At uOttawa’s IT, technology is part of our lifestyle. Here are a few ideas from our IT staff, Paul Mercier and Louis Brousseau, to help you conceptualize your dream house, with amazing home automation!
1. Smart lighting:
- Turn on external lights at dusk, and off at dawn
- Turn on external lights if movement is detected in the backyard
2. Smart music:
- Set up smart speakers that have voice recognition to recognize individual profiles and playlists i.e., while listening to music, you can tell the smart assistant to add a song to your playlist.
- Turn off the lights and music when you say “Sleeping time”
3. Home Theatre:
To watch Netflix, a user needs to turn on the TV, turn on the main amplifier, turn on the surround amplifier, turn on the subwoofers, turn on the preprocessor, select the source, then launch the Netflix app. Automate this process so that when you say, “It’s Disney Night,” everything is set up. The lights will either turn off or dim, the TV and the appropriate equipment for surround sound extravaganza will be turned on. It will set the volume, launch the Disney App and login.
4. Security:
- Automatically close garage doors if they are open for too long
- Lock the doors automatically if they are left unlocked for more than x minutes
- Send warnings regularly when yard fences are left open
5. Alerts and notifications:
- Turn off the water main if a leak is detected (with urgent warnings sent by email, SMS, and on Alexa)
- Send alerts to email or SMS when wireless device batteries are below 15%
6. Temperature control:
- Turn on garage ventilation fan if the temperature gets too warm during summer
- Send alerts when temperatures get too low in the house or garage
7. Facilities control:
- Turn on salt chlorinator (and pump) if the chlorine level gets below a certain level in the pool
- Add water to the pool if the level gets too low
