"The first truly Intelligent Home"
Fanny Cheuk, CEO featured in Property Times 30th August, 2003

With a light tap of her smart card on the intercom, Fanny opens the front gate. Right away, a woman's voice comes over the speaker, "Fanny, welcome home! Your external security system has been deactivated." I wondered if there was a maid waiting for Fanny inside the house. As we stroll through the garden, the gate closes behind us automatically.

At the front door, Fanny keys in her password and the door clicks open. Simultaneously, the lights come on, the AC starts to run and the sound of music is heard throughout the house. The melody of a song by Fanny's favorite Japanese artist fills the air. A woman's voice comes over the speaker again and announces, "Fanny, good afternoon. The security system for the whole house has been deactivated. The indoor temperature is 21 degrees Celsius and you have 3 phone messages and 2 e-mail messages ..." I finally discover the secret behind the invisible maid... all this is the work of an intelligent home system.

The two-storied mansion with floor to ceiling windows and unrivalled views of the sea. is a study in understated white, glass and stainless steel. The furnishings are sleek, minimalist and contemporary. One does not notice anything 'intelligent' about the house except the finger print sensor and touch screen TV on the door and the wall. The good stuff comes later....

Fanny takes me up the staircase to their audio-visual room on the first floor. A gentle touch of Fanny's finger on the fingerprint sensor tells the blinds to descend, the lights to dim and the TV to tune into her favorite news station. With an ordinary looking remote control in her hand, Fanny selects the audio visual function on the TV screen. She clicks on the music icon and asks me to choose a song. The songs range from "Hotel California" by The Eagles to the latest canto-pop hits. If you would rather watch a movie, there is no need for you to insert a disc into a machine, just select the title of the movie of your choice and viola. Thinking of polishing your karaoke skills, accessing your digital photo album or listening to the myriad of web radio stations? Just use your remote. The entire audio visual experience can be accessed from any room in the house. Wow! There must be a huge AV collection somewhere. Perplexed, I look around room and wonder out loud, "But where are the thousands of songs stored?" (See answer one)

Answer One:

AV System Numerous intelligent home systems on the market use the home entertainment center as their testing ground. Functions such as drawing curtains, switching on lights, loading up hardware and inserting discs can be automatically activated. The Intexact AV system not only encompasses the above functions but also stores all the AV data such as movies, music, games and photos on a central server (the brain). Homeowners can access the AV center via a television screen from any point in the house. Not only does the system link together AV equipment and amplifiers of any brand on the market, it also integrates the functions of hifi, movies, music, messages and security systems via the TV screen and speakers.

While I am still looking for my answer, I suddenly hear a message over the speakers, "Fanny, incoming call from Stephen." In order not to disrupt our conversation, Fanny does not take the call and the call is automatically forwarded to the answering service. Later, Fanny clicks the message icon on the TV screen and listens to Stephen's message over the speakers. When the message ends, the music resumes. I think to myself, "how is it possible for the telephone to trace the whereabouts of the owner and forward the call to her?" (See answer two)

Answer Two: Telephony

If a home has 8 to 10 telephones and one phone line, it is very likely that with every incoming call, you will have to suffer the collective ringing of all phones. If some of the telephones have an answering machine function, you will then need to figure out where the incoming messages were stored. Should you have different brands of telephones, incoming phone calls will not be forwarded to the extension phones nor can you share the list of phone numbers stored in individual phones.

Intexact allows you to store all your phone numbers and answering machine services in one central repository rather than within individual phones. Thus, you can be anywhere in the house, use any brand of telephone (fixed line or wireless) yet still find the number you're looking for and listen to your messages via the Intexact system.

When the owner enters a room, the brain will know his/her whereabouts from the fingerprint sensor. When there is an incoming call (the caller can be identified via the phonebook or via caller ID), the call will be forwarded to the room the owner is in. What happens if you forget to activate the fingerprint sensor? Will the system fail to locate the whereabouts of the owner? Intexact is able to estimate the whereabouts of the owner through a record of his/her activities such as where lights are switched on, favorite music was played etc. and thus direct the call to her/him.

The result is you will not miss any incoming calls and you can screen all your calls if there is a need.

Very soon, it was night time. The lights in the garden come on immediately. Fanny activates the security system for the first floor and we proceed downstairs for dinner. As we pass the security sensor by the stairway, I hear the speaker pipe," Hello, Fanny!" However, when the maid returns to the house from the garden, the alarm goes off as she walks pass the security sensor. In the dining room, Fanny immediately puts her finger on the fingerprint detector and the alarm is turned off. I think to myself, "Why did the alarm only ring when the maid came in but not when Fanny came downstairs?" (See answer three)

Answer Three: Net Guard Security System

Traditional security systems program the breaking of glass, the opening of windows and doors, movement and smoke detection directly into a control box. When a sensor detects any of these motions, an alarm is sounded and a phone call is made directly to the police station or to the owner of the home. As this type of security system can only be switched on or off, alarms are often sounded erroneously. You may have had the experience of coming downstairs to get a glass of water at night and setting off the alarm accidentally.

Intexact Net Guard connects the security sensors in the home to a smart controller. The exact time, position and order in which sensors are activated is transmitted to the brain for analysis. A decision is then made to set off the alarm or not based on a prediction of the level of threat. When the owner comes downstairs to the kitchen in the middle of the night, the sensor will not sound when he/she passes. However, when an intruder enters the house from the outside, the level of threat is high so the alarm will sound immediately and police will be alerted right away. The flexibility of Intexact lies in the owner's freedom to input different types of security responses for different areas of the house via the TV screen. The responses include: Off, Monitor, Alert or Secure. In the case of an emergency, the owner does not need to key in his/her password to turn off the alarm, a quick touch on the fingerprint sensor will do.

Turning the Intelligent Home into a Business

Fanny and her husband Stephen purchased this mansion with magnificent views of the sea and harbor during the millennium. The total area of the house, front and back gardens and garage is around 600 square meters. When Fanny and Stephen first moved in, they wanted to get accustomed to their environment before beginning refurbishment. During this period, they encountered numerous hitches everyday. When the two forgot to turn off the lights or AC as they were leaving the house, they would have to run up and down the house to remedy the oversight; when a call came in, all the extensions in the house would ring simultaneously; it became a pain trying to locate where phone messages were stored ...

They looked at intelligent home solutions/systems available on the market such as X10 and AMX to solve their problems but could not find an integrated solution that met all of their requirements. The two decided to customize an intelligent home solution based on their own needs. After extensive research and data collection, Fanny and Stephen combined their IT know-how to write a software application program integrating different intelligent products and later they tested out this program. They also commissioned interior designer Thomas Chan to design a contemporary and sleek interior that would seamlessly incorporate their intelligent system. The project took three years to complete. Six months ago, the fruits of their labor were realized. After visiting their home, numerous companies and friends expressed interest in their intelligent home system. This has turned their hobby into a full-fledged business, namely Interxact. They have obtained patents for Intexact and are currently providing intelligent home solution designs and consultancy services to all interested parties.

If you would like to visit their intelligent home, please call 26634966 and ask for Fanny
Design Thomas Chan Designs (23081280)