Smart Camera, Your Third Eye

This is an era of 'Smart Technologies' with phones as the key driver for it. Smart phones enable us with many Applications (Apps) to do our work Smartly. And hence contributing towards everything going Smart around us, be it Smart TV, Smart Refrigerator, Smart Lights etc, almost all of them have some interface to these phones.


Needs for monitoring @ Home

Baby Monitoring
For the parents of all the new born and infants, struggle is always for the time and attention required by the new addition in their life vs other responsibilities. Challenge is in moving little away from the baby even while they are sleeping. Baby may get up from the sleep and start crying while you are in kitchen or upstairs or you have gone next door. And if you have a toddler they waking up and trying to move around could always be your worry.
And you may also be missing the special moments of your baby while you are away on work


Child Monitoring
Ever wonder what your Child is doing while you are away @ work. You may have hired nanny to take care of your child, but how do you trust. There are news everyday in the newspaper and on TV channel which scare the working parents. This affect their life both career as well as personnel life


Senior Citizen Monitoring
You need travel away from home but always worried about your elder ones or Staying away from your parents and always worried about their health and well being


Pet Monitoring
Leaving your pet @ home alone is equally stressing as leaving a young one alone @ home


Home Monitoring
If you have a second/ holiday home, you don't know if someone else is using it in your absence. In case of your current living home, you do not know what's happening when you are out of town/outside. You do not know what your domestic help is up to while you are away


Smart solution

We all know "Seeing is Believing" and hence the need of Smart Third eye to see. This eye not only keeps a watch on the area under monitor but periodically informs you of any change happening in that place

While almost every mobile phone has Camera, Microphone and Speaker build into it, they can not be used as monitoring camera for reasons like app crashing, pan/tilt options missing, no night vision or clarity when its low light etc etc. However these phone does great job as a internet connected display and can be connected to Smart IP Cameras to provide you desired information about the place monitored.

You have the option to monitor the place on a live basis while also get picture/video alerts on your mobile if any changes detected in that place. They are helpful as baby, senior citizen, home or pet monitor.

You buy these Smart Camera's for one of the purpose while continue to use them for all other purposes, right fit for anyone who does not like throwing away things after initial use

Checkout the range of Smart Camera's from www.ifihomes.com and experience how all of a sudden monitoring become so simple for you

Update 12th Nov, 2013

Recent news in TOI dated Nov 11, 2013 estimates total loss of Goods and Property worth 34K Crore in theft in last 3years. Checkout the cutting from the paper

 

This calls for having a 3rd Eye to monitor your place, better safe then sorry

Saving Energy with Smart Switches while conserving environment

Energy Saved = Money Saved + Conservation

Why conserving Energy/Electricity is such a big need in India and or Globally. Here are the reasons and information that helps to understand the problem at hand and a simple solution.

Environment Conservation

While most of us have impression that Electricity is a cleaner form of Energy then fossil fuel, however we conveniently ignore the fact that majority of our Electricity is generated from the fossil fuel itself.

Energy Consumption

India stands way below the average per capita consumption of electricity worldwide, this is not because of judicial use of electricity but dues to the lack of availability of electricity to close to half of its population. Data collected in 2010 suggests an estimated 48% of rural households are yet to be electrified nationally; Bihar, Jharkand, and Orissa have electrified fewer than 35% of rural households large population.

 

In spite of this, power consumption for domestic use is very high

Cost of Generation

While the Electricity cost is increasing at the rate of 20 to 30% year on year, this gets passed on to the consumer in the form of increase in electricity bill every year.

Apart from the regular Electricity bill there is also a substantial increase in the cost of electricity produced locally using the Diesel Gen sets due to the ever increasing cost of the Diesel. This cost is estimated to be anywhere in the range of Rs 15 to Rs 20 per unit

Energy Conservation

Providing lighting only when needed is an easy and consistent way to save on the energy bills up to the tune of 80% specially for common areas. Areas like Staircase, corridor area, utility rooms, basements, garden (after a specific time), attics and parking facilities that are typically the areas where the movement or occupancy is limited. Most of these areas in an Apartment complex are lit up continuously between 12 to 24hrs depending on the day lighting available in these places. The cumulative lighting need at these places may be less than a hour in a day (depending on the utilization of the place).

A very basis solution to solving of turning the lights 'ON' or 'OFF' only when required can be achieved using Occupancy sensor switch or called as smart switch. These devices can control lighting while increasing the safety and comfort. And thus saving money by conserving energy. Energy efficient lighting is a long-term investment with a shorter payback period. There are various solutions that includes supply of a single component to all-inclusive lighting systems.

Underlying Technology

PIR (passive infrared) sensor reacts to body temperature in combination with motion. It provides light automatically when there is a requirement and it switches it 'OFF' automatically when there is no occupancy or movement.

Similar to PIR sensor is microwave/ Radar based sensors. These active Radar sensors react to all types of motion faster than PIR sensors do and are more sensitive to motion.

These PIR and Ultrasonic occupancy sensors seamlessly expand from a stand-alone, low-cost energy management system to include unlimited control possibilities. These can quickly be scaled to include lighting controls, remote management, load shedding using wired or wireless applications including WiFi, Z-wave and ISM band compatible access modules. These lighting solution could be made to further interface to your Property Management Software (PMS) and Building Automation Systems (BAS).

Payback period

Payback on this investment is calculated by means of savings achieved through the savings in electricity bill, cost saved with increase in the life of the lamp.

The basic solution could have a payback period anywhere between 1 to 2 years depending on the system selected and location of installation.

Pitfalls of Selecting wrong

There are various human presence sensor switches and lights available in the market. Most of them does the basic job of turning the light on and off initially. However the common problem with most of these sensors are

• Lamps takes longer time to turn 'ON'
  
• Lamps go bad often resulting in increase in expense on your lamps
  
• Angle detection problem
  
• Turns the light off inspite of human presence
  
• Low quality parts used, shorten the life of the switch
  
• Does not work well with CFL lights

About Me

I have been designing and developing Technology products and solutions for new age Homes since last 17 years. And currently promoting Smarter living solutions for South Asian homes. I have also setup first exclusive online store www.ifihomes.com focused towards the needs of Smart Homes for Indian consumers.

Email: rohit@thekhosla.com

Website: www.ifihomes.com
Support: care@ifihomes.com