Holitech and Smart Home & Building Automation

Digitalization and networking are playing an increasingly important role not only in the professional environment. More and more intelligent solutions are also being used in the private sphere to make life more comfortable and convenient. In the year 2020, Smart Home solutions were already in use in over 7 million households and nearly 5 billion euros in sales were already generated with them. Many companies have specialized in the Smart Home sector with products and services. Solutions such as robotic mowers and vacuum cleaners as well as Smart TVs are already available in many households today. The topic of climate protection is playing an increasingly important role in Smart Home solutions. Intelligent heating management regulates the temperature in the living areas individually for each room per day in a defined cycle. This saves unnecessary heating costs if, for example, no one is at home during the day or the bathroom only needs to be heated more in the morning and evening. Due to the growing number of e-cars, a charging infrastructure must also be created in the private sector. This requires an intelligent control of the wallbox and can also include an solar system to generate own electricity for it. Devices for networking and controlling Smart Home applications such as Amazon Echo or Philips HUE are playing an increasingly important role. Streaming and multi-room entertainment contribute to greater living comfort. Light can be controlled in such a way that entire lighting atmospheres and lighting landscapes can be created with a touch or by voice command. And digitization continues to increase. Blinds close automatically at nightfall and the oven reports when the cake is ready. In the future, the refrigerator will report when food is running low or the door no longer needs to be opened to check the contents. All it takes is a touch and the refrigerator door will be transparent and the content is illuminated.

In the Smart Home, technical processes that were previously carried out manually are digitized or automated. Networking allows functions of individual devices to be operated centrally and coordinated with each other. Internet-enabled devices can be linked online and operated over long distances. For example, a heating system can be controlled via an app on a smartphone, to ensure a warm apartment after a 14-day absence. So Smart Home primarily ensures that devices in the home work more efficiently and economically. In addition, it ensures greater security, comfort and energy savings.

Smart Home products are typically characterized by either collecting information or displaying it. Sometimes both features are in one device, for example in a smart heating thermostat that measures the temperature, regulates the heating accordingly and presents all information via an Electronic Paper Display. Almost all Smart Home products today have screens, and operation is usually via touch.

As one of the leading suppliers of human-machine interface products, Holitech is the interface between the user and the system. With screens, fingerprint sensors, and touch and camera modules, Holitech provides all the products needed for Smart Home and Building Automation.

Holitech's monochrome LCDs are used in applications with small screens and low information content. Applications include boilers or instantaneous water heaters, thermostats, heaters, weather stations, and electricity and water meters. Smart displays, intercoms, thermostats and other Smart Home control systems are the field of application for Holitech's TFT displays. These are then often used in conjunction with touch modules. TFTs can be used to display colorful and a wide variety of information content. The use cases of E-Paper are similar to monochrome displays. Due to the very low energy consumption and the static image, they are very well suited for battery-powered products such as remote controls, smart sockets, thermostats, boilers and instantaneous water heaters as well as weather stations and electricity or water meters. At Holitech, these E-Papers are available from 1.3 inches to 31.2 inches. The display specialist also offers resistive and capacitive touch technologies in standard and as customized solutions in sizes from 2.4 inches to 105 inches. These touch modules are used for simple and intuitive operation of Smart systems, e.g. for Smart displays, Smart Home control systems and weather stations. Holitech's camera modules are used to obtain information. Applications include Smart kitchen appliances such as microwave ovens, ovens and refrigerators, or in intercom systems and doorbells. In ToF (Time-of-Flight) cameras from Holitech, a light pulse is sent into the environment. When it hits an object, it is reflected and registered by a detector. The distance is determined by the time it takes for the light beam to reach the object and return. The camera thus provides the distance of the object imaged on it for each pixel. This special technology of TOF cameras thus recognizes gestures, faces and objects and can therefore be used for gesture-controlled operation of systems, object recognition, e.g. in smart refrigerators, in vacuum cleaner robots and for face recognition for security systems or personalized settings and controls. Holitech also offers capacitive fingerprint modules in various designs. The modules scan the fingerprint and the associated electronics then compare it with a database. Applications include security systems or personalized settings and controls for machines.