One of the most ambitious home automation design jobs involved me in Roussillon, Provence.
The client asked me to take care of a period farmhouse, keeping its need for safety and security as a common thread.
Having already enjoyed my work inside a historic mansion in Geneva and on a yacht, both of which he owned, I was approached to make smart a home that stands within a vast piece of land.
Over time we have moved from a professional esteem to a friendly relationship: when the phone rings and Alexey is on the other end, I know we are in for a treat!
Animated by a passion for home automation technology, we share tasks: he fantasizes and I get to work to find the most efficient solutions to each of his requests, because not only Walt Disney urged to let his imagination run wild by saying:
"Believe in your dreams no matter how impossible they may seem!"
Home automation design makes it possible to shorten, and often nullify, the distance between dreams and reality, pandering to desires and needs.
Safety first
Alexey's farmhouse in Provence is surrounded by 38 hectares of land, and his greatest fear is related to security.
At the top of his personal priority list is definitely the protection of his family and property.
Thus, in the home automation design phase, I set up underground perimeter sensors, external volumetric sensors, magnetic contacts on the fixtures, and video analysis with external and internal cameras placed in each room.
The lighting system adapts to behavior scenarios
I also devoted time to the implementation of an accurate home automation lighting system since darkness is the best ally of ill-intentioned people.
Thanks to behavioral scenarios, I arranged everything to be managed by astronomical scheduling.
Functionally, lighting control focuses on careful energy efficiency.
Through astronomical scheduling, light scenarios are created to suit the situation.
At dusk, all lights are turned on in progression. As the hours pass, past the return time of all family members, a few spotlights are turned off until only the courtesy lights are left on throughout the night.
Simulated presence puts thieves on alert
Alexey's farmhouse has, among other active behavioral scenarios, one that deals with simulating the presence of people and animals, at any time.
When the alarm is triggered, there is a simulation of virtual animals, guarding the property: Rottweilers and Pitbulls doing their duty without being, officially, part of the family.
In case of intrusions, on the opposite side where the break-in was recorded, the speakers simulate the approach of one or more dogs, devoid of good intentions.
The accuracy of the algorithms that handle these "presences" allows for a random and, as a result, even more real result.
Deep protection thanks to intelligent video analytics
Around his property have been placed thermal optical cameras , which with the help of a super processor ,analyze with intelligent algorithms the intrusions.
This type of geoseismic sensor picks up seismic waves caused in the ground by the movement of a person.
Usually the sensors are structured in prewired lines between 10 and 50 meters long, so you can more easily manage the protection of spaces, sizing them according to your needs.
On a 380000 m² space, my client's fear was precisely that he would not be able to get everything under control, but I managed to give him a good night's sleep.
The accuracy of underground sensors also comes from the fact that they can be placed as deep as 60 cm from the ground. Thanks to this feature, one can still proceed with normal gardening or surface care routines.
Climatic variations are also no longer a concern since the underground system is protected from water and temperature changes.
The high-protection automatic gate
Another of Alexey's requests was for a very high-protection automatic gate. He was anxious not to risk being left with the gate open for too long after he or any guests had passed through.
The solution adopted was to have the gate open automatically as family members approached. In order to avoid mistakes, I adopted the geolocation of the respective smartphones as a parameter and not the one related to the car.
We also decided to have the gate re-arm, closing immediately after the car or pedestrian passed by. This is a variation of a few seconds from the standard, but enough to reassure my friend and his family.
Drones help watch over vast properties
The use of drones is expanding into many fields, including private security.
Their cost, which is lower than that of a traditional aerial shot, along with their ease of use, has put them on the fast track of those who care about the security of large spaces.
In the case of intrusion into Alexey's property, the "surveillance" drone will go toward the intruder and record his presence, signaling it to the home automation system management device or to one of the televisions active at that time (interrupting the transmission and then reactivating from the same point, when the "alarm is returned").
In this way, the alarm message will reach the household members who will decide how to proceed. If the figure picked up by the drone falls on the "black-list," calls will be triggered, in sequence, to two security institutions.
One thing I have noticed is the very low reaction time of the French vigilance, inversely proportional to the degree of IT integration.
When a partition goes on alarm with some of its sensors, the alert is given thanks to IP information (and not to that obtained via radio link as in Italy), so vigilantes are able to intervene directly at the point where the break-in is taking place.
Control of the whole house is entrusted to a single App
Alexey's house in Provence is an example of how a home automation home can be managed completely through voice commands.
Interaction with the environment and the systems connected to it is done through an App on a single device.
The tablet through which to control the security of the whole house
This is how he and his family can enjoy the "pampering" of this wonderful house: a multimedia audio video system that allows them to enjoy different music or video content in each room.
In the main room towers a 100″ screen through which one can watch broadcasts from French, German, Swiss, Italian and Russian TVs. The signal transmission system chosen is IPTV (Internet Protocol Television). Moving on computer networks based on TCP/IP protocols, it is able to return images of higher quality than Web Tv.
The house proposes solutions to improve the user's life
The special feature of this home automation project is the bidirectionality of voice control and smartphone integration through Telegram Bots.
There is not only input from the user to ask, turn on, open, close, or do all those things for which the home has been programmed: this type of control allows the home to propose possible options or solutions.
Should a sensor go into alarm, the home is able to report the anomaly to the user. This is done even when the alarm is turned off, by sending a message via App or Telegram bot and also by voice message on the various echoes (alexa) it has by autonomously adjusting the volume of the message .
The bot is a program that performs specific actions, in this case in the Telegram environment, taking information derived from the home automation system and communicating it to the user via the instant messaging App.
A home secured even from a distance
The experience of this home automation project in Provence was an ongoing challenge to push "a little further" in the search for systems and technologies that would allow my client to live peacefully the moments spent in the south of France.
The small difficulties that may arise in daily life, I am able to solve them by being in my office about 400 km from Alexey's farmhouse. For the slightly more important ones, I know that I can avail myself, on the spot, of the support of a professional.
So far there have been no noteworthy problems. In any case, one of the things that gives me the most satisfaction is knowing that the client's well-being is being achieved, and maintained, thanks to a home automation system that foresees potential flaws and alerts me if it proves necessary for me to intervene.
Next step will be to optimize the energy consumption of the entire farmhouse ,optimizing the heating and cooling of the rooms ,the heating of the pool ,all with the addition of a photovoltaic system and batteries managed by an artificial intelligence algortim to optimize the well-being and the renal bills
Alex Edmondo
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