Transform your smart home with AI-powered automation: air quality control, intelligent lighting, advanced security, custom models, and smart plant care.
Most smart home setups stop at basic convenience, like turning lights on/off, setting a thermostat schedule, or using voice commands. But modern smart homes go beyond explicitly-programmed automation to anticipate your needs.
Here are five beginner-friendly ways to make your home smarter, safer, and more efficient using AI, sensors, and Viam.
1. Automate air quality responses
❌ Basic setup: You check an air quality monitor manually or receive a notification about unhealthy levels. ✅ Smarter setup: Your home detects poor air quality and fixes it automatically.
How? Use CO2, PM2.5, or VOC sensors to monitor when values reach a threshold to trigger actuation that happens whether you’re at home or not.
Turn on an exhaust fan when CO2 is high.
Send an alert and open a smart window for fresh air.
Visualize spikes in air quality over time; Use a Raspberry Pi to measure PM2.5 particulate matter to trigger an air filtration system
2. Smarter lights with mmWave presence detection
❌ Basic setup: Use PIR motion sensors turn lights on/off based on movement which can lead to false positives, like pets or heating vents triggering a detection, and false negatives, like lights turning off when someone is sitting still. ✅ Smarter setup: Use millimeter wave (mmWave) sensors to detect human presence enabling precise, adaptive automation.
Use mmWave sensors to ensure smarter automation by detecting both static and moving presence, eliminating false triggers and improving energy efficiency.
Enable smarter lights that stay on when you're reading, working, or watching TV.
Save energy by turning lights off when you leave a room.
❌ Basic setup: You’re browsing open-source registries for existing models that kind of do what you want them to do. ✅ Smarter setup: Train your own AI models for improved accuracy and customization.
How?
Refill a snack bowl when it’s empty.
Dispense treats for humans or pets when a certain pose is detected.
Log patterns in snack consumption to predict when inventory should be replenished.
Modern smart homes should go beyond simple, pre-programmed commands. They can be multi-modal, integrating input from various sensors and seamlessly triggering multiple smart devices to anticipate your needs rather than just react.
When designing your home automation setup, there are countless possibilities, from cloud-based, local, or hybrid approaches. Choose what best fits your needs.
A multitude of choices exist when architecting your home automation solutions for cloud, local, and hybrid approaches
Try one of these five upgrades and start making your smart home actually smart. Got a cool automation setup? Share it with us in the Viam Discord server in the #built-on-viam channel.
Find us at our next event
May 6, 2025
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May 6, 2025
,
07:00-09:00 PM EST
Elastic New York Meetup
In Person
New York, NY
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