In our kitchen, our coffee maker is connected via a smart plug with energy monitoring capability. It's a standard 'dumb' Philips filter coffee machine with a push on/off switch. It doesn't have a heated plate to keep the coffee warm but it does have a highly insulated stainless-steel jug, which keeps the coffee hot for many hours. Once the coffee is made it switches itself off automatically.
In this instance the machine is connected using a Z-Wave Plus Aeotec Smart Switch 6 but our technology abstraction allows any similar type of appliance control plug/module to be used. This is used to tell our Home Control System when the coffee machine is switched on and off and this particular device also supports energy monitoring.
Whilst it is also possible to set up the coffee machine so that it is ready to go (filled with coffee, water and switched on), to then switch it on remotely at a later time, we don't ever use it in this way. It is a device that could be controlled with all of the user interfaces available in our smart home though. Making coffee is an enjoyable ritual and one of those things we don't feel the need to automate :-)
We use models for all connected appliances and for all types of connected appliances in our contextual smart home and this includes our filter coffee machine. Our technology abstraction this means that it inherits all of the capabilities supported by our models and all those of our wider smart home. Essentially, every connected dumb coffee machine becomes much smarter and can also contribute to the wider pool of whole home context.
As well as monitoring when the device is on or off, it also models how much energy is being used and how long for. The time the coffee machine is on for allows our smart home to know how many people coffee is being made for. When it knows that coffee is being made for just one person it can then use other context (such as who is at home), to work out know who coffee is being made for. This is also further useful context to enable other useful things to be inferred.
The coffee machine being on is a clear indication that the family is up and a key input into our smart home UpUp algorithm.
Our coffee machine is actually a source of occupancy and presence information and is this whole home context used to drive many other elements of our smart home, including lighting, heating and the security elements.
Energy monitoring in itself is useful if it can save you money but, in the contextual smart home it can form part of the whole home context and enable much greater insight and advanced features. In this example tweet from our @smartest_home, energy monitoring data is pooled with other context to identify the user of the coffee machine and enable a personalised user experience in the kitchen.
As part of the personalised user experience, our contextual smart home sends notifications when the coffee is ready.
