SquareRooms Issue 181 Mid-Year 2020

2 0 ideal homes SMART LIVING Adopt a bot Install voice- controlled light bulbs 11 1 12 2 Three reasons why in-home robots make helpful companions Three powerful ways speech and illumination can up your home's ante 1 Hands-free video calls Robotic personal assistants not only afford you to make video calls with superb video and audio quality, but they also make fantastic office secretaries. You will rarely need to schedule a call yourself, as in-house automatons can tail you around the house and stand by to help you with simple tech tasks while you attend to more important things. 2. On-call food delivery Feeling peckish in the middle of the night but too lazy to make the trip to the kitchen? Don’t fret – a robot assistant can bring your favourite nibbles to you with a touch of a button. Simply load your favourite treats onto your android friend, and it will dispense snacks to you anytime and anywhere. 3 Sous chef in an instant The tasks of having to prop your phone, frequently tap on the glass surface with soiled hands, and watch cooking instructionals on a sauce- smeared screen is a challenge. A personal bot allows you to call out any recipe on YouTube and then automatically plays the video for you while following you run around the kitchen. temi - The Personal Robot, $7,500 from RoboSolutions Customisable ambience Voice-activated light bulbs set the mood for any occasion. Pair them with a virtual assistant – such as Siri, Google Home, Alexa, or Cortana – and vocalise the kind of atmosphere you want: a dim one for a movie night, cool daylight for a productive work session, or a warm hue for a romantic dinner. Clever timers Instead of waking up to turn on the lights, make them do the legwork for you. You can program voice-controlled lights to switch on at a specific time. If you change your mind and decide to snooze all the way instead, easily verbalise to your home assistant to turn them all off. Away on holiday? Remotely activate smart lights in different timings via the app to ward off potential home intruders. Complete control Aside from the voice-activation capability per room, you can also command smart lights to work in other areas of the house. Power down living room lamps from the comfort of your bed or fire up the lights before you walk down the hallway – all by using the power of speech. Indeed, it’s a new kind of home management that lies in the sound of your voice.