakers, only to bore quickly of repetitive functions. He says if these are the only things you are using your smart speaker for, then you are definitely underestimating smart home devices.
Data from technology analyst firm Telsyte shows Australian households are embracing smart home speakers in unprecedented numbers, with 2.5 million homes said to have at least one. This market has grown by 57 per cent over the past 12 months, making it a $1.1 billion industry locally.
Incredibly, this is forecast to increase by almost 500 per cent in the next four years to become a $5 billion market by 2023.
“Voice-enabled speakers from Google and Alexa have done the heavy lifting. People have the hang of the speaker but they’re bored of asking it about the weather, and now they want to know what else it can do,” Says Chris.
“The road map for the smart home is massive and one day in the not too distant future, everything in your home will be connected.
“Our mandate is to get new technology into more people’s homes faster. For example, the smart light globe would retail for about $40 to $50 when it first came out. By the end of the year, we want to have it down to $10. That’s not a long way off from the price of a standard light globe.”
Laser’s Connect SmartHome products can integrate with existing Google and Amazon products and be controlled via its app. Chris says everything from your morning to bedtime routine in your home can be managed by the app on your device.
“It all started with the smart light globe that pairs with the speaker,” says Chris. “You’d say, ‘hey Google’ or ‘hey Alexa, turn on the light, or turn it off at 10pm each night’.
“Once you see how easy that is, you’d want to start experimenting with other home options.”
Chris says you can buy the smart switch next that simply slots into the wall socket and allows anything that plugs into that to be voice activated.
“You can say, ‘hey Google turn on the fan in the bedroom or the living room heater’,” he says. “You can name each particular appliance in the app so the app knows what appliance in which room you are talking about.”
Taking it one step further, Chris says that you can now set up routines that will allow you to execute multiple actions with a single voice command.
“You have absolute control when you automate things,” he says. “This is no longer a gimmick, you can say ‘hey Google, I’m leaving’, and have all the connected appliances turned off including the lights. Or even, ‘hey Google I want to watch a movie’, and the lights will dim, the curtains will draw, the stereo will turn off and the TV will turn on. We call these ‘scenes’, and they’re not difficult to set up, which is often the first thing people will ask.”
Chris’s latest must-have is an automated garage opener which detects when he is in his street via his phone’s GPS and then opens the door.
Another product resonating with customers is doorbells with in-built motion detection and two-way communications, and security systems which will alert you when the alarm sounds and allows you to view on your mobile which sensor has been triggered.
“People can see, ‘Oh that was just my dog’, and turn it off,” says Chris. “These automated system are making people feel safe.”
THE ROAD MAP FOR THE SMART HOME IS MASSIVE AND ONE DAY, EVERYTHING IN YOUR HOME WILL BE CONNECTED.
CHRIS LAU