HomeKit-compatible Intellithings RoomMe presence sensor now available

Posted:
in General Discussion
Intellithings has announced availability and HomeKit support for its RoomMe smart home presence device that helps improve the automation of connected devices.

RoomMe presence sensor
RoomMe presence sensor works with HomeKit


Currently, with HomeKit, lights can be triggered by motion which could include pets or other inadvertent triggers. RoomMe can identify people and make adjustments based on who that person is.

The RoomMe system identifies the specific user by spotting the app on a carried smartphone. A mounted Personal Location Sensor -- or PLS -- does the identification and executes personalized room-level scenes incorporating lighting, temperature, entertainment, and more.

RoomMe integrates not only with HomeKit devices, but Wink and Sensibo bringing together hundreds of Z-Wave and Zigbee devices.

RoomMe app for creating automation rules
RoomMe app for creating automation rules


"Sensors make the difference between a home that just has a few smart devices installed and a true smart home. Sensors, by name, sense what is happening," said Oren Kotlicki, founder and CEO at Intellithings. "With RoomMe, we take that idea a step further: This is not a sensor that is triggered by a pet to turn on a light, but a personal location sensor that knows who is in the room and what that person wants the room to do, automatically."

As an example, when a user enters the living at night, it could close the blinds, lower the lights, set the thermostat to their desired temperature, warm the light's color, turn on the TV to a user's preferred input, and adjust the volume. Each of those variables can be unique to each person.

Intellithings won a 2019 Innovation Design Honoree award earlier this year at CES for the RoomMe PLS.

The RoomMe PLS is available as a starter kit for $129 and includes two RoomMe sensors as well as access to the smartphone app. It is available for order now on Amazon.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    It's not exactly available to order..
  • Reply 2 of 11
    seanjseanj Posts: 318member
    Would be better if the app that identifies you ran on Apple Watch.
    I don’t necessarily carry my phone around with me all the time, but my watch is always strapped to my wrist.
    edited September 2019 jbdragonbonobobjohnnygoodfacelolliverJapheyMetriacanthosauruswatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 11
    mobirdmobird Posts: 752member
    ..."turn on the TV to a user's preferred input, and adjust the volume"...

    What TV brand(s) currently provide this capability?




  • Reply 4 of 11
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Doesn't Apple's Home app already offer this level of automation? *
    So, why would I let a third party track me as I move about my home **

    * Admittedly, I have not been able to get Home's automation to work:  My garage door is supposed to close when I leave my home.  It doesn't.
    **  Yeh, I'm probably overly paranoid about such things.  But, I see no need to trust some third party if the one I do trust (Apple) already provides the service I need.
    agilealtitude
  • Reply 5 of 11
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    mobird said:
    ..."turn on the TV to a user's preferred input, and adjust the volume"...

    What TV brand(s) currently provide this capability?




    Not sure, but you should be able to do something like this using something like the Harmony Hub, maybe?
    mobird
  • Reply 6 of 11
    Andrew_OSUAndrew_OSU Posts: 573member, editor
    Doesn't Apple's Home app already offer this level of automation? *
    So, why would I let a third party track me as I move about my home **

    * Admittedly, I have not been able to get Home's automation to work:  My garage door is supposed to close when I leave my home.  It doesn't.
    **  Yeh, I'm probably overly paranoid about such things.  But, I see no need to trust some third party if the one I do trust (Apple) already provides the service I need.
    Home app does not offer this functionality.

    With the Home app, you can get general automation that applies carte blanch to anyone who enters a room. RoomMe offers personalization based on individuals, creating automation rules that solely apply to you, on a per-room basis. Whether that is the temperature, the fan speed, the music playlist, the color and brightness of lights, etc. Lots of small things that can apply to specific users, not everyone in the home.

    This also works with many non-HomeKit devices. Like integrating directly with Sonos or Control4.

    While this is technically "tracking" you through your home, it isn't like it is trying to send your location back to RoomMe for some nefarious reason. Apple also has strong privacy controls to limit locations. There is also no camera or other way to see you to be worried about.
    boxcatcherwatto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 11
    macguimacgui Posts: 2,350member
    This is an interesting concept, but there needs to be a lot of granularity when relying on sensors for specific automations. There are a lot of variables that make relying on sensors somewhat problematic.

    What if two or more users walk into a room with RoomMe overwatch? (Designate an Alpha?)  In the case of lighting, time of day could change the value of an automation.

    I have four Hue sensors and they have very little granulation. Two work well with basic Day/Night settings, but the other two would benefit with additional settings, such as Dawn, Day, Dusk, and Night settings, or something similar.

    The idea of having lighting follow you around appeals to me. Turn a light on as you enter, and turn it off as you leave, turning on the next light ahead of you, etc. This can be done now with conventional sensors, but that's pricy and they're line of sight.

    Only somewhat related, I wish somebody would make a HomeKit proximity sensor instead of PIR. It could be stuck on a door to alert you of someone's approach/presence with no outward indications of monitoring, activate an alarm or remote camera, etc.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    I watched a video from RoomMe and afterwards I still had ZERO idea about how it works and was left with the impression that it is a very complicated system to manage. And I would need a sensor in every room and they are pretty expensive. And the first sentence on their "How RoomMe works?" page is this: "RoomMe is not a replacement for your Smart Home system." I'm trying to make a smart home, so obviously that sentence means I can't make it with RoomMe because I already need a smart home BEFORE I install RoomMe. P.S. It's interesting how their page is called "How RoomMe Works?" instead of "How RoomMe Works."
  • Reply 9 of 11
    GeorgeBMacGeorgeBMac Posts: 11,421member
    Doesn't Apple's Home app already offer this level of automation? *
    So, why would I let a third party track me as I move about my home **

    * Admittedly, I have not been able to get Home's automation to work:  My garage door is supposed to close when I leave my home.  It doesn't.
    **  Yeh, I'm probably overly paranoid about such things.  But, I see no need to trust some third party if the one I do trust (Apple) already provides the service I need.
    Home app does not offer this functionality.

    With the Home app, you can get general automation that applies carte blanch to anyone who enters a room. RoomMe offers personalization based on individuals, creating automation rules that solely apply to you, on a per-room basis. Whether that is the temperature, the fan speed, the music playlist, the color and brightness of lights, etc. Lots of small things that can apply to specific users, not everyone in the home.

    This also works with many non-HomeKit devices. Like integrating directly with Sonos or Control4.

    While this is technically "tracking" you through your home, it isn't like it is trying to send your location back to RoomMe for some nefarious reason. Apple also has strong privacy controls to limit locations. There is also no camera or other way to see you to be worried about.
    That's a good point:   the Home app can only tell if you leave the home, not enter a room.

    But the part about the 3rd party never using the information nefariously is irrelevant.  First, I find it creepy that they will know when I go to the bathroom.  And, there is no real way to know just how they will use that information, or share it, or sell it -- or if somebody just comes in and steals it.  While knowing that Apple is not bullet proof, they are the only ones I trust with that level of private information.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    macgui said:
    This is an interesting concept, but there needs to be a lot of granularity when relying on sensors for specific automations. There are a lot of variables that make relying on sensors somewhat problematic.

    What if two or more users walk into a room with RoomMe overwatch? (Designate an Alpha?)  In the case of lighting, time of day could change the value of an automation.

    ...

    Only somewhat related, I wish somebody would make a HomeKit proximity sensor instead of PIR. It could be stuck on a door to alert you of someone's approach/presence with no outward indications of monitoring, activate an alarm or remote camera, etc.
    This is a very astute comment and I agree with everything you said.  Precise location tracking is brutally hard to make accurate for the host of floor layouts that can exist ... made even more difficult by power and ROI constraints (few are willing to pay hundreds of dollars so that they can then build — themselves, mind you — a bunch of automation rules for all the various situations that can arise).

    Personally, I think a head-worn device will be able to address the need *far* more elegantly than deploying lots of stationary sensors.

    Walk into a room during sunlight hours but it’s too dark because it’s a super rainy day? Glasses detect the room’s brightness is less than X%, identify the room the wearer is in, and automatically turn on the associated lights.

    edited September 2019
  • Reply 11 of 11
    Doesn't Apple's Home app already offer this level of automation? *
    So, why would I let a third party track me as I move about my home **

    * Admittedly, I have not been able to get Home's automation to work:  My garage door is supposed to close when I leave my home.  It doesn't.
    **  Yeh, I'm probably overly paranoid about such things.  But, I see no need to trust some third party if the one I do trust (Apple) already provides the service I need.
    RoomMe offers personalization based on individuals, creating automation rules that solely apply to you, on a per-room basis.
    This does nothing of the sort. It tracks phones with their app installed. That’s it. I can’t think of a metric more worthless for informing HomeKit automations.

    Between my ecobee Smart Sensors and my Ring alarm motion sensors*, I have sensors in just about every room I care about. I have automations that run during the day to turn the ceiling fans on/off based on occupancy of rooms. This works extremely well, and is a smart and efficient use of occupancy-based automation. Ceiling fans are only useful when a room is occupied (they cool your skin up to 5° cooler than room temperature), so this kind of automation to control them to ensure they are on when applicable and off when not makes sense. Lights? No. There is nothing more jarring or annoying than a light that is triggered on or off by anything other than a deliberate action or a schedule. 

    The point being, this kind of automation needs to work, or it’s useless. And worse, annoying. The idea of this RoomMe sensor only working based proximity of a phone basically guarantees it will hardly ever work. 

    *Ring alarm sensors are connected to HomeKit via local homebridge server.  
    edited September 2019
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