Smart Homes Using AI to Enhance Our Everyday Life
Transforming your property into a smart home enhances your living environment and gives you complete control over every feature. While homeowners have been embracing smart home technology for some time, things are about to get a whole lot smarter.
The use of artificial intelligence (AI), combined with smart home technology, is set to revolutionise the way we live. From seamless property management to automated comfort settings, incorporating AI into your smart home can significantly enhance your everyday life. To get a glimpse of the features in store, take a look at how you can embrace AI and how it can improve your home:
1. Comfortable Temperatures and Energy Efficiency
Smart home functionality already allows you to control your thermostat from any location, while zoned heating and individual controls ensure you can adjust the temperature in different areas of your property. With artificial intelligence, however, smart home thermostats are able to use historical data to gauge how warm you like your home to be. Based on this, it will automatically adjust the settings, raise or lower the temperature, and turn your heating system on and off.
As well as guaranteeing your comfort, an AI-powered smart home thermostat allows increases the energy-efficiency of your home and minimises fuel consumption. If you want to embrace a more sustainable lifestyle, this is a great way to make your home greener.
2. Remote Food Prep
If the thought of returning home and having to prepare dinner each night doesn’t fill you with enthusiasm, you’ll be first in line to get a truly smart kitchen installed. The Internet of Things (IoT) enables everyday appliances to incorporate internet connectivity and wireless technology, which means every smart kitchen appliance you own could technically be controlled remotely.
As if cooking dinner while you’re still at work or preparing breakfast from your bed isn’t enough, AI is about to take things to the next level. With artificial intelligence, appliances can effectively ‘screen’ the internal temperatures of the food you’re cooking and adjust the cooking temperature accordingly, before turning the power off at the right time.
Credit: Shalini Misra
3. Bespoke Lighting Solutions
The right lighting has a major impact on your mood, productivity, and overall well-being, which is why it’s important to use layered lighting in your home. With AI-powered lighting systems, your overhead lights, lamps, and wall lights will automatically adjust based on external and internal factors. As it gets dark outside, your lights will automatically come on, for example. However, it doesn’t stop there. As the evening progresses, AI-lighting can gradually reduce the amount of blue light that’s emitted from screens to ensure you get a good night’s sleep or wake you up gradually with a lightbox on cold winter mornings.
Credit: Royal Stranger Marshmallow Floor Lamp
Make Your Home Smarter
Incorporating AI-powered tech into your home will allow you to make the most of smart home technology and enhance your everyday life. From preparing meals to creating the perfect ambience for relaxed nights in, it’s time to make your home a little smarter.
Using the Pantone Colour of The Year 2021 In the Home
When you want to transform a room or give your home a new, fresh feel, the Pantone Colour of the Year is always a good place to start. In 2021, world-renowned colour institute, Pantone have defied convention to name two shades as their Colour of the Year: Illuminating and Ultimate Gray.
Identifiable as Pantone shades 13-0647 and 17-5104 respectively, zingy, Illuminating and the natural, reliable hues of Ultimate Gray provide the perfect base of your design choices in 2021. If you’re eager to incorporate these outstanding Colours of the Year into your home, take a look at these top tips now:
1. Home Office
Remote working has taken off in a big way over the last few months and it’s a trend that’s set to continue for the foreseeable future. In response, millions of people are creating bespoke home offices, which means the release of Pantone’s Colours of the Year comes at the perfect time.
If you’re looking for a motivating shade that will boost your productivity and optimism, look no further than Illuminating, a lovely warm egg-yolk yellow. When combined with the dependable elements of Ultimate Gray, it creates the perfect backdrop for any home office or study area.
2. Kitchen
Traditionally, homeowners have favoured bright colours in kitchens because they add light and vibrancy to typically small areas. However, the trend towards open-plan kitchen-diners and larger kitchens has encouraged people to think outside the box when it comes to kitchen design.
Fortunately, Pantone’s Colours of the Year work perfectly together to meld these two design themes. Ultimate Gray is the ideal shade to give walls, cupboards, and islands an enviable solid, matt finish, while the bold hue Illuminating adds a little sunshine.
3. Furnishings and Fabrics
With the right furnishings and fabrics, you can incorporate Pantone’s Colours of the Year into any – or every – room in your home. A chic sofa in subtle grey is a great addition to any living space while accompanying throws and cushions in Illuminating yellow will lift the shade and add a pop of colour to the space.
Similarly, you’ll see a wide range of wallpapers that incorporate both greys and yellows this year, so why not make the most of them? Bolder prints make the perfect statement wall, while more subtle hues can work well throughout the room.
4. Bedroom
Your bedroom should be a zone of relaxation and tranquillity, but it also needs to uplift and motivate you every morning. To achieve these seemingly contrasting goals, use Ultimate Gray and Illuminating yellow to create a relaxing and reassuring haven that brightens your mood and boosts your energy. The reliability and dependability of Ultimate Gray is exactly what we need in these unusual times, while the power and energy of Illuminating yellow revitalises and re-energises.
Embrace Ultimate Gray and Illuminating Yellow Today
No matter how you choose to incorporate Pantone’s Colours of the Year into your home, you’ll be glad you did. Selected to represent clarity, energy, and hope, they’re the perfect shades to embody your home in 2021.
How to Entice Your Staff Back to Work
The COVID-19 pandemic has been an extremely stressful, worrying, and unpredictable time. With vaccinations being rolled out, life will slowly start returning to normal. However, many employers are worried that their staff won’t want to come back to the office. Some fear for their safety, while others are enjoying life at home. This has made returning to work a harder time than you may have originally thought. If you are unsure on ways to entice your staff back to work, then here is some useful advice that you should consider.
Invest in Air Purifiers for Your Office
Air purifiers are highly effective at removing ultra-fine particles from an indoor environment. This includes dust, mould, pollen, dander, and other common allergens. Evidence suggests that the right air purifiers may have the ability to capture viruses. Investing in air purifiers will reduce the risk of people catching and spreading COIVD-19 throughout the office, by reducing coughing and sneezing, and capturing the virus itself.
Accommodate for Social Distancing
Whether you run an office or a store, making an effort to accommodate for social distancing is crucial. The simplest way to do so is to rearrange the workspace and create clear routes and spacing throughout the store or office. If you can’t rearrange the workspace, then you should consider installing different screens between employees and customers. You should also provide everyone with the correct PPE and thoroughly clean the workspace regularly.
Use Standard Temperature Guns
Temperature guns can be an effective way to put people’s minds at ease. The demand for these tools has increased dramatically and they are used by many businesses. They can be used to detect a fever, which is one of the main signs of COVID-19. This will reduce the number of symptomless people entering the workspace. However, it is important to remember that this does not measure a person’s core body temperature because they are limited to the skin.
Keep Embracing Remote Working
If your company has managed to do so, you should continue to embrace remote working. This allows employees to remain productive in an environment that they feel comfortable and safe in. This is especially important for workers who are vulnerable or live with vulnerable people. You should also consider altering your sick day policy. Encouraging a schedule and office meetings can help ease your staff back into their work environment.
Show Your Staff that You Care
Showing your employees that you care about them and that you want to protect them will motivate them to come back to work. This is because it will make them feel safe and more secure in their work environment. Many people are worried for their future, safety and health, so you should use the principles to lead your staff back into a normal life and routine. This will rely on you doing your own research and alterations in the workplace.
Enticing your staff back into work is a tough task. Some people will be more concerned than others and will require more support and reassurance. However, with the right research and communication, you will be able to put their minds at ease.
