Telkonet introduced a voice-controlled capability for hotel guestroom automation. EcoSmart Voice will allow a hotel guest to control the lights, shades, power outlets, temperature settings and more by voicing commands, such as "turn off all lights" or "raise the temperature two degrees."
"We're very excited to show the world how voice-control will revolutionize the way hotel guests interact with technology," said Jason Tienor, president and CEO of Telkonet. "Telkonet strives to help our hotel customers keep pace with the rapid changes in technology that guests have come to expect. Introducing EcoSmart Voice at HITEC 2016 allows us to begin a dialogue with major hoteliers on how they might implement this new innovative component of our EcoSmart platform."
With millennial travelers accounting for a greater percentage of hotel guest counts, hotels have had to work to keep up with their tech-savvy desires. Guests expect the same level of comfort and technology in a hotel room as they have in their home. This means more connected devices that are easy to interact with to complete desired in-room functions, such as controlling the thermostat or turning off the lights.
Voice recognition technology is a behavior-changing force in consumer-based wireless devices. Made ubiquitous on mobile devices with Apple's Siri and Google Voice, the integration of voice-control in the home, and now the commercial space, was a natural progression. The EcoSmart Voice capability is vendor neutral and integrates with third-party devices like the Amazon Echo, managed by the EcoCentral SaaS dashboard.