Skeptics Corner: Brilliant Tech Smart Home Panel

Wink Relay Panel Redux

With a name like Brilliant I hope that they're not overselling.  It is good however to see another company taking the charge in offering a permanent screen-based solution to cover SmartHome needs.   Wink made a SmartHome touchscreen panel several years back which began it's life at about the same price at the 2-switch panel by Brilliant ($300).  But it was no long for this world (as it only worked with Wink).

Versatility and Conflict

Brilliant has seen the light of progress and has made a switch panel with far more features that the Wink panel.  Each panel includes a full screen, switches, sensors and a camera (with a privacy cover).  But it is the back end compatibility with all sorts of SmartHome hardware companies that will (hopefully) allow it to win the day.  Alas, even if you can get past the exorbitant price (starting $249 for the single switch), you may struggle to find this device as applicable in a home full of children who probably love tech at least as much as you do. 

This is probably the first smart-device that will not get broken due to being dropped out of a car seat on to the parking lot blacktop, but it will not go unnoticed in your home.  Its hard enough to keep kids from playing with the light switches that you have explicitly labeled to not be touched (so that the lights stay powered).  This screen absolutely needs to have some kid-proofing, or lock out pin, or something to manage the access it inevitably offers to tiny fingers. A wise person once said, "You've built a great tool, now tell me how it can be abused".

Baring the child-aspect and the cost, I can appreciate the utility of a readily available screen.  I do tend to carry my smartphone with me throughout the house, out of necessity as I run my business from my home.  But I cannot express the aggravation that I've experienced when I have forgotten my phone (or one of them) upstairs.  At one point I put an old tablet downstairs on the TV cabinet so that if i did neglect the phone upstairs I had something down there.  Not everyone is willing to carry their phone with them all over the house, especially into the restroom.  But I'd wager that once the price point comes down that this tool might find a place in many homes that have shifted to Smart.

Like an Elephant, Google Home Never Forgets

Google Home Never Forgets

This might be a good thing, and it might be a bad thing, but so far I haven't had many problems with Google Home... until now.

I recently moved a bulb from the Entryway of my home to my office.  I have installed this lamp in the entryway so that I could change the lighting color at the door for Halloween (the kids loved it).   However, after I changed the name of the bulb from "Entryway Light" to "Office Torch", the name stayed in Google Home.

Long have I been familiar with how to "sync my devices" in Google Home, as it is much faster to merely ask Google Home to do this for me, than to manually take the action in the app; yet this does not appear to make the update.  Alternatively, I've renamed the devices several times, and also I've removed and powered down the devices for more than 30 seconds.  In one case I forgot that I had remove a bulb and it sat out and un-powered for more than a day.  None of these actions has allowed me to remove the old titles from the devices.  Of course I could just stop using Smart Home devices, but that's not the point.

Naming Schema

Google Home is getting Smarter every day.  I'm certain that they are getting a MASSIVE amount of data from all the people connecting their apps to the software.  It works quite well and I quote enjoy using it. But it's not perfect and it always needs more work.

Currently, I've discovered that Google Home has some trouble distinguishing between the ROOM and the DEVICE.  An example is as follows.

-- Room: Office
-- Device: Office Lamp
-- Device: Desk Lamp
Say: " Ok Google, turn off the lights"
Response: "Ok, turning off 2 lights"

It seems to be able to comprehend multiple meanings, such as "lamp", "light", "bulb", and other items in the room the are classified as illumination devices. 

Next Steps

Like many of my blogs and activities, this is far from over.  I will likely be posting more about my adventures in Home Automation.  But at the very least, I'm glad I got this far....