世上七款最實用的智能家居設備

Companies are quickly introducing an array of smart home appliances that let you use your smartphone to open your blinds or turn off your lights, and, yes, tweet from your fridge. (Thank you Samsung.)

各公司正在迅速地推出一系列智能家庭設備，可以讓你用智能手機打開百葉窗或關燈，或是利用你的電冰箱發微博。【感謝三星（Samsung）吧。】

At Fortune, we waded through the Piles of gadgets and gizmos, comparing user reviews and product descriptions, to list seven of the most useful smart home devices on the market. We skipped over some popular products like locks (you can open and close them with your smartphone) and light bulbs (you can turn them on or off or dim them with your phone), because we couldn’t find anything hitting the sweet spot in combining automation with simplicity. Here’s what did make our wish list.

《財富》（Fortune）雜誌仔細研究了一堆新產品，對比了用戶的評論和產品描述，列出了7款市面上最好用的智能家居設備。我們略過了一些流行產品，比如鎖具（可以用智能手機控制開關）和燈泡（可以用智能手機開關或調節其亮度），因爲我們沒有在其中看到將自動化和簡潔結合於一體的亮點。以下的產品確實是我們很想擁有的。

Home Surveillance: Canary ($249)

家庭監控：Canary（249美元）

A consumer survey by research firm IHS found that most desired smarthome device is is something that detects intruders. The second is for a device that detect hazards like fires, water leaks, and carbon monoxide. Start-up Canary kills two birds with one machine by packaging an HD video camera, microphone, motion detector, and a temperature and humidity sensor into a sleek cylinder. When the machine, also called Canary, senses something out of the ordinary happening when you’re away from home, you get an alert with video footage and options for responding. Canary, also automatically changes its settings when you get home so the motion detector doesn’t go off when you want some late night milk and cookies.

研究公司IHS進行的一項消費者調查發現，人們最想要的智能家居設備需要能夠發現家中的入侵者。排名第二的是一些能夠發現着火、漏水和一氧化碳的設備。初創公司Canary推出的這款產品同時滿足了這兩個要求，可謂一箭雙鵰。其光滑的圓柱體中配有高清攝影機、麥克風、運動檢測器，以及溫度與溼度感應器。這款設備也叫做Canary，它能夠在你離家時察覺異常狀況。隨後你會收到附帶錄像片段的警報，還可以選擇處理方式。當你到家時，Canary也會自動改變設置，以免在你晚上想來點牛奶和餅乾時，被運動檢測器發現並示警。

Temperature Control: Nest Thermostat ($249)/Honeywell Wifi Smart Thermostat ($249)

溫度控制：Nest恆溫器（249美元）/霍尼韋爾無線智能恆溫器（249美元）

Both of these thermostats let you control your home's temperature from anywhere in the world using your smartphone. Furthermore, these two products automatically learn your temperature preferences based on your behavior and adjust your thermostat accordingly. We’re not going to take sides on the Honeywell vs. Google Nest debate. Nest fanatics rave about the ease of installation and minimalistic design, while Honeywell fans like the more nuanced control of Honeywell's Smart Thermostat. Honeywell just introduced a new product, the Lyric ($279), which piggybacks off of Nest’s design, with the additional ability use your smartphone’s location to adjust the temperature as you come and go in real-time. However, users are saying it’s still riddled with bugs and to stick to the more useable (but clunkier) Honeywell Smart Thermostat.

這兩款恆溫器都可以讓你用智能手機控制家裏的溫度，無論你在世界的哪個角落。此外，這兩款產品還會根據你的行爲，自動獲悉你的溫度偏好，並相應地調整溫度。在有關霍尼韋爾（Honeywell）或谷歌Nest（Google Nest）的論戰中，我們不會有所偏袒。Nest的擁躉沉醉於其便捷的安裝過程和簡約的設計，霍尼韋爾的粉絲則喜歡該公司產品更爲細緻的控制功能。霍尼韋爾最近還推出了一款新產品Lyric（279美元），它模仿了Nest的設計，能夠利用你手機的定位功能，在你離家和回家時即刻調節溫度。然而，用戶表示它仍然存在許多漏洞，還是願意繼續使用更實用（也更笨重）的老款霍尼韋爾智能恆溫器。

Hazard Detection: Nest Protect ($99)

危害檢測：Nest Protect（99美元）

Nest Protect is a home fire alarm that will tell you if there’s smoke or CO in your house and where it’s coming from. You can get phone alerts whenever it goes off or when the battery needs to be changed. Better yet, the phone app lets you create an emergency plan ahead of time (because, be honest now, who among us has gotten around to creating an emergency plan?). In the event of an emergency the app will send you a customized list of useful tips. And for those who care about design, it has the sweet minimalism that’s characteristic of all of Nest's products.

Nest Protect是一款家用火災報警器，如果房間裏有煙霧或一氧化碳，它會報警並告知它們的源頭。一旦出現這類異常狀況，或是設備的電池需要更換，你的智能手機都會發出提醒。更妙的是，手機應用還可以讓你預先設定緊急措施。（因爲，老實說，我們當中有誰能夠在緊急情況下當機立斷？）出現緊急狀況後，該應用會給你發一份定製的實用指南清單。Protect也擁有所有Nest產品所共有的極簡風格，可以滿足那些注重設計的顧客的需求。

Sprinkler System: RainMachine ($249)

灑水系統：RainMachine（249美元）

This little guy is cuter than the surveillance robot EVE from the Pixar film Wall-E, but it detects water leaks and mold instead of vegetation. SNUPI Technologies’ Wally comes with sensors that you can place anywhere around your house to monitor temperature, moisture and humidity. The sensors send you an alert when they detect leaks. If they find anything outside of an acceptable range they also send you an alert so you can fix the problem before it causes major damage like frozen pipes or mold beneath the drywall.

這個小東西比皮克斯動畫工作室（Pixar）的電影《機器人總動員》（Wall-E）中的監控機器人EVE更加可愛，但它監控的不是植物，而是漏水和發黴現象。SNUPI Technologies的Wally配備了很多感應器，你可以把它們放在房子周圍的任何地方，用來監控溫度、水分和溼度。感應器一旦發現漏水情況，就會對你發出警報。如果它們發現外界有任何情況超出了合理範圍，也會向你報警，這樣你就能在水管結冰或幹板牆發黴前防患於未然。

Temperature Control: Aros Smart Window Air Conditioner ($279)

溫度控制：Aros智能窗式空調（279美元）

For people who want smart cooling without central air, or who just want to switch over to cooling a single room to cut down on energy costs, the Aros window unit by Quirky and GE covers all your bases. Really! Not only does it track your routine and learn when you want to get your cool on, it also tracks your usage and suggests how to adjust the settings so you can save money. It can also automatically turn itself off when you leave and turn back on as you near home - based on your phone's GPS - so it’s the perfect temperature when you walk in the door.

對於那些沒有中央空調卻想要智能製冷，或是隻想讓一個房間變得涼快以節省能耗的人來說，由Quirky和通用電氣公司（GE）聯手開發的Aros窗式空調能滿足他們的所有需求。真的。它不僅可以追蹤你的生活習慣，瞭解到你想什麼時候開始製冷，還能追蹤你的使用習慣，給出調整設置的建議來幫你省錢。它還可以利用手機的全球定位系統，在你離家或回家時自動關機或開機，這樣當你進門時，家裏就能有讓你滿意的溫度。

Cooking: Crock-Pot Smart Slow Cooker ($129.99)

烹飪：Crock-Pot智能慢燉鍋(129.99美元)

This slow cooker brought to you by The Crock-Pot and Belkin WeMo barely needs you. Just put the food in, set the temperature, and then monitor the cooking from anywhere in the world with your phone. You can change the crock pot's settings remotely— to turn the heat up or add more cooking time. No matter where you are and when you get home, you can make sure dinner will be warm and waiting for you. It doesn’t let you tweet or check Google calendar like Samsung’s infamous smart fridge, but then who has the time for all that, when dinner is waiting?

The Crock-Pot公司推出的這款慢燉鍋，搭載了貝爾金公司（Belkin）的WeMo無線開關係統，幾乎不需要你進行控制。你只需要把食物放進去，設定烹飪溫度，就可以利用你的手機在全球任何地方監控烹飪過程了。你可以遠程改變慢燉鍋的設定，比如提高溫度或者增加烹飪時間。無論你在哪裏，何時回家，都可以保證熱氣騰騰的晚餐在等着你。它不能像三星智能冰箱一樣讓你發微博或查看谷歌日曆，但當晚餐正在等待你大快朵頤的時候，誰會有空做這些事呢？