Intellithings has an upcoming update for its occupancy sensor that offers personalized smart home automation. Ahead of CES, the company has announced that Siri Shortcuts are coming to its RoomMe Bluetooth-based sensor.
Intellithings shared the news in a press release today:
Intellithings™, the Israeli startup responsible for RoomMe, the first smart home True Occupancy Automation system based on patented presence sensing technology, today announces expanded RoomMe functionality that adds voice assistant support across Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri, Samsung smartwatch support, and compatibility with two new smart home hubs, the Logitech Harmony and Insteon hub.
While it’s not getting full HomeKit support, RoomMe will gain support for Siri and Siri Shortcuts via an update before the end of March.
Here’s how Intellithings compares its approach to more traditional motion or occupancy sensors:
RoomMe leverages patented Presence Sensing Technology (PST) to make the personalized smart home experience a reality. Rather than rely on basic motion events, RoomMe leverages the unique Bluetooth signature of a user’s smartphone or select smartwatch models to identify who that user is, which room they are in, and automatically adjust settings such as entertainment, temperature, lighting, and more to that specific user’s preferences. RoomMe elevates the smart home experience and provides a hands-free, voice-free path to trigger and control connected smart home devices and systems.
RoomMe sensors sell for $69 from Intellithings’ website or Amazon.
Motion/room sensors from Philips Hue and Eve are popular options for about $30 less that feature full HomeKit support.
Learn more about RoomMe in the full press release below:
Tel Aviv, Israel – January 3, 2020 – CES 2020 – SANDS BOOTH #41917 – Intellithings™, the Israeli startup responsible for RoomMe, the first smart home True Occupancy Automation system based on patented presence sensing technology, today announces expanded RoomMe functionality that adds voice assistant support across Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri, Samsung smartwatch support, and compatibility with two new smart home hubs, the Logitech Harmony and Insteon hub.
RoomMe leverages patented Presence Sensing Technology (PST) to make the personalized smart home experience a reality. Rather than rely on basic motion events, RoomMe leverages the unique Bluetooth signature of a user’s smartphone or select smartwatch models to identify who that user is, which room they are in, and automatically adjust settings such as entertainment, temperature, lighting, and more to that specific user’s preferences. RoomMe elevates the smart home experience and provides a hands-free, voice-free path to trigger and control connected smart home devices and systems.
RoomMe works as an additional layer for today’s most popular smart home systems and devices, including Apple HomeKit, Wink, Sensibo, Philips HUE, LIFX, Ecobee, Sonos and Bose as well as hub connected Z-Wave and Zigbee devices. With this new release, Intellithings adds support for Logitech Harmony and Insteon hubs which gives RoomMe the ability to support and control IR and Insteon-based devices. Beyond DIY smart home devices, RoomMe also works with professionally installed smart home systems including Control4, ELAN, RTI, and URC.
Voice assistance support will also be made available to users through this update. RoomMe’s voice assistant integration enables users to ask their preferred voice assistant – Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri – for information about who’s home. In response to the command, the connected voice assistant will provide details on which room in the house currently has a RoomMe user inside and how long they have been there. As an example, a parent could check to see if their children are back from school or if you’re a caretaker, query the system to learn if a specific user has been inside one room for too long.
Additionally, Intellithings has added support for all Samsung smartwatches running Tizen OS 4.0 and up. Where previously, RoomMe only sourced in-home location data from an enrolled smartphone, users can now leverage Samsung smartwatches to tell RoomMe which room they are in and use their smartwatch as their authentication device to trigger their personalized smart home settings. With this new functionality, RoomMe users with compatible Samsung smartwatches no longer need to carry their smartphone from room to room and can configure RoomMe to leverage the unique signature of their smartwatch instead.
For Apple iPhone users, RoomMe now also supports Siri Shortcuts. With this functionality enabled, RoomMe users can create a shortcut to have Siri manually execute a RoomMe charm on demand. Operation of RoomMe charms via Siri Shortcuts gives users the flexibility to take advantage of their pre-defined room settings and manually adjust connected smart home devices in a room with a simple voice command and without the need to walk into that room.
“Support for wearables and smartwatches unlocks an entirely new way for users to interact with their RoomMe system and offers a very natural way to leverage our patented Presence Sensing Technology,” said Oren Kotlicki, founder and CEO of Intellithings. “We’re excited to continue to expand our ecosystem of supported smart home devices and add additional brands to our compatibility list. RoomMe’s unique abilities are not just about automation, our innovative voice assistant integration is yet another way RoomMe can help provide peace of mind.”
Available now, RoomMe has an MSRP of $69 per sensor with special pricing available for bundles of two or more sensors. RoomMe will be on display at CES 2020 in the Z-Wave Alliance experience house, booth #41917 in the Sands. All of the expanded RoomMe functionality detailed above will be available in a singular update made available before the end of Q1 2020.
Author: Michael Potuck
Source: 9TO5Mac
