What do today’s teens want? Smart homes.
By John Pherson | Posted May 29, 2014When I was a 17-year-old I couldn’t tell you the difference between HTML and Java but Matthew Lieberman started honing his home automation tech skills at the tender age of 15. Electronic House recently documented how Matthew worked with a professional Control4 dealer, Home Technology Experts, Southampton, New York, to design his family’s smart home from the ground up. Now, this technically gifted youngster spends his free time automating his parent’s 4,000-square-foot Hamptons home. From creating voice greetings to integrating music into the system, Matthew has tweaked just about every part of his parent’s home automation system.
When Matthew isn’t automating his parent’s house he is on c4forums.com learning about new and exciting ways to create and share features about Control4 systems. One such feature is the Text to Speech Driver which allows a Control4 system to translate text to speech and play custom audio messages. This driver can allow your system to tell your kids to take out the garbage or even give you up-to-date weather information.
Adding in voice prompts is just one of the many features that Matthew programmed by himself, with resources he used from Control4 Forums. “It’s kind of a tight-knit community of like-minded Control4 enthusiasts and we all work together to share ideas and collaborate on different ways to enhance our Control4 systems,” Matthew says of the online support.
Matthew’s parents fully support him in technological endeavors and basically give him free range on installing features into their Control4 system. The feature that his parents enjoy most is the ability to control the house remotely. Their 4,000-square-foot house can be locked, lights turned off, heating or cooling turned down, all from the palm of their hand using the Contol4 App.
So if you have a tech-minded teen at home and are looking for the perfect Graduation gift, maybe consider a Control4 system. Not only will you reap the benefits of a smart home, you’ll also have free in-house tech support!
To read more about this automated house in the Hamptons, check out the Electronic House article here.
When Matthew isn’t automating his parent’s house he is on c4forums.com learning about new and exciting ways to create and share features about Control4 systems. One such feature is the Text to Speech Driver which allows a Control4 system to translate text to speech and play custom audio messages. This driver can allow your system to tell your kids to take out the garbage or even give you up-to-date weather information.
Adding in voice prompts is just one of the many features that Matthew programmed by himself, with resources he used from Control4 Forums. “It’s kind of a tight-knit community of like-minded Control4 enthusiasts and we all work together to share ideas and collaborate on different ways to enhance our Control4 systems,” Matthew says of the online support.
Matthew’s parents fully support him in technological endeavors and basically give him free range on installing features into their Control4 system. The feature that his parents enjoy most is the ability to control the house remotely. Their 4,000-square-foot house can be locked, lights turned off, heating or cooling turned down, all from the palm of their hand using the Contol4 App.
So if you have a tech-minded teen at home and are looking for the perfect Graduation gift, maybe consider a Control4 system. Not only will you reap the benefits of a smart home, you’ll also have free in-house tech support!
To read more about this automated house in the Hamptons, check out the Electronic House article here.
