Home Automation News and Discussions

[R8Z]

Thread dedicated to discuss home automation items available to the public or in development, including but not limited to: smart appliances, smart lights, home assistants and robots.

[R8Z]

Just some context: I've created this thread as in a few months I plan to install a home automation kit I've recently purchased. Looking forward to generate discussions about new gadgets or appliances that could be added. One great part from that kit is that it has a IR transmitter, meaning that it can control old devices that I have (thinking about my TV and AC). As these two devices aren't smart, they can't give feedback or updates, but that's fine for now.

One thing I was not able to find was a simple kit/motor to install to open and close curtains. Not sure if this is something that is already available to the public.

[R8Z]

On the search for home automation voice AIs I've settled with the Google one ("hey/ok google") and recently purchased a Google Nest Mini 2nd gen. According to my research it works slightly better than its direct adversary (Alexa) in my country and use case, which is to automate my home and heavy media usage from the assistants.

After a week of usage I can already say that the assistant AI feels very polished when you're tracing the "happy path" or the expected path it wants you to follow/say. It almost never understands words wrong, even if you mumble them or laugh/gasps when you say them. Once you diverge from the expected phrases you start to get the classic "sorry, I didn't get that" and no progress/actions are made. In fact, it feels like it's not much of an AI but more of an IF/ELSE software so far, seriously. It doesn't feel like there's been much progress in this area since it's inception (I've been using it on and off from the cellphone interface from quite a while). I am hoping advances in AI will improve in this area.

On top of that, the continuous conversation mode, in which the AI doesn't turn off the microphone after an action and continuous listening, only works in English -- which is a shame as I'd prefer to talk to the AI in my mother tongue; also the english version is much more fluid and normal-sounding (less robot sounding) than its counter-part in other languages (as expected, I suppose).

At the moment as my home automation kit still hasn't arrived I've being using it only to turn on/off or adjust my air conditioners and to play music and/or video to chrome cast, set alarms or get news/info from the AI. Next should be the lights and smart power-outlets.

The greatest routine I've defined so far includes saying via Android Auto that I am coming home. This turns on ALL my air conditioners at home, sets the destination in GMaps to home, and starts playing music in the car. Once I am home I say "I've arrived" to the nest mini and it adjusts the AC back to low, greets me for "arriving safely" and starts playing music.

[R8Z]

Smart automated garden

https://eu.clickandgrow.com/

With Click & Grow indoor gardens you'll get:

- Perfectly calibrated automated watering, light and nutrients
- Homegrown, organic, pesticide free fresh food and flowers
- App to make you a true plant expert
- More than 75 + different plant varieties to choose from or just use your own seeds!

---

Hmm, interesting but on the expensive side. I'd prefer to have a smart watering system only that was 10x cheaper (looking to build my own in the future).

[weatheriscool]

Nest 2020 thermostats receive Matter update, which adds Apple Home compatibility
Google is still looking into support for the Nest models people actually own.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/04 ... atibility/
Kevin Purdy - 4/18/2023, 12:33 PM

A major piece of the smart home market now supports the Matter standard. The 2020 Nest Thermostat is the first smart thermostat to join in the slow-going wave and, in doing so, now works in an Apple Home system without additional bridges or hubs.

Take note that only the 2020 redesign of the Nest Thermostat will be updated with Matter support, starting today and rolling out "over the next few weeks," according to a Google Nest Community post. Google has said it is investigating Matter support for the more common Nest (3rd generation) Learning Thermostat and Nest Thermostat E (now mainly available in Europe). Let's hope it does, because the Learning Thermostat has the broadest compatibility across HVAC systems and is the one we see installed in most homes, at about a 100-to-zero rate versus the 2020 version.

If you have a newer Nest, your device will quietly absorb an over-the-air update at some point today or in the next few weeks. After that, you can control your Nest from multiple Matter-compliant systems. Nest already worked with Amazon's Alexa, Samsung's SmartThings, and, of course, Google's Home platform. But with Matter support, you can set it up to interact with other Matter-enabled devices, such as non-Nest temperature sensors or motion detectors.

The big addition is Apple compatibility through Home's own Matter readiness. With the update installed, the Nest Thermostat itself can generate a Matter pairing code inside new settings on the device. That should allow you to add the device to a Home network and control it from an Apple device without using another device as a go-between. I use Home Assistant to connect all my smart home gear to my iPhone, but I don't think that is, per se, the easy way; I had to sign up for a Google developer account and create a fake app to get API access.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

Patent Teases Google's Potential Entry Into Home Robot Market
The patented robot can move autonomously throughout the home, chat with family members, help find lost devices, and more.
By Adrianna Nine January 28, 2025
https://www.extremetech.com/electronics ... bot-market

Google could be readying itself for the home robot market. According to a new patent, the tech giant has been working on a bot that moves autonomously throughout the home and can chat with family members and respond to queries. It might even be able to help with physical tasks.

The patent, spotted Monday by MSPowerUser, has been in the works since at least November 2021 and was filed this month. In it, Google notes that while many smart home devices are good at handling one particular type of task (vacuuming, filming security footage, switching the lights on and off, and so on), consumers lack a device that can tackle multiple kinds of duties—or use those specialized devices themselves. The company's solution is to create a "robotic home device" that can not only field various requests, but leverage existing smart home devices on a local network to help manage a household.

[weatheriscool]

Laser-shooting watch lets you control devices via midair hand gestures
By Ben Coxworth
February 18, 2025
https://newatlas.com/wearables/cenwatch ... -gestures/

If you're tired of using a boring ol' remote for controlling your devices, you might like the CenWatch. It's a smartwatch that scans the underside of your hand, allowing you to make multiple commands via simple midair hand gestures.

Manufactured by a Hong Kong startup of the same name, the CenWatch is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. And yes, the device does have a 368 x 448 AMOLED screen that displays the time and date, along with the battery charge level.

What makes it special, however, is its LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanner.

Located on the underside of the wearer's wrist, this gadget uses near-infrared lasers to gauge the three-dimensional spatial position of all five fingers (relative to the wrist) as they're moved to perform different predefined gestures. It's reportedly accurate down to a resolution of 1 mm.

[weatheriscool]

Google’s Home app, a command center for the smart home, gets a Gemini upgrade
Sarah Perez
6:00 AM PDT · October 1, 2025

Google admits that its Google Home app for managing smart home devices has not offered the best experience, and it now aims to change that. On Wednesday, alongside new Nest devices and an upcoming Google Home smart speaker, the tech giant also unveiled a redesigned version of the Google Home app that it promises will work better, centralize device management, and bring its AI assistant Gemini AI into the experience.

While AI may be the headline feature about what’s new with the Google Home app, the app itself has had an overhaul, in design, performance, and reliability, Google claims.

“I want to be very direct, the Google Home app has not been the experience that we’ve always wanted it to be,” Anish Kattukaran, Chief Product Officer at Google Home and Nest, told reporters in a briefing ahead of today’s news.

So before the company could work on adding new AI features, it had to solve the app’s other problems, he said.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/01/googl ... i-upgrade/

[Yuli Ban]

Laser-shooting watch lets you control devices via midair hand gestures
By Ben Coxworth
February 18, 2025
https://newatlas.com/wearables/cenwatch ... -gestures/

If you're tired of using a boring ol' remote for controlling your devices, you might like the CenWatch. It's a smartwatch that scans the underside of your hand, allowing you to make multiple commands via simple midair hand gestures.

Manufactured by a Hong Kong startup of the same name, the CenWatch is currently the subject of a Kickstarter campaign. And yes, the device does have a 368 x 448 AMOLED screen that displays the time and date, along with the battery charge level.

What makes it special, however, is its LiDAR (light detection and ranging) scanner.

Located on the underside of the wearer's wrist, this gadget uses near-infrared lasers to gauge the three-dimensional spatial position of all five fingers (relative to the wrist) as they're moved to perform different predefined gestures. It's reportedly accurate down to a resolution of 1 mm.

The complete nonfactor of gesture control is part of what makes me double down on the prediction that it won't be until neurocontrollers that we finally see any true successor to pure haptic feedback.
Voice control, gesture control, eye control, these are half steps at best