Roomba is a term that refers to a series of autonomous robotic vacuum cleaners made by the company iRobot, and was first introduced in September 2002. Roombas have a set of sensors which help them navigate the floor area of a home. These sensors can detect the presence of obstacles and steep drops.
A doorbell is a signaling device typically placed near a door to a building's entrance. When a visitor presses a button, the bell rings inside the building, alerting the occupant to the presence of the visitor. Although the first doorbells were mechanical, activated by pulling a cord connected to a bell, modern doorbells are electric, operated by a pushbutton switch. Modern doorbells often incorporate intercoms and miniature video cameras to increase security.
OmniVision Technologies Inc. is an American subsidiary of Chinese semiconductor device and mixed-signal integrated circuit design house Will Semiconductor. The company designs and develops digital imaging products for use in mobile phones, laptops, netbooks webcams, security, entertainment, automotive and medical imaging systems. Headquartered in Santa Clara, California, OmniVision Technologies has offices in the US, Western Europe and Asia.
Control4 is a brand of automation and networking systems for homes and businesses, offering a customizable and unified smart home system to automate and control connected devices including lighting, audio, video, climate control, intercom, and security. The Control4 platform interoperates with more than 13,000 third-party products and it is available in over 100 countries. After merging with SnapAV, by 2024 Control4 managed over half a million homes through a network of 12,000 authorized dealers. The company was based in Draper, Utah from 2003, until its relocation to Lehi, Utah in 2023. Control4 currently operates as a brand/division of ADI Global Distribution.
Smart thermostats are Wi-Fi thermostats that can be used with home automation and are responsible for controlling a home's heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. They perform similar functions as a Programmable thermostat as they allow the user to control the temperature of their home throughout the day using a schedule, but also contain additional features, such as sensors and Wi-Fi connectivity, that improve upon the issues with programming.
Google Nest is a line of smart home products including smart speakers, smart displays, streaming devices, thermostats, smoke detectors, routers and security systems including smart doorbells, cameras and smart locks.
Ring LLC is a manufacturer of home security and smart home devices owned by Amazon. It manufactures a titular line of smart doorbells, home security cameras, and alarm systems. It also operates Neighbors, a social network that allows users to discuss local safety and security issues, and share footage captured with Ring products. Via Neighbors, Ring could also provide footage and data to law enforcement agencies to assist in investigations.
LIFX is a line of energy-efficient, multi-color, Wi-Fi enabled, digital addressable LED light bulbs that can be controlled via a Wi-Fi equipped device such as a smartphone or smartwatch.
HomeKit, also known as Apple Home, is a software framework and communication protocol developed by Apple Inc. that lets users configure, communicate with and control smart-home appliances using Apple devices. It provides users with a way to automatically discover such devices and configure them. By designing rooms, items and actions in HomeKit, users can enable automations in the home through a voice command to Siri or through Apple's Home app or third party apps. With HomeKit, developers are able to create complex applications in order to manage accessories at a high level.
Amazon Echo, often shortened to Echo, is a brand of smart speakers developed by Amazon. Echo devices connect to the voice-controlled intelligent personal assistant service Alexa, which will respond when a user says "Alexa". Users may change this wake word to "Amazon", "Echo", "Computer", and other options. The features of the device include voice interaction, music playback, making to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, and playing audiobooks, in addition to providing weather, traffic and other real-time information. It can also control several smart devices, acting as a home automation hub.
The Nest Thermostat is a smart thermostat developed by Google Nest and designed by Tony Fadell, Ben Filson, and Fred Bould. It is an electronic, programmable, and self-learning Wi-Fi-enabled thermostat that optimizes heating and cooling of homes and businesses to conserve energy.
August, Inc. is a San Francisco-based home automation company, focusing on Wi-Fi connected door locks and doorbell cameras. The company was founded in November 2012 by Yves Béhar and Jason Johnson.
SimpliSafe is a home security company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. The company produces and sells professional home security systems and monitoring services.
Amazon Alexa, or, Alexa, is a virtual assistant technology largely based on a Polish speech synthesizer named Ivona, bought by Amazon in 2013. It was first used in the Amazon Echo smart speaker and the Amazon Echo Dot, Echo Studio and Amazon Tap speakers developed by Amazon Lab126. It is capable of natural language processing for tasks such as voice interaction, music playback, creating to-do lists, setting alarms, streaming podcasts, playing audiobooks, providing weather, traffic, sports, other real-time information and news. Alexa can also control several smart devices as a home automation system. Alexa capabilities may be extended by installing "skills" such as weather programs and audio features. It performs these tasks using automatic speech recognition, natural language processing, and other forms of weak AI.
Wink is an American brand of software and hardware products that connects with and controls smart home devices from a consolidated user interface. Wink, Labs Inc., which develops and markets Wink, was founded in 2014 as a spin-off from invention incubator Quirky. After Quirky went through bankruptcy proceedings, it sold Wink to Flex in 2015. As of 2016, the Wink software is connected to 1.3 million devices. In July 2017, Flex sold Wink to i.am+ for $59 million.
Hive is a trademark owned by Centrica Hive Limited that produces smart home devices. It is one of the largest connected home providers in the UK and, as of May 2018, the company had more than 1,000,000 customers.
Blink is an American home automation company which produces battery-powered home security cameras. The company was founded in 2009 by Peter Besen, Don Shulsinger, Dan Grunberg, Stephen Gordon, and Doug Chin. The company was initially started as Immedia Semiconductor Inc in 2009, but pivoted into a consumer electronics company. In July 2014, the company had a Kickstarter campaign for their indoor security camera, which raised over US$1 million. Subsequently, Blink later announced an outdoor security camera, home security system, and video doorbell.
Xiaomi Smart Home Products are products released by third-party manufacturers who have partnered with Xiaomi. These products are managed by Xiaomi Home app.
Matter is a freely available connectivity standard for smart home and IoT devices. It aims to improve interoperability and compatibility between different manufacturers and security, and always allowing local control as an option.
iOS 14 is the fourteenth major release of the developed by Apple for the iPhone and iPod touch lines. Announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 22, 2020 as the successor to iOS 13, it was released to the public on September 16, 2020. It was succeeded by iOS 15 on September 20, 2021.
