Virtual assistants have issued in a new era of IoT, with Alexa and Google Home leading the media in user friendly devices. Yet smart home technology has more capabilities behind the media hype.

Appliances, such as washers and dryers, have contained smart technology for almost a decade. Now home owners can run a house smoothly, from appliances to atmosphere.

And home automation is what allows an individual to control multiple smart devices from location and set the house to run itself. You can say it’s the control center of the house.

What is smart home technology?

In very simple terms, smart home technology is hardware that channels all non-computing IoT devices. The hardware is responsible for coordinating and communicating with devices and home owner via an app. Named a smart hub.

Rather than having to operate each device through an individual app, a homeowner can communicate with a smart hub. A switch decides how and when things happen, and owners can set up underlying If/Then rule systems. Not only can a smart hub respond to direct responses from the owner, it can schedule things on its own via automation.

Smart home technology does not automate through learning behavior. Rather, set up requires human interaction.

An example of acting on its own is Geo-fencing, which recognizes when the owner is close and initiates IoT devices based on rule engagement. Another example is security devices calling authorities when a situation occurs.

Available Smart Hubs

Smart Hubs range in price and availability, which most having ability to interact with IoT devices with Bluetooth, ZigBee, or WiFi.

Included in the options of smart home technology are Amazon’s Alexa and other virtual voice assistants. Most users of Alexa do not utilize the learning machine’s smart hub capabilities, not being aware of what Alexa is capable.

Though that might all change with the newest gadget to hit the market in smart home technology.

The Moon

The Moon, by 1-Ring, attempts to change what we expect from an IoT security camera.

The camera appears to be a floating eyeball, resting on its wireless charger. While it looks like something from Star Wars, there is a specific purpose to the design. The security camera can scan a full 360* of the environment.

Not only can the owner move the camera to look at something, The Moon can differentiate from which direction the sound originated. This allows the hovering camera to silently move, capturing anything that is occurring. And like Alexa, the camera back records up to 60 seconds to catch any action leading up to the event.

Within the device is behavior learning software, like Alexa and other assistants. The learning software allows the camera to differentiate between different sounds occurring in the environment.

But that is just the beginning of what The Moon attempts to add. Although initially appearing as a security camera with more functionality, the Moon can operate as a smart hub for any smart home.

The Moon as smartest home technology

The Moon is integrated with IR Blaster, Bluetooth, Zwave, and ZigBee, unlike most consumer security cameras. Which means the camera can operate as a hub for any IoT device using those communication methods. On top of that, the Moon can operate any device with a remote such as a TV or air conditioner.

1-Ring has equipped The Moon with sensors for temperature, humidity, light, and CO2. The sensors allow the Moon to run the household atmosphere, changing temperature and humidity based on owner request or scheduled timetables. The technology senses the environment and learns to differentiate, significantly increasing home automation capabilities.

And if that doesn’t make you want to replace your smart hub and security camera, The Moon can integrate with Alexa, Google Assistant, or Siri as a voice assistant.

To top it all off, The Moon saves to multiple different cloud based environments and is capable of being used as a video call device.

The future

While there will always be individuals who are resistant to technology, IoT devices are increasing daily. The home contains a majority of these devices, unknowingly to the average consumer. Functional technology is needed to coordinate this exponentially increasing amount of devices.

While The Moon is not available yet, they are taking pre-orders. And from all appearances, it looks to check off most if not all requirements for smart home technology responsible for coordinating and automating a household of gadgets.