The Z-Wave Alliance, an open consortium of global companies deploying Z-Wave, has chosen the October winner of its global IoT developer competition. Texas-based smart home startup HAB Home Intelligence is the next winner of the yearlong Z-Wave Labs program with iBlinds, its intelligent shading solution, and will receive Z-Wave Alliance membership and access to the new Z-Wave IoT-ready 500 series development kits.
iBlinds from HAB Home Intelligence is a solution for homeowners looking to automate and control the blinds already in their home. The intelligent blind motor will work with any Z-Wave controller and app to give homeowners control over their blinds, whether they are at home or away. Z-Wave integration will also enable iBlinds to interact and communicate with other smart home devices on the network, which the user can use to create personalized scenes and automation rules.
“Lighting and shade automation is a critical slice of the smart home pie,” said Mitchell Klein, executive director at the Z-Wave Alliance. “Companies like HAB Home Intelligence that are looking at creating retrofit solutions using Z-Wave technology, like iBlinds, are making the smart home more accessible and friendly to consumers. Being able to add a simple product to existing items in the home to make them ‘smart’ is very appealing to those who want the functionality without the extra stuff.
In addition to being a retrofit solution to remotely control and automate blinds at home, iBlinds can assist with indoor climate control and home security. During the fall and winter months, users can use iBlinds to let natural sunlight in to help warm the house and keep heating bills low, or choose to close their blinds during the summer to help cool the house and keep A/C expenses low. While away, users can schedule their blinds to open and close at specific times to give the illusion someone is home and keep potential intruders at bay.
“Integrating Z-Wave into our iBlinds solution from the very beginning was an easy choice,” said Eric Barnett, HAB Home Intelligence CTO. “The guaranteed interoperability between devices and diverse ecosystem of smart home solutions associated with Z-Wave were particularly enticing to us, and we knew it was a standard we wanted to innovate on in order to give our customers the best possible experience.”
