LLMs in smart home solutions: new era in voice-driven automation
Just a decade ago, one could not imagine having their own J.A.R.V.I.S. seamlessly integrated into the smart home solution. With the advent of AI-powered technologies, such a reality is closer than ever before. From automatic light switches to intelligent curtain control systems, the market is filled with a diverse range of devices that facilitate our daily routine. Through intelligent scheduling, we can optimize energy consumption, ensuring lights and climate control systems are active only when needed. What is particularly impressive is that all of this can be achieved using your voice alone.
Voice-control can provide users with an intuitive and hands-free method to control and automate their homes. Whether it's fine-tuning the lighting for a cozy movie night or regulating the temperature with a simple vocal cue, the power of voice control allows to shape living spaces according to one’s preferences, making smart home technology more accessible and enjoyable than ever before. With the integration of AI, your home becomes personalized: be it your preferred lighting ambiance, heating settings, music choices or a waking-up time, the smart home solution is fully at your service. The system becomes attuned to your lifestyle, optimizing energy consumption based on your habits and preferences.
However, a system like that is far away from the desired J.A.R.V.I.S. experience. Most often, the solutions contain preset, out-of-the-box functions and triggering words, making the interaction often frustrating - it becomes easier to open the curtains yourself than trying for the fifth time to remember the command word your smart home has been set for. But do not get discouraged - LLMs are here to solve the issue. GPT-4 and similar models can bring a unique dimension to the smart home domain by processing and responding to user commands in natural language. In other words, it becomes possible for the voice assistant to infer the intentions of the user with less concrete instructions. For instance, instead of stating a rigid command like "Set the thermostat in the living room to 20 degrees," users can casually say, "I'd love it a bit warmer in here." Similarly, when it comes to lighting, rather than giving a specific command like "Turn on the living room lights," a user might say, "It's a bit dark in here, can we brighten things up?" Similar experiences can be recalled when it comes to music preferences, locking of the doors, calling, or setting the reminders. This level of natural language understanding transforms the smart home into an intuitive and responsive environment, enhancing the user experience. Another exciting novelty is an ability of LLM-powered assistants to comprehend complex tasks: no longer is the pause between the chores needed. One may simply instruct, “Close the garage, turn off the lights in the living room, and play “Dance the Night””.
Keeping pace with time, AAI Labs has been in continuous collaboration with JUNG Vilnius to work on the advancement of smart home solutions in Lithuania. JUNG Vilnius, being a leader in the design and manufacture of high-quality electrical switches, intelligent building control systems, and automation solutions for both residential and commercial buildings, offers JUNG KNX as an example of a smart home system that can be controlled by voice via virtual AI-enabled assistants, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home. Thanks to the productive partnership, the JUNG KNX can now be controlled in the Lithuanian language. The capabilities of the system can be tested live at the JUNG Vilnius Showroom. The ultimate goal for the partners is to create an AI-enabled smart home system that will infer commands in Lithuanian as seamlessly as the currently offered solutions do so in English.
According to Raimundas Skurdenis, director at JUNG Vilnius, AI can also have a significant impact on building management. With buildings being themselves the source of more data for algorithms to train on and advance, two similar smart houses, located far from one another, can learn from each other’s best practices, compare decisions, and devise better solutions for higher energy efficiency, improved comfort, and overall quality of life.
By achieving a seamless synergy between JUNG sensors and AAI Labs’ LLM-based technologies, the smart home will better consider the environmental context to make the most appropriate, logical decision or to offer several options to the homeowner.
All of this may sound like a futuristic movie scenario, but the first steps have already been taken, and the revolution is gathering pace. Raimundas Skurdenis sees this partnership with AAI Labs as a leap towards a holistic home experience. We are moving towards a paradigm where smart homes do not just respond to commands; they understand, anticipate, and adapt to the needs and preferences of their users. Our journey with AI and LLMs is paving the way for a new era of smart home technology that promises enhanced convenience, efficiency, and a truly personalized living experience. In other words, a J.A.R.V.I.S.-powered home is likely to become the reality sooner than we have expected.
JUNG Vilnius is a premium supplier of modern building technology - find out more about JUNG’s available products here. For more information about custom LLM integration into your business, contact AAI Labs for the first free consultation.
