Let’s face it, we’re pretty much living in the world of the Jetsons. Everybody owning a flying car is still on the horizon, but we’re getting close. Home automation using the internet of things can accomplish some pretty amazing things our homes, from reminders and helping with productivity, to safety and home security, to things that are just kind of fun and cool. Here are five awesome things that you can do with the IoT in your home!
5. An Amazing Morning Routine
Imagine waking up to a light that gradually gets brighter and brighter, with an alarm that stops on its own once you get out of bed, which triggers your coffee maker to turn on while you make your way to the washroom to use your smart toothbrush that ensures you’re brushing long enough.
The washroom light turns itself on when it detects motion and starts off dim and slowly gets brighter as you wake up.
Whatever your morning routine is, there’s a way to use the internet of things to connect all of your devices together, even smart appliances.
4. Protect Your Room or Home
If you think your sibling might be sneaking into your room when you aren’t home, you can catch them red-handed using a security camera. You could even set up a little speaker to surprise them when you’re away from home and you get a notification on your phone that alerts you someone is snooping around.
“A DIY home automation setup can do so much more than just make your life incrementally easier in a bunch of small ways, it can help keep you safe and protect your home.” – Michael from theIOTpad
For overall home security, the same principles apply. Whether you’re looking to protect a house from cat burglars, or catch a roommate or sibling snooping around, the IoT can make that happen.
3. Facial Recognition Door
Using a Raspberry Pi and the IoT, you can actually create a facial recognition door lock that lets you in by recognizing your face. You’ll feel like you’re in a heist movie every time you get home. This takes a little more homebrew effort than some of the other things on this list, but if you’re up for a project, it really doesn’t get much cooler than this.
2. Automatic Garage Door
If you park in the garage, you can create a system that will automatically open up to let your car in and then close behind once you’re parked inside. This is pretty cool, too. It’s not the biggest life-changing thing compared to a regular electric garage door opener since it only takes one button to open a door normally, but having it activate once you pull up is still pretty awesome.
1. Track Your Life
On top of everything else, you can track all sorts of vital stats about your life and body. There are smart water bottles that can integrate to ensure you’re hydrated (this is a bit silly on its own, but kind of cool as part of the bigger picture.)
You can monitor your heart rate, fitness, your sleep quality (how much sleep does a 15 year old need?), your schedule, your productivity activities for teens, and just about anything else you can imagine. You can have all of this data pulled into a spreadsheet and represented visually, too.
You might notice some interesting patterns emerge like you don’t drink enough water on days where you don’t sleep enough, or you’re more likely to eat more on days where you’ve slept more, or whatever… to keep it simple: being aware of these patterns can help you avoid doing things you don’t want to do as much, and to focus on achieving things that matter to you.
