Technology these days are indeed getting more sophisticated, practical, and productive for day-to-day applications. Materials, tools, and pieces of equipment not available a few years ago are now affordable and available for DIY applications. Some of the awesome examples of this innovative and practical technology that you can see today allow most people to build solar tracker on top of their roofs to harness clean and green energy, and use voice control devices to make daily living much easier.
Figure 1 Solar Tracker: Photo was taken from
In our list, however, there’s no doubt that voice- controlled smart-homes are on top. These top-of-the-line, futuristic devices fuel a lot of smart homes today by doing the task from as simple as turning the lights on and off, to something as complex as remembering your music preference and playing it automatically whenever you’re feeling the blues to brighten up your mood. Most people believe that living in a voice-controlled smart home is more like a dream and a little far from reality. This is because most of us see it as costly and inefficient. But in reality, these devices are easy to setup and are relatively affordable, given the vast array of its applications. And because we feel your urge to create your own DIY voice-controlled smart home, here are some tips to help you setup your own DIY smart home and some more additional ones on how to reduce the cost of doing so.
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Setting up your DIY Voice-controlled Smart Home:
⦁ Look for a Voice-recognition device and other devices capable of voice-recognition
Setting-up a voice controlled smart home without a vocal recognition device would be impossible. Thus, the first thing that should come in your mind whenever you’re trying to integrate vocal recognition into your smart home is to find a device to do the task for you. There are plenty of vocal recognition devices out there that are both affordable and reliable. Just visit your local tech store or go online and you’ll find tons of amazing deals and offers.
For the devices that would need to be synced (voice-recognition device, washing machine, hue lights, router, etc.), make sure that you have gadgets and equipment that are capable of working with an external command coming from your vocal recognition device. Plenty of leading brands today are already offering this kind of technology, such as washing machines capable of turning on/off based on an external and augmented command coming from a handheld remote device. When looking for voice-control capable devices, don’t forget to check the features included whether your appliance is voice-command capable or not.
⦁ Set-up your equipment
After acquiring your vocal recognition device, setting up your equipment is the next step. Tools and the equipment that you’ll need depends entirely on the requirements of your device. For most, however, what you need is a strong Wifi connection in order to sync your smart devices. Other pieces of equipment includes the devices and appliances that you would want to be synced with your vocal recognition device. Note, however, that these devices should have a pre-programmed capability of syncing with voice-control. Then, after setting up your equipment, placing the essential components where it could easily be accessed, or where it can easily hear your voice is highly recommended. Why? Because going to your bedroom just to open up the washing machine would be very impractical, thus it would be best to place vocal recognition devices all over the place. In order to do this more economically, we highly suggest to buy a “main” vocal recognition device where you usually work, then setup other devices with less functions (and cheaper of course) in places where you usually do not go. By doing this, you’re making sure that you’re saving money while also maximizing this technology’s potential.
Figure 2 Controlling your Home with Voice Control. Photo was taken from:
⦁ Sync them up
After setting everything up, the next step is syncing your equipment with the vocal recognition device. Since everything that you’re trying to setup is already voice-command compatible, syncing them would depend on the instructions of your voice-controlled device and the equipment that you’re trying to setup. Usually, this step would require you to run a software or a program on your devices to make sure that everything’s up and running. For this step, just read the manual of your device.
An additional tip for setting up your smart home:
Being smart for a home, does not only mean being able to follow plenty of commands and having numerous other features that are technologically advanced. Being smart also means being able to be efficient and practical in its day to day operations. In the case of these smart homes, being voice-controlled is surely an awesome way of enhancing your living experience. Another way to enhance one’s living experience is to use energy and effort efficient devices and tools such as solar trackers and actuators in setting up your devices. Solar trackers would surely help you reduce your energy cost, especially in a smart home where demands on power consumption are high.