Domotics

Home automation

Domotics is a contraction of the words domus/domo (Latin for home) and automatic. Home automation is all about automating things in your home (home functions) that you would otherwise do manually, spending time.

Domotics is the combination of technology and services for improved living in the areas of safety, comfort and technical management. It is therefor a complete system, not just a remote control. Things happen automatically, because they are required or because you didn't remember to do them yourself. But you don't need to worry that you will no longer have control over things. Everything can also be operated by hand, or the settings can be changed. Tools to serve people.

Home automation is defined as a process or system (using different methods or equipment) which provides the ability to enhance one's lifestyle, and make a home more comfortable, safe and efficient. Home automation can link lighting, entertainment, security, telecommunications, heating and air conditioning into one centrally controlled system. Automation allows you to make your house an active partner in managing your busy life. Your automated home is no longer a passive structure. Instead, it becomes a tool in helping you make the most of your time, enhancing your safety and security, even saving you money on your energy bills!

Domotics is more than any other development involving many different disciplines, requiring joint actions to make it happen. A central controller (microprocessor) receives signals from controlling devices, then forwards those signals to the appliances and systems in the house you want controlled. The central processor serves as a traffic cop by initiating and/or routing communication signals throughout the house. As the user, you can interface with the system via keypads, touchscreens, panic buttons, TV screens, computers, telephones, handheld remotes or other devices.

Domotic products generally are modular. This means you can easily add or remove products to and from an domotic system with little or no affect on the function of other products.

What can you see in a domotics home?

For example: as you enter the house, you switch off the burglar alarm. This automatically switches on the passive alarm. The house then checks that you remain active and have not fallen or become unwell. If that happens, help is summoned automatically , for example from the home care service. When you go to sleep, you can use a simple button above the bed to turn the passive alar m and the bedside light off, activate the burglar alarm, switch off any lights left on in other rooms, and lower the central heating thermostat by a couple of degrees.

If someone calls at the door, that person's image will appear on your TV. You talk to this person using the telephone, and open the door using one of the buttons on the phone. Or the lights in the hall and bathroom can switch on automatically when you enter those rooms. You can switch all the lights in the house on or off with a single remote control. Shutters and curtains can also be closed and opened using a remote control.

If most people consider remote controls to be new, voice-activated control is altogether revolutionary. In a domotics home lights can switch on or off and curtains can open or close, all on commands given in your own voice. But various things in the home can also be controlled from elsewhere without you needing to be present, by talking to your home by telephone: switch on the video recorder, increase the temperature, switch off the coffee machine, etc., etc. The options are limitless.

See also

• Ciberdom[?]
• Domobot
• EIB
• Home cinema
• PLC
• UPNP
• X10