Latest Blinds Technology for the Futuristic Home
Smart home technology has quickly become a part of daily lives. Many of us have a voice-activateddevicein our homes and smart thermostats are a great way to have better control of our heating systems. Blinds had already become motorised but what is the latest technology that allows them to join the futuristic home movement?
Adjusted by sunlight
One of the constant irritations during the day can be having to adjust your blinds as the sunlight moves around. But a new device from a San Francisco inventor may take away the need for adjustment. It can be retrofitted to existing blinds and makes them into a smart blind – triggering based on light, temperature or the time of day.
For example, if you live in Gloucester and receive sunlight from lunchtime onwards, you can set it to automatically adjust a little from that point on to account for the growing sunlight in the room. Or you can leave it to work by the amount of light – so if it is an overcast Gloucestershire day, the blinds won’t move.
Home automation kits
Another similar idea is able to transform slatted blinds into smart blinds with the addition of a home automation kit. The kit can be fitted to pull cord blinds of different types with the motor replacing the mechanism that makes the blinds tilt – you still have to manually raise and lower the blinds at this point.
The kit takes around five minutes to install without any tools and then you can work the blinds from your smartphone with the connected app. Set opening and closing schedules or even set it to respond to sunlight levels to adjust accordingly when there is cloud cover. It is battery operated but battery life is said to be around three years. Or you can buy an additional solar panel to remove the need for batteries entirely.
Integrated blinds
Perhaps one of the most interesting ideas for the futuristic home is the idea of integrated blinds. These are a little further ahead than other systems, but the idea is an intriguing one – blinds that are built in between the double-glazing panels of the windows. So far, designers have created Venetian or pleated blinds that are assembled and permanently sealed in the double-glazing cavity. This means you add blinds when you change your windows and they remain in place for years.
The blinds require no cleaning and don’t fade. Most importantly, they have a control unit that allows you to easily operate them once they are in position. The control unit is much the same as using a smartphone. And there is also a discreet solar panel mounted on the outside of the frame that provides the power to operate the blinds.
Ask Alexa
The Amazon Echo with the Alexavoice-activated assistant is one of the best known of the voice-activated devices. And there are smart blinds systems that are already integrating with the device. That means you don’t even need to touch your phone to operate your blinds, you can just ask Alexa to do it for you!
Visit the Shades and Shutters Ltd website for more information on Latest Blinds Technology for the Futuristic Home