This week’s Smart Living roundup features a new partnership strengthening home automation and security, an award-winning  security robot, and a bass-thumping light bulb for audiophiles.

Vivint and Cloudera bring Big Data expertise to smart homes

Vivint Inc., a company that provides home automation and home security solutions, has partnered with Cloudera Inc., a provider of enterprise analytic data management powered by Apache Hadoop, to put Cloudera Enterprise at the center of the Vivint’s home automation and Internet of Things efforts.  With Cloudera Enterprise, Vivint looks to identify actionable insight into smart home behavior to further automate its solutions.

Vivint started its smart home efforts with just security products, recently expanding to whole-home solutions. In the company’s efforts to gain market adoption and provide a “butler-like system,” it will need to apply Big Data and machine learning, says Jeremy Warren, Vivint’s VP of Innovation.

“The ability to process the data that comes from these systems is critical to us, moving from providing just a remote control home solution to a true smart home solution” Warren tells SiliconANGLE in an interview. ” The data-crunching capabilities of Cloudera Enterprise don’t just help Vivint design future products, but enable the company to understand the customer and “suggest actions accurately, saving people as much money as possible without annoying them,” Warren goes on, explaining Vivint’s partnership with Cloudera is more about the data application approach than anything else, hoping to make the entire system smarter.

That approach includes Cloudera’s software analyzing data collected by sensors to deliver recommendations to smart devices accordingly. For instance, when sensors determine that no one is home, the heating ventilation and cooling (system) can turn off automatically and turn on when the system detects that the homeowner is home-bound by tapping into the GPS data in the owner’s car.

Roaming robot gets an award

Proto Labs Inc. has recognized Roambi Inc. as one of the recipients of its Cool Idea! Award for the company’s autonomous personal robot named Jr.  The Cool Idea! Award is part of a program that helps convert promising concepts into market-ready products by providing quick-turn manufactured parts for prototyping, design iterations, testing or pilot production.

So what is Jr. and how does it fit into the Internet of Things (IoT) movement?  Jr. is a home security keeper that looks like most robotic vacuums currently available, but instead of it lying flat on the floor, it’s freestanding and roams around your home or work space.  It is equipped with four cameras able to capture high quality videos and still images to deliver an almost 360º view of its surroundings.  What makes it different from other home security solutions is that it doesn’t require a messy or complicated installation, and the device isn’t limited to just one position.

The first batch of Jr.s will be WiFi and Bluetooth-enabled with an optional cellular data plan so users can check on the status of their home, and immediately receive an alert when movement is detected.  The data collected by Jr. streams directly to the Roambotics network and smartphone app. New abilities will be integrated to Jr. such as 3D mapping of spaces, capturing spontaneous moments at social gatherings and even health care monitoring of senior citizens.

“Our goal is to make a personal robot that is an integrated part of your household,” says Roambotics CEO Scott Menor. “We want Jr. to look and feel robust — like an appliance that belongs in your home — and to be intuitive and useful.”

LightFreq brings color to your music

LightFreq Inc. aims to take mood lighting and sound tripping to a whole new level with the LightFreq light bulb.

Unlike other color-changing connected light bulbs, LightFreq has a built-in speaker which allows you to stream music directly to the bulb, and can be set up to follow you from room to room.  LightFreq can also help homeowners save on electric consumption, with proximity switches.

Not sure about what color you want your LightFreq to emit when listening to music? No worries, as this smart bulb can choose the appropriate color for songs to set the mood.  An unexpected perk is the ability to use LightFreq smart bulbs as an intercom system to communicate with housemates.

LightFreq fits in any standard light fitting and lamp and there’s no need for a hub to control things, as it is equipped with Bluetooth and WiFi so you can control it using your smartphone and the LightFreq app.  It has managed to surpass its funding goal on Kickstarter and early backers can expect to receive their LightFreq smart bulb by February 2015.

photo credit: Punk Marciano via photopin cc