LIXIL "Life Assist2", which makes its own smart family, no longer needs a monthly fee and evolves greatly.

This publication was carried out on the LIXIL research facility "U2-Home" that uses actual residential buildings.

LIXIL makes housing IoT.

Life Assist2 is an IoT system that connects home appliances, residential devices, sensor devices and so on to the Internet. By using this service, confirm the status of the corresponding device through the smartphone application, or operate from a long distance. You can control more devices with optional dedicated cameras, sensors and infrared centralized remote controls. The operating systems supported by the dedicated application "Life Assist2" are iOS 13 and Android 7 or later. Supported devices can be listed on the LIXIL website (the link is a PDF file, updated at any time).

Life Assist2 supports many "ECONET Lite" devices, but non-IoT devices can also be intelligent by using dedicated options. Life Assist2's options include "infrared centralized remote control (standard code: Z-A009-XAAA)" for remotely moving devices using infrared remote control, and "JEM-An adapter (standard code: Z-A002-XAAA)" for connecting electronic locks, electric shutters and home devices. There are 1080p (2 million pixels) indoor cameras (standard code: Z-A008-XAAA) that can move 90 degrees longitudinally and 345 degrees horizontally, and 1080p (2 million pixels) outdoor cameras (standard code: Z-A007-XAAA) with a wide viewing angle of 110 degrees vertically and horizontally.

In addition, there are various sensors that can trigger anti-theft and machine movements. There are "temperature and humidity sensors (specification code: Z-D141-NRAC)" for detecting temperature, humidity and illuminance, "wide area human sensor (specification code: Z-D121-NRAC)" for detecting human movements, and "door and window sensors (specification code: Z-D101-NRAC)" that can be set on porch doors and windows to confirm the opening and closing condition through special applications. By incorporating them into your Life Assist2 system, you can set up operations such as "turn on the air conditioner when the room temperature exceeds 27 ℃" and "notify the smartphone when the door is open when no one is there".

By the way, in order to "it's troublesome to start smartphone applications one after another in order to operate the machine," people also prepare "Creek (specification code: Z-A003-XAAA)" that can operate home appliances and lighting at the press of a button. Depending on the settings of the dedicated application, you can also control multiple devices at the same time through the jacket.

A dedicated application to learn about the house in each room

The difference between ordinary IoT appliances and the Life Assist2 released this time is that Life Assist2 is easy to "manage the whole house". Life Assist2 can issue ID to each family (up to 10 people) and change the permissions of each ID. For example, parents can access devices at home, and children can be set to only allow devices that control their own rooms.

There are many things that can be achieved in Life Assist2 and applications. One is the pull-Clark operation of the machine. Whether you are away from home, regardless of location, you can operate the device from your smartphone and work with smart speakers to support voice operations (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa).

The other is the automation of machine operation. Turn the device on and off at a specific time (such as the day and time of the week), triggering devices and household appliances, including temperature, humidity, door opening and closing, and human entry. In addition, as a function added from Life Assist2, it also carries the linkage function with the meteorological information provided by Weather News. For example, if a storm is predicted in an hour, you can also automatically control the shutter closure.

Using these features can also help you guard your parents who live in remote areas. As an example, I have the right to check whether elderly parents living far away have turned on the lights, so that they can protect their privacy without peeping into their parents' lives.

This time, the author also experienced Life Assist2 a little. Only developed by LIXIL, shutter, hall lock, walkie-talkie, water heater, to HEMS, in short, and all kinds of "home" equipment cooperation. It is really convenient to use one application to operate these devices and to jointly operate multiple devices.

On the other hand, due to the unified operation of many machines and sensors, but also to deal with a variety of situations, prevention, disaster prevention, part of the operation and application interface is a bit complex. It may be a little difficult for users who are not used to dealing with smartphones and IoT devices. There is also such a part. This kind of service is very important for the use of applications, so we hope that with the popularity of applications, improve the operability, and really become IoT services that anyone can easily use.