Despite changes in trends, old habits die hard. The last thing you want to do at the end of a long day before settling in to watch a movie or heading to bed is to get up and close the blinds. With smart homes on the rise, there are new cool gadgets to make your life much easier. One of them is the option of voice-commanded blinds; but, are they worth the additional cost or just another gimmick that you don’t need?
Trust Blind Engine, a Korean start-up company, which got its funding from Kickstarter, is one of the biggest up and coming leaders changing the face of the blinds industry. They have one of the newest “smart” blind technologies, which is fully automated and takes nothing more than a voice command – no matter where you are in the house – to close the blinds and help you shut out the rest of the world.
Tying itself to the highly popular Amazon Alexa voice control system, the cost for the technology is a mere $99 if you order now through Kickstarter. If you wait until they go public, the price will increase to $150. The biggest problem is that although that doesn’t seem like a high price to pay, that is just for the voice command module. The cost of measuring, buying, and installing the blinds is still the consumer’s responsibility. For less than a hundred dollars, you get the voice activation capacity, but that is just an additional cost on top of your custom blinds, which can be highly expensive depending on which type you choose.
Is it really worth the additional cost? The internet has become overloaded with all sorts of smart home automation technology. While the gadgets were once reserved for those who had an abundance of disposable income and high-end tastes to boot, the new voice command blinds give any home, from a single-wide to a mansion in Beverly Hills, the same affordable options. Even New York City has plenty of custom blinds offerings out there. It’s really an adventure choosing your blinds and then controlling them with your voice would be a lot of fun. The ability to make your home completely self-automated is no longer something that only the wealthy can enjoy. The average consumer can have a home that runs on either the touch of a finger or the utterance of a phrase, which is pretty amazing.
The reason that voice command blinds are so attractive is that the other options available are very limited and costly. Most of them require an expensive custom installation and a contractor to tie the system in to be wired to your home. That alone can be a high price to pay when you can buy whatever blinds you choose and hook them together on your own.
With the new technology, you can combine all the automation gadgets around your home with the voice command to operate the blinds and shut them when you are leaving or open them when you come home. They can be fully integrated with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant — making them another cool feature to have your home operating like something from a science fiction movie.
The next best thing to the self-sufficient stand-alone voice command is Serena Smart Shades, but they cost a minimum of $350, which is a lot more than you pay for the Trust Blind Engine brand. And they aren’t yet available globally. Somme’s motorized blinds are also an option, but they require a professional to install them, which will cost more than a do-it-yourself project.
Currently, the only comparable product is something called MySmartBlinds, but their technology doesn’t appear to be as good, and the buyer reviews aren’t great. They only cost about $50 — but that $50 is too much if the product doesn’t work at all.
Regardless of which system you choose and the price you pay, being able to shut the rest of the world out by just giving a command is an awesome feature, which is well worth the additional cost, especially when the weather is inclement and you are snuggled warmly in bed.
Article Submitted By Community Writer
