On Dec. 13, Amazon rolled out a new feature that allows Alexa to control your home security system. If a user so chooses, the mega-company’s now-famous home voice assistant will arm a home’s security devices when it hears “Alexa, arm.”
The feature will also allow homeowners to ask Alexa if certain devices are armed and to tell Alexa to disarm as well. Of course, disarming a home without additional protocol wouldn’t be safe. The current state of identification security isn’t quite ready to recognize a specific voice for disarming purposes. Alexa will require users to give it a four-digit PIN code as well in order to disarm the security system.
As the new master of your home’s security system, Alexa will be able to control connected alarms, cameras, and more with the aforementioned voice commands and PIN codes. The voice-controlled feature is technically known as the Security Panel Controller API and it will work with products from a variety of common security providers. The list of providers includes ADT, Honeywell, Abode, Ring, and Scout Alarm.
For those with many of these devices, one command to Alexa can drastically simplify the process of securing their home. This system can also be an attractive alternative to those who employ actual security guards, whose salaries average nearly $30,000 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
Security Panel Controller API is an extension of Amazon’s upcoming alert feature, Alexa Guard. When an Amazon Echo speaker in your home detects the sound of breaking glass or of an alarm from your smoke or carbon monoxide detector, the system will send notifications to your phone. Alexa Guard is expected to integrate with Ring and ADT so that alerts are sent to a security company as well. The security feature will also randomize the lights in your home while you’re away to make it appear as though there is someone home.
This effort to protect your home and the furnishings inside of it, the demand of which the Freedonia Groups forecasts to reach $34.9 billion in 2021, follows a slew of innovative Alexa features in recent months. Just last week, Amazon revealed Alexa Answers, a feature that allows users to submit answers to unusual questions that are then distributed to millions of Alexa users across the globe.
Amazon announced earlier in the year that Alexa’s deep neural networks would see updates that make it smarter and faster. The updates will allow Alexa to understand a person who is whispering, pick up new languages more quickly, and ask more intelligent follow-up questions. With these updates, the device can also answer questions about math, science, and engineering and predict the outcomes of sporting events.
