With smartphones thriving worldwide, allowing people to multitask while on the road, the emergence of smarthomes for the residential market to give people peace of mind at home was only a matter of time.

The Indonesian market was introduced to the smarthome concept by augmented reality company AR&Co at Indocomtech, the annual technology exhibition recently held at the Jakarta Convention Center in Central Jakarta. Smarthome is a home automation system that allows users to control all aspects of their home from anywhere with a simple push of a button.

'€œThe main idea of the smarthome concept is to make the house more comfortable and safer,'€ the company'€™s managing director, Peter Shearer, said during a brief smarthome simulation at the exhibition.

Inside a smarthome, the use of Internet of Things (IoT) is the key to automating the residence.

IoT is a network of items embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity that does not require human-to-human nor human-to-computer interaction to exchange or collect data.

In a smarthome living room, the television and entertainment system, lamps and air conditioner can be controlled through a tablet-like control panel attached to the wall.

The panel features applications '€” developed by AR&Co '€” to control each item in the room.

'€œYou can turn on the AC when you'€™re on your way home through your gadget, or if you forget to turn off the lamp as you go, you can also do it remotely from your phone or tablet,'€ Peter said.

Another feature offered is a security system through which homeowners can control safety procedures through their gadgets, including monitoring surveillance-camera footage and opening the door for guests when they were not home.

Another augmented reality experience showcased during the tour featured a computer that could turn into a piano or DJ table set.

Senja Lazuardy, AR&Co'€™s IT director, said the computer was installed with an Intel RealSense camera that was projected onto a pad.

'€œIf you turn on the piano mode, the pad will then become the keyboard and will produce similar sounds as the real one if you push it,'€ he said.

In the bedroom, the use of augmented reality technology appeared in different forms.

The window in the room featured various information, ranging from weather forecast, a clock to notes.

'€œYou don'€™t need paper to write your to-do lists, schedules or appointments anymore because you can have them projected onto your window,'€ Senja said.

The room also consisted of an LED and touch-screen mirror that would be developed further to help users try on clothes without having to bring them out of the closet.

'€œThe mirror will scan our face, and once recognized, the 3D version of the clothes will appear and you can try them through that mirror,'€ he explained.

Peter said that the presence of a 4G network would support the development of smarthomes in Indonesia.

'€œMany may think that the smarthome concept is just for fun, but it'€™s actually very applicable in Indonesia because we now have the growing 4G internet network,'€ he said.

He added that the trend would grow significantly in the future as many products supported the application of the smarthome concept, including by Korean tech giant Samsung.

Senja said a few local hotel and apartment developers targeting the middle-to upper-income bracket had started applying the smarthome concept.

'€œI believe it will be the next big thing in the near future,'€ he said.

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