I want to see a demo of a room alarm clock: with rising light (in brightness and temperature), birds chirping, room getting warmer, music/radio a while later.. and the same for going to bed.
You need to be able to enumerate all the possible scenario in your head in order to make a script that looks intelligent. eg: ok I want the light to start when I'm entering and switch them off when I leave. Well unless there is somebody inside (another sensor), unless I just pick the mail (a timer). How do I communicate my intention to come back, so the house does not switch off my netflix download ? If the lock is unlocked, but then shouldn't that generate an alert instead ? That's hopeless for regular user and even for developer that is too much effort for too little benefit.
The other approach is Nest, that is trying to guess. So your home would monitor what you do and try to replicate it. I'm not confident - take an application like Word, they are still irritating after decades of intellisense and a somewhat controlled and restricted environment.
The only one that could work I think would be an Apple bludgeon approach. Your front door and lights and heater work all together nicely following 1 strict scenario. You either adapt to it or don't buy their product at all ( so if Apple decide that morning means raising the blinder and you would rather let them down in order to get clothed, you better learn to have to change your clothes in the bathroom )
However, having used Wink devices and being a minor-league programmer, I can tell you that the crux of the author's issue should not be mistaken to be a misunderstanding of how to 'program' actions on the device. The logic is there - it just often simply does not work correctly due to various issues; some obvious, some not.
For instance, geofencing on Wink simply does not work reliably, as mentioned in the article. No matter how you set up your routines, location-based events won't work if the app does not correctly gauge/communicate your location.
Also problematic is that your routines are stored on your phone - not on the Wink Hub (basically a 'dumb' radio) - so if you set a timed event but your phone is off or you have no service, the event does not trigger.
Everything is further complicated by the fact that your commands are not sent from the app to your device - they are sent from your phone to Wink servers, and then to your device. If their servers are down, experiencing latency, or your home connection is fubar, or your cell service is slow, or your DNS won't allow you to tunnel out and back in with your phone on wireless, or packets are dropped somewhere en route - it is simply not going to work.
Finally, there is a ridiculous lack of information in error-handling. Sometimes the hub just does not want to work. With no web-based GUI, inconsistent alert LEDs that simply mean 'something is wrong', and even a reset button that does not actually perform a reset, even the most avid DIY-er is at a loss. Case in point: to truly reset your hub's network settings, Wink recommends that you change your home wifi network's name so that the hub will not be able to reconnect and will eventually reset itself. The inset 'reset' button only power-cycles the device.
With problems like the above, understanding the logic behind your comings and goings is a moot point - you can spend hours working with the thing and, as mentioned by the author, suddenly start to appreciate your light switches.
There's one of those in the latest Black Mirror. I won't tell you the stomach-knotting twist in the tale ;)
Those smartphone-connected blinds bother me far less than using your phone as a light switch.
Also, why wouldn't you turn the light off as you left the room?
Most of these "smart home" devices really do seem like a gimmick at this point. Maybe in the future, they'll be well enough debugged and refined to be useful, but for now, I just don't see a benefit in a normal* home. My dad uses Nests, "smart" locks, and remote cameras alarms (off-season) on his beach house - that makes sense, as he's a 5 hour drive from the house.
* normal for the US: 1970s 4-bedroom, 1800sqft, 2 level, no basement. I can walk across the house in the time it takes me to get my cell phone off the hall table (where I leave it to charge). The house a single thermostat, so I can't heat/cool zones, and the existing thermostat is programmable by day and time.
I don't know a single person with kids that doesn't have to do this wonderful nighttime ritual - visit every room in the house and set the electronics to the correct setting. It's very simple and I believe a computer would do it better and faster.
I agree - all this automatic light dimming for movies and "scenes" seems like a gimmick. But I'd love to have a button on my phone that switched every light in my house off as if I had flipped a switch.
We really only use lamps and sunlight aside from the kitchen so we're mostly using the plug-in switches, so it really is nice turning off lamps in 3 bedrooms + living + den in a few taps.
Might as well turn this comment into a little review of my Vivint setup. These are controlled via the console in the house, the web and the app:
- Alarm
This is nice because you can enable it after you leave the house, which is nice if you are in a hurry or just simply forget. Maybe not a killer feature.
- Front door lock
Same deal here, but it also lets me open the door for people remotely or grant them temporary access. It's a little janky, I imagine that the Lockitron is better. My main concern is battery life, which it alerts me about long before the batteries (4 AA) die. My second concern is that the gears inside will wear out, though it has lasted for ~3 years so far.
- Thermostat
Super convenient for Florida. We travel a lot so it's nice to kill the AC before we leave and still have a cool house half an hour before we get back home. There is an automated "Nest-like" web interface for this but I don't really trust it. Scheduling works great.
- Pan & tilt camera
This is more of a toy but it's cool, the other day we saw our dog tearing up the trash can in the living room so we ran home and stopped her (and put the can in the garage).
None of this stuff is perfect, and you are probably better off (quality and price wise) by going with Nest + Wemo + Lockitron + some alarm company, but we're still happy with it all.
However it can be nice to schedule lighting changes (I live in a high-crime area), have your porch light come on when you roll up in the driveway, etc. I find myself primarily using it as a dimmer, but in a rental property being able to install a few $15 25-year LED bulbs and a smartphone app to get some of these features does not feel wholly ridiculous to me.