What is Geofencing and what is it for you in your smarthome?
What is Geofencing ?Geofencing is an option that you encounter in various applications of all kinds of smart devices.But what is it and how does it work? In this article we explain what you can expect from geofencing and how you could use it.
What is geofencing?
Geofencing means that you set invisible boundaries in or around your health smarthome. This is usually done through a combination of hardware (for example, the GPS chip in your smartphone) and software (such as your operating system and the apps you need for smart home devices). Simply put, a geofence is a virtual area within a location that exists in the real world.
Applications and programs that you currently need for smart devices can sometimes use geofencing in a smart way. When you enter or leave a certain area, a certain trigger can occur. That trigger ensures that devices that are connected to your home network and that are part of such a trigger can take action. A simple example: every time your child leaves the house or comes back in, you as a parent can receive a notification of this.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. The great thing about geofencing is the collaboration between you, your house and the smart devices that you have installed. Think, for example, that all devices can benefit from such location-specific technology: your thermostat, lamps, robot vacuum cleaner, security camera – you name it.
Geofencing: a scenario
Suppose that all members of the family are out at home at some point because of school or work.At that moment – when the last person leaves the pre-set virtual area – can switch on the alarm, lower the temperature of the thermostat, switch off all lights (or switch them on at any time), switch off all unnecessary devices and the sun blinds do it down. When someone comes home, the opposite trigger is triggered: devices switch on, the barrier goes up and the thermostat heats your house. Your house responds to your presence.
The advantage of geofencing is that you come across the technology in all kinds of applications.This allows you to control a whole lot of devices by having them look at your location. The disadvantage is that the range of devices these days is very large, making it difficult to find out which products do and do not suit your situation. You will therefore have to do research into specific options and systems, as long as you do not find what you are looking for. You can also use automation programs such as IFTTT to connect different devices to each other that do not normally communicate with each other.
Geofencing versus voice assistants and schedules
Perhaps you don’t see geofencing in that way now, that is of course possible. The biggest advantage of the technology is that you set everything once and the house then regulates itself.The same naturally applies to people who use schedules, but by no means everyone has such a fixed weekly pattern that the schedule offers the solution. They do give you a little more direct control over your house. The same applies to voice assistants. With those handy aids in your house, you have the most control, but currently they do not allow you to plan things in advance (although this option must be introduced for the Google Assistant this year).
In addition, you also have the option to implement various sensors in-house. Only when someone walks past such a sensor, does the lamp in the room turn on where someone is at that moment. If, at a given moment, no more movement is detected, the lights go out. You can solve any problems with such a system with schemes and voice assistants, because it does not work perfectly. In addition, you also have to install and hang everything up and not everyone likes to do that.However, the major disadvantage of geofencing is that you always share your location with your smartphone, but also with apps from other manufacturers.