This week’s Smart Living roundup features luxurious tiny smart homes, a new sensor for smart homes, a connected car platform that’s raised $8M in funding and a cost-effective way for smart home dealers to automate your home.

Tiny Heirloom Home’s down-sized luxurious smart homes

Don’t let the name fool you. The homes offered by Tiny Heirloom Homes may be small in stature, but that doesn’t mean home buyers are living downgraded lifestyles.

A Tiny Heirloom Home base model comes in at $75,000 and it includes high-end flooring materials, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances, composting or incinerating toilet, washer/dryer combo unit, a Dickinson p12000 heater, basic wind or solar package and shipping, plus all the legal cost that comes with owning said home. Aside from all the bells and whistles, thanks to its partnership with Nest Labs, the company will be rolling out its home automation system soon which will include “hands free lighting, voice activated door locks, automated thermostats, auto-leveling jacks, tank level indication and propane level readings and Bluetooth surround sound,” which runs from an iOS or Android smartphone – no Wi-Fi necessary.

These tiny homes weigh between 8,000 to 18,000 pounds (about $12,000 to $120,000) which allows it to fall under the travel trailer category for moving from one place to another, as it would not require a permit unlike park model RVs.

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GreenPeak Technologies’ new PIR sensor

Smart home semiconductor/system company GreenPeak Technologies announced a new addition to its smart home portfolio with the launch of a reference design for a low cost Passive Infra-Red (PIR) sensor with outstanding performance.

The reference design of the PIR motion detector can enable application developers to quickly build a ZigBee-enabled motion sensor that is ready to be produced with GreenPeak’s qualified ODMs and can be integrated in Smart Home applications like home monitoring, senior lifestyle, smart HVAC or smart lighting.

“The motion detector is one of the cornerstones of many Smart Home applications,” says Cees Links, CEO of GreenPeak. “Our engineers have optimized the reference design to combine the three features that really matter in a PIR sensor: long battery life, low cost and full room coverage. We leave it up to the application developers to create the exciting applications around it that truly make our lives more comfortable and safe.”

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Mojio raises $8M in Series A round of funding

Open car platform Mojio, Inc. has raised $8 million in Series A funding led by Deutsche Telekom’s investment arm Telekom Capital with the participation of Relay Ventures, BDC and AOL co-founder Steve Case. The round of funding will be used to support Mojio’s expansion in the US as well as globally.

“At Mojio we strive to deliver a continuous and ever-expanding relationship with our customers. Fundamentally, that is completely missing in today’s car ownership experience and is no surprise when nearly every car on the road is severed from the Internet,” said Jay Giraud, CEO of Mojio. “With the strong support of Telekom Capital, we can now bring our vision for the Internet of Cars to drivers around the world.”

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Icontrol announces availability of cost-effective home automation solutions for independent dealers

Icontrol Netoworks announced the availability of Icontrol One, a solution directed at independent security dealers. Icontrol One combines leading home automation platform and cutting edge feature set found in large service provider offerings with a business model designed to optimize the success of independent dealers. With Icontrol One, dealers can offer a branded, easy-to-use home automation, video and security experience that delivers the features homeowners want: immersive HD video, award-winning user experience and compatibility with an extensive open ecosystem of smart devices.

“The upcoming sunset of 2G wireless technology coupled with consumer trends moving away from landline phones and towards automation presents an opportunity. Now, dealers can easily upgrade their customers to 3G and home automation at the same time,” said Bob Hagerty, chief executive officer of Icontrol Networks. “Research from groups like ABI has shown that dealers need to take advantage of interactive technology to keep and gain market share through the end of the decade.”

Image via Heirloom Custom Homes