Product type | Home automation |
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Owner | Belkin |
WEMO, a subsidiary of Belkin, are a series of products from Belkin that enable users to control home electronics remotely. The product suite includes electrical plugs, motion sensors, light switches, cameras, light bulbs, and a mobile app.
The Wemo Switch can be plugged into any home outlet, which can then be controlled from an iOS or Android smartphone running the Wemo App, via home Wi-Fi or mobile phone network.
The Wemo Motion Sensor can be placed anywhere, as long as it can access the same Wi-Fi network as the Wemo devices it is intended to control. It can then turn on and off any of the Wemo devices connected to the Wi‑Fi network as people pass by.
The Wemo Insight Switch provides information on power usage and cost estimation for devices plugged into the switch.
The Wemo Light Switch is for use where a light is controlled by a single light switch. Multi-way switching is not supported at this time but can be approximated by installing a Wemo Light Switch at each location.
The Wemo App controls the Wemo devices from anywhere in the world as long as the Wemo devices' wireless network is connected to the Internet. Wemo devices can also be controlled using IFTTT technology. Wemo devices can also be controlled by voice through the Amazon Echo, [1] Google Assistant, [2] and Apple's Siri (through the use of the Wemo Bridge). [3]
Wemo switches are controlled via IP networks; thus, for a switch to be controllable from a remote location, it must be open to receive connections from the Internet. In January 2013, it was revealed that the Wemo had a security flaw in its UPnP implementation that allowed an unauthorized user to take control of a switch. This could allow malicious attacks, such as flipping the switch at a very fast rate, which could damage certain devices and even cause electrical fires. [4]
This vulnerability has been addressed by updated firmware releases. [5]
Linksys Holdings, Inc., is an American brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States. Linksys products include Wi-Fi routers, mesh Wi-Fi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and Wi-Fi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.
Insteon is a proprietary home automation (domotics) system that enables light switches, lights, thermostats, leak sensors, remote controls, motion sensors, and other electrically powered devices to interoperate through power lines, radio frequency (RF) communications, or both. It employed a dual-mesh networking topology in which all devices are peers and each device independently transmits, receives, confirm and repeats messages. Like other home automation systems, it had been associated with the Internet of things.
A home network or home area network (HAN) is a type of computer network that facilitates communication among devices within the close vicinity of a home. Devices capable of participating in this network, for example, smart devices such as network printers and handheld mobile computers, often gain enhanced emergent capabilities through their ability to interact. These additional capabilities can be used to increase the quality of life inside the home in a variety of ways, such as automation of repetitive tasks, increased personal productivity, enhanced home security, and easier access to entertainment.
A residential gateway is a small consumer-grade gateway which bridges network access between connected local area network (LAN) hosts to a wide area network (WAN) via a modem, or directly connects to a WAN, while routing. The WAN is a larger computer network, generally operated by an Internet service provider.
Sling Media Inc. is an American technology company that develops placeshifting and Smart TV solutions for consumers, multiple-system operators and set top box manufacturers. The company is based in Foster City, California, and was a subsidiary of Echostar. Their initial product, the Slingbox, debuted on the US market on July 1, 2005. The EchoStar business unit was part of a corporate assets exchange with Dish Network at the beginning of 2017 and now operates as Dish Technologies Corporation under Dish Network.
Monsoon Multimedia was a company that manufactured, developed and sold video streaming and place-shifting devices that allowed consumers to view and control live television on PCs connected to a local (home) network or remotely from a broadband-connected PC or mobile phone. It was one of 5 major transformations initiated by Prabhat Jain, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur with 5 undergraduate and post graduate engineering degrees from Cal Berkeley and Univ of Vienna, Austria. On the even of Cisco acquiring Monsoon in 2017, EchoStar, the new parent of Sling sued Monsoon for patent infringement, having obtained confidential information about the date of the acquisition by Cisco from a Monsoon employee under murky circumstances. Monsoon settled the lawsuit by agreeing not to sell its products in the USA simply because it did not have the legal funds to fight mighty Echostar's legal maneuvers. EchoStar thus successfully removed its only competitor from the market place. This meant Monsoon's death knell.
TP-Link is a Singapore electronics manufacturer of network equipment and smart home products. The company was established in 1996 in China, separated from Chinese TP-LINK in 2022, and has announced a corporate restructuring in May 2024. TP-Link has headquarters in Singapore and the United States, and 42 subsidiaries, selling products in over 170 countries and regions. It owns several brands, including Deco, Tapo, Omada, VIGI, Aginet, Kasa Smart, and Mercusys.
The iPad is a tablet computer, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the third device in the iPad line of tablets. It added a Retina Display, the new Apple A5X chip with a quad-core graphics processor, a 5-megapixel camera, HD 1080p video recording, voice dictation, and support for LTE networks in North America. It shipped with iOS 5, which provides a platform for audio-visual media, including electronic books, periodicals, films, music, computer games, presentations and web browsing.
ecobee is a Canadian founded home automation company that makes smart thermostats, temperature and occupancy sensors, smart light switches, smart cameras, and contact sensors. They were acquired by the American company Generac Holdings in 2021.
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.
Amazon Fire TV is a line of digital media players and microconsoles developed by Amazon since 2014. The devices are small network appliances that deliver digital audio and video content streamed via the Internet to a connected high-definition television. They also allow users to access local content and to play video games with the included remote control or another game controller, or by using a mobile app remote control on another device.
Muzzley is an app to control Internet of Things devices. The app, available for iOS, Android and Windows 10 allows to control these devices. They provide third party devices integrations through their API's and SDK's for manufacturers to directly embed into their microcontrollers.
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 the Home app. 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 an American 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.
HomeSeer Technologies LLC is a technology company based in Bedford, New Hampshire, in the United States. HomeSeer makes home automation controllers and software, designed to integrate lighting, HVAC, security, AV and other subsystems in most homes. Additionally, the company maintains an online store of compatible home automation products and a free online community forum for users and dealers.
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.
Amazon Sidewalk is a low-bandwidth long-range wireless communication protocol developed by Amazon. It uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) for short distance communication, and 900 MHz LoRa and other frequencies for longer distances.
Matter is a freely available connectivity standard for smart home and IoT devices. It aims to improve interoperability and compatibility between different manufacturer and security, and always allowing local control as an option.
A smart plug is a power plug and socket which can be fitted between power cords and sockets to function as a remote-controlled power switch. As such, smart plugs can be used to make "dumb" electrical equipment smart, and thereby enable such devices for home automation or building automation purposes.