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Smart Home As the topic suggests, we are going for a Smart Woody theme. "Smart" refers to Smart Home. I (Mr) am personally interested in tech stuff and have been using several smart devices in my room now. Smart devices that I have include Google Home, Google Wifi, Philip Hue lights, Samsung Smartthings. Using a combination of these allows us to automate my home and makes our life easier. For example, I can use voice command (Google Home) to control my lights (Philip Hue). I can use voice command to control my switches (Samsung Smartthings). I can use voice commands to ask Google Home to set alarms, ask questions, play music etc. Feels like I am 1% Tony Stark. Am writing more as requested by readers. Implementing a Smart Home is an expensive hobby. Be prepared to fork out at least hundreds of dollars before you can start to see the effects of a Smart Home. I will list down the various level of home automation in my personal opinion. For most home owners, you switch on the lights/electrical devices manually by pressing on a switch. The highest level of smartness are most likely controlling the power/channels of your TV/Fans/Home entertainment devices via a remote. Some people may use several mobile apps to control their electrical devices (eg lights, switches, aircon). Some may also install touch-based switches to control their electrical devices. However, I believe that this is not smart enough; at least not for me. Picking up a phone to control your other electronic devices (which is similar to Logitech Harmony series) is also a chore itself. Instead, I went for a more convenient and futuristic method, which is via voice control. I can now command most of my electrical devices by speaking. If you are interested in using voice command to control your electrical devices, read on. Voice Controlled Speaker This is the brain of your Smart Home; they control the remaining smart devices based on your voice commands. There are 2 main Voice Controlled Speakers in the market today; Google Home vs Amazon Echo. <PS: for Apple fans, Apple will be releasing a Siri-enabled voice controlled speaker called HomePod in end 2017.> There are plenty of articles on the web comparing these 2 voice controlled speakers. I shall not repeat them here. In summary, I chose Google Home as 1) I am using a Google account (android phone, gmail, drive, calendar, etc), 2) Better AI (backed by Google search engine), 3) Aesthetically pleasing (personal preference), 4) There are plans for Google Home 2 to double up as a router similar to Google Wifi. Note that both Google Home and Amazon Echo are not officially on sale in Singapore. They are however, sold via many of the online shopping websites. Setting up the Google Home is easy. 1) Plug in the power socket (you need to buy an adapter), 2) Download the Google Home app, 3) Using the app, connect Google Home to your wifi. That's it. Once done, you can now explore the functions of the Google Home. To give command to Google Home, always start with "Hey Google, ..." or "OK Google, ...". As at point of writing, you are unable to name your Google Home, which would be a nice and possible future feature. Here are some commands that I usually use: - Hey Google, what time is it? ... Google will tell me the time. - Hey Google, play eg 933 FM. ... Google will play the radio.H - Hey Google, what is 4 feet in meters? ... Google will do the conversion for me. Very useful, especially when renovations lengths are always in feet and inches. - Ok Google, set alarm at 5pm. ... Google will set an alarm - Ok Google, tell me a joke... - Hey Google, sing a lullaby... - If you are in the US, you can even make calls, order food, shop online via Google Home! Really nice features. Almost like a real personal assistant at your command. For more Google Home commands, visit https://madeby.google.com/home/features/#?filters=answers,entertainment,manage,plan,home,fun. Integration with Smart Devices Now, this is the part where things get more interesting. If the standalone Google Home amaze you, this is just the beginning. The next step of achieving a Smart Home, is to integrate other smart devices to your voice controlled speaker (so that you can control them using your voice). There are many smart devices in the market today; Smart lights, smart wifi, smart speakers, smart plugs, smart TVs, smart aircon, smart locks, smart security system, etc. All these smart devices can be integrated with your voice controlled speakers. For Google Home, there is a small but growing list of partners whom have direct integration (https://madeby.google.com/home/partners/). This meant that your commands need not be specific; Google Home can understand your command as long as the meaning remains the same. For example, Philips Hue is a partner of Google Home. For you to control the Philip Hue lights, you would need to purchase a Philips Hue Bridge, which acts as the brain that controls all the Philips Hue lights. Normally, the Bridge would be sold together with some Hue lights as a base to kick start your smart lights journey. The basic Bridge + 3 Hue bulbs has a RRP of $289. You can get at a cheaper price during the Philip Carnival Sale or online websites. In our new home, we will be using a combination of "normal" lights as well as "smart" lights. So I bought a Bridge, several E27 Bulbs, 1 Hue Go, and 4 Hue Lightstrips. I am currently using the Hue Go in my room. The basic commands for lights that you can control via voice are: - Hey Google, turn on/off lights. - OK Google, change XXX lights to YYY colour. - Hey Google, brighten/dim XXX lights to ZZ%. In your Google Home app, you can rename your smart devices so that Google Home can recognise the specific device to control. For example, you can name lights as "Left TV lights" and "Right TV lights". Google Home is smart enough to understand the difference between "OK Google, change Left TV lights to red colour", compared to "Ok Google, change TV lights to red colour" (which will change both left and right TV lights). Other than Philip Hue lights, I am currently using Samsung Smartthings, which is also a partner of Google Home. Similarly, to control all the smart devices, you would need a "brain" device which in this case is the Smartthings hub. This must be connected to your wifi for it to work. Setting up is easy; just download the Smartthings app and create an account. After which, you would need to add the smart devices that you have. The most useful smart devices in my opinion would be the smart plug. It is the 3 pin thing that looks like a travel adapter. How it works is that you can control whether to allow electricity to flow through the smart plug; when the smart plug is off, means no electricity is passed through, and if the smart plug is on, electricity is passed through. Now, how you intend to use this device is up to your imagination. For wifey and myself, we are currently using it for our TV and Steam link. By default, this meant that we can switch the smart plug on/off via the Smartthings app. However, with the integration with Google Home, it means that we can now switch the Smart plug on/off via voice. To add the device to Google Home, you need to log in to your Google Home app and authorize Google Home to access/control your Smartthings devices. The authorisation is done by logging in to your smartthings account via the Google home app. Once done, you will be able to control the devices via your voice via Google home. Remember earlier I wrote about how you can rename your smart devices? By renaming my 2 smart plugs to "Bedroom TV" and "Steam link", Google home can understand the following commands: Ok Google, turn on/off TV. Hey google, on/off the steam link. Ok, google, turn on Fan. Conclusion And finally, my favorite command: "Hey google, turn on/off everything". This will turn all the lights and all the smart plugs on/off. I always use this command when arriving/leaving home, and when we rest for the night. To summarise, using a voice controlled speaker for your smart home is really convenient. However, the downside is that your have to speak clearly with good pronunciation. Voice control also does not work well in a noisy environment (eg, when the TV volume is high and/or there are people talking). To us, the pros outweigh the cons, and we would continue with our smart home project by extending it to other devices. My future purchases would include Logitech Harmony, Blinds control, and Smart Doorbell. These are "good to have" rather than "essential", and I would purchase them progressively. Good luck to those embarking on a smart home project!