Topic: Navigating you through the smart home world

The newly issued national 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the internet of Things points out, "We should promote breakthroughs in transmission technologies. The focus is on supporting the R&D of new short-range wireless communication technologies and sensor nodes suitable for the IoT, as well as research on sensor networking and management technologies that support self-sensing, self-configuration, self-repair, and self-management.” It has unique advantages in terms of self-configuration, self-repair, self-management, low power consumption, high security, and interference resistance.

Of course, due to simple 433M/315M RF, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi technologies, short product development cycles, and the reuse of these technologies by some leading smart home companies in China's electronics industry, especially in southern China such as Guangdong and Fujian, these companies' products have been widely used and verified with relatively long service lives, and have been generally recognized by consumers.

Three major cognitive biases:

1. There are significant differences between wired and wireless

Domestic and overseas smart home companies are of varying levels of quality and relevant intelligent control technologies. Conventional smart home relies on wired technology, which involves complex wiring, high costs, and very poor user experiences. Smart home based on new-generation IoT technology adopts intelligent terminal remote control based on wireless sensing technology and the most popular mobile internet technology, significantly enhancing the overall comfort level of user experiences. Relevant experts state that wired control is going to disappear, while wireless control is rapidly gaining popularity on the market and more suitable for the demand and trend of intelligence due to its characteristics such as no need for wiring, high mobility, and convenient upgrading. However, some mature smart home companies have leveraged the advantages of wireless technology to launch wireless smart home with one-way control signals only, which are very suitable for market demand, indicating that only products that meet market requirements are good ones.

2. Intelligent electrical appliances are not equal to smart home

Recently, a company launched a new-generation super intelligent TV, which has sparked heated discussions among internet users. Major media outlets and the television industry have been tracking and reporting on it, and for a time, intelligent TVs and electrical appliances have garnered intense attention from people. Many mistake intelligent electrical appliances for smart home, which is a significant misconception. Anyone who fails to recognize this is easily misled by some electrical appliance retailers. Intelligent electrical appliances are essentially still electrical appliances, but adopt some intelligent systems or technologies, which is relative to conventional electrical appliances, just like smartphones in the 21st century, which are still mobile phones. In contrast, smart home is a platform, and an intelligent control system itself. On this platform, all electrical appliances, doors, windows and switches can be remotely controlled to achieve intelligent application experiences. Various types of intelligent control can be executed based on user-defined settings, and that’s real smart home. When choosing products and brands, we should not be confused or misled by so-called "intelligent" features promoted by some electrical appliance manufacturers.

3. Experiences is the key to being intelligent or not

In the 21st century, "intelligence" is a buzzword. With the strong rise of the mobile internet, all products will be linked to intelligence since the 21st century, otherwise they will be embarrassed to appear in front of users. However, the fact is that most products marketed as intelligent are merely a pretense, but fail to deliver intelligent experiences desired by users. In particular in the field of smart home, it is not always the case that simple intelligent control equates to smart home. The intelligence that we need should be a user-friendly experience that can effectively meet our practical needs, and is convenient and quick to use. Therefore, being intelligent or not can only be judged through personal experiences. Smart home that has not been experienced can hardly gain the trust of users. When choosing smart home products, users must visit the experience center for hands-on inspection and experience. Only what suit them are good products.

Design Philosophy

Operators of smart home control systems must adhere to the consumer-first philosophy, act in the interest of customers, and maintain a conscientious, responsible, and honest attitude. They should truly provide attentive services, and diligently craft smart home control designs and solutions for them based on customers' actual needs. Delivering excellent projects and ensuring that customers receive maximum benefits with minimal expenditure is the right development path for companies and the smart home industry as a whole.

The success of a residential community's intelligent system does not depend solely on its scale, progressiveness, or integration level, but rather on whether the system design and configuration are economical and reasonable, whether the system can operate successfully, whether the system can be conveniently used, managed and maintained, and whether the system or product technology is mature and applicable. In other words, it is about how to achieve maximum efficacy with minimal investment and the simplest implementation approach, thereby realizing a convenient and high-quality life.

To achieve the above goal, the following principles should be observed when a smart home system is designed:

I. Practicality and convenience

The fundamental goal of smart home is to provide people with a comfortable, safe, convenient, and efficient living environment. For smart home products, the most important thing is to prioritize practicality, and abandon those flashy and merely ornamental functions. Such products should focus on practicality, ease of use, and user-friendliness.

During smart home system design, the following most practical and basic home control functions should be integrated based on user needs for smart home functions: including intelligent electrical appliance control, intelligent lighting control, electrical curtain control, burglar alarm, access control intercom, gas leakage detection, etc. Meanwhile, value-added services such as three-meter reading and video-on-demand can also be expanded. There are diversified control methods for many personalized cases of smart home, such as local control, remote control, centralized control, mobile remote control, inductive control, network control, and timing control. The original intention is to free people from tedious tasks and improve efficiency. However, too cumbersome operations and program setup are likely to arouse repulsion among users. Therefore, during smart home design, it is essential to fully consider user experiences, and emphasize the convenience and intuitiveness of operation. It is preferable to adopt graphical control interfaces to ensure that what you see is what you get.

II. Reliability

All intelligent subsystems of a whole building should be capable of operating around the clock, and great importance must be attached to the safety, reliability, and fault tolerance of the system. For each subsystem, corresponding fault-tolerant measures should be taken in respect of power supply, system backup, etc. to ensure the normal and safe use of the system, excellent quality and performance, and the ability to cope with various complex environmental changes.

III. Standardization

A smart home system solution should be designed in accordance with applicable national and regional standards to ensure its scalability and extensibility. Standard TCP/IP protocol network technology should be adopted for system transmission to ensure compatibility and interconnectivity between systems from different manufacturers. The front-end equipment of the system should be multifunctional, open, and scalable. For example, a standardized interface design is adopted for the system hub, terminals, and modules, and an integrated platform is provided for external manufacturers of the home intelligent system. Moreover, its functionality can be expanded, and when additional functions are needed, there is no need for pipe network excavation, making it simple, reliable, convenient, and economical. The systems and products selected for the design should enable interoperability and interconnectivity between this system and third-party controlled devices that will keep evolving in the future.

IV. Convenience

The simplicity of wiring directly impacts costs, scalability, and maintainability. Therefore, it is crucial to choose a system with simple wiring. During construction, wiring can be carried out alongside community broadband, making it simple and easy; the equipment should be easy to learn, operate, and maintain. The convenient design of the system during engineering installation and commissioning is also very important. A notable feature of smart home is a substantial workload of installation, commissioning, and maintenance, which requires significant manpower and material inputs, becoming a bottleneck on the industry's development. As for this issue, the system should be designed with the convenience of installation and maintenance in mind, such as remote commissioning and maintenance over the internet. Through the network, not only can residents control the home intelligent system, but also engineering personnel can remotely inspect the system's working status and diagnose its faults. In this way, system settings and version updates can be carried out elsewhere, greatly facilitating system application and maintenance, improving the response speed, and reducing maintenance costs.

V. Lightweight

As the name suggests, a "lightweight" smart home product is a lightweight smart home system. "Simplicity", "practicality", and "flexibility" are its primary characteristics, and also the biggest differences between it and conventional smart home systems. Therefore, we usually refer to smart home products that require no construction deployment, allow for the free combination and assembly of functions, and direct sale to end consumers, and are relatively inexpensive as "lightweight" smart home products.