Smarts Homes Start At The Front Door

Jetson’s Smart Home Created by Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc circa 1960s.

Smart Homes start at the front door! To enable the Springvale Project to be a state of the art Smart Home,we are starting at the front door. The race for technology vendors like Google and Amazon to control your home starts with a simple  video doorbell. You may own an Amazon Echo ($39.99) or Google Home Mini ($49) SmartSpeaker, but these devices open up the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) via simple voice commands. You should consider how one day you may want to integrate all the digital devices in your home.  For example, if a delivery person comes to your house and it is raining, wouldn’t it be great if they doorbell recognized them and provided instructions to put your food in the warm & dry garage, or even a backup refrigerator and then automatically opened the garage door for them?

Amazon Alexa with Agency allows her to take actions similar to the way you can have Google Duplex place a reservation or make an appointment for you. These capabilities can be integrated with a variety of Smart devices in your home. We are evaluating the Amazon Ring Video Pro ($249) vs. the Google Nest Hello ($229) for the Springvale project. Both of the video doorbells have WiFi connection the Ring Video Elite does allow for hardwire integration with your in home network. They both have 160 degree field of view with infrared night vision, but the Google Nest Hello offers HDR level video quality. The Google Nest Hello also offers pre-recorded messages to guest. They both offer online storage of video history for an additional annual fee. 

Smart Home Video Doorbells: Amazon Ring Video Pro & Google Nest Hello

On Amazon product launch day, there are a plethora of interfaces to connect to your Smart Home systems like Smart Glasses and even a Smart Ring. The most interesting one is the Amazon Smart Oven ($249) which offer an Alexa enabled convection & microwave oven in one small package that will be on the market in time for Thanksgiving dinner. By next spring when we are installing the smart home devices, we might have an even bigger abundance of technology to choose and incorporate. And who knows, Google may have a brand new technology rolling out and we will be one step closer to building a home where even the Jetson’s would be comfortable living in.