Intellithings Expands Functionality for RoomMe and Enhances True Occupancy Automation for Smart Homes

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

January 07, 2020

News

Intellithings Expands Functionality for RoomMe and Enhances True Occupancy Automation for Smart Homes

RoomMe now features voice assistant support, smartwatch-based location tracking and additional smart home integrations.

Intellithings, the Israeli startup responsible for RoomMe, the first smart home True Occupancy Automation system based on patented presence sensing technology, 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 utilizes 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. 

Available now, RoomMe has an MSRP of $69 per sensor with special pricing available for bundles of two or more sensors. RoomMe is 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. 

For more information on Intellithings and RoomMe, visit www.intellithings.net

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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