After four years of development;D, the Brazilian product design company Innovative House (IHouse), has emerged with a line of “intelligent” products for the future-conscious home. IHouse (which oughtn’t to be misconstrued as a new release from Apple – note the capital ‘I’), offers “the last word in high-tech solutions for homes, apartments and hotels.” These value-enhancing products include a bathtub, a sauna, a shower, a gate and a door, all incorporating cutting edge technology in order to be fully responsive through a pocket PC or the internet.
The tub, called Smart Hydro, highlights the appealing combination of luxury and efficiency that characterizes IHouse’s products. Before even arriving home, the water level, temperature, lighting, and bath salts or bubbles can be remotely programmed to your liking. If you are a creature of habit, your personal settings can be stored for a consistent bath experience; if you prefer to seize the day, your selections can be made on the fly. An integrated voice system alerts the bather that the tub is ready and a self-cleaning system activates while you are out. The tub is made of acrylic with an optional wood exterior, side windows for viewing the water level, and internal LED illumination, and features various built-in hydro massagers. A computerized monitoring system allows tech-support to locate and solve problems before the owner even notices.
The Intelligent Sauna (pictured below) is smart enough to know that heat and water will be wasted if the door is ajar. The pre-heating system will function only when the door is firmly closed, and shuts off automatically when not in use. The sauna can be programmed to give you a call on your cell phone when fully heated, and can be monitored in real-time via the internet. Smart Gates and Doors use fingerprint recognition and license plate reading technology to identify incoming guests without keys or codes.
This is no Jetson-style fantasy. IHouse technology has recently been incorporated into a major condo development project outside of Sao Paulo and is expected to be a hot commodity for developers in the near future as smart technology comes to be recognized as a huge benefit to homeowners, in terms of comfort, luxury and efficiency. If your house is smart, you can be a little more relaxed. Just program it and forget about it. Suddenly your house is taking care of you. Look out for the upcoming Brazilian Design Biennial, which is expected to take place between Novermber and January.
link: Innovative House (IHouse)
Brazzil Magazine
