It's definitely a smart device. But to me a smart home has a central system that can monitor a variety of inputs and, in response, control a set of things to accomplish some goal.
We have a robot vacuum and robot mopper. Me going over and pressing the robot vacuum button, then once its done, placing the robot mopper in position and pressing the start button, is using smart devices but isn't a smart home. If I can tell a central system to "clean the kitchen" and it starts the vacuum, and when that's done dispatches the mopper, that's a smart home.
I know higher end iRobots can do this sort of thing in their dedicated app. And if you can control that via a smart home hub then that would be smart home functionality to me.
> it starts the vacuum, and when that's done dispatches the mopper
Great point -- outsourcing control leads to logic that can improve and be coordinated between unrelated systems.
> If I can tell a central system
Or better yet, not need to tell it, and have your kitchen cleaned while you're at work, possibly with a phone notification if you really want it. Probably just a passive history+status interface normally, though, once you trust it.
Obviously a vacuum cleaner could have heuristics to tell when you're out (clocks and radar etc) but that's just a dead-end solution when your thermostat and your lights and your curtains and your security system all want to know too.
It might not sound like a lot, but it saves us 15-20 minutes of cleaning per day. We have 3 kids and get about 1-2 hours of free time per night. So its 12-33% more time to spend doing whatever we want rather than cleaning the house.
Vacuuming every day strikes me as misguided, even if (especially if) you have allergies, because the residual dust never has a chance to settle. I'm speaking as someone who has issues with household dust much beyond most people, and who has found even a good air purifier to be counterproductive if used 100% of the time.
We have a robot vacuum and robot mopper. Me going over and pressing the robot vacuum button, then once its done, placing the robot mopper in position and pressing the start button, is using smart devices but isn't a smart home. If I can tell a central system to "clean the kitchen" and it starts the vacuum, and when that's done dispatches the mopper, that's a smart home.
I know higher end iRobots can do this sort of thing in their dedicated app. And if you can control that via a smart home hub then that would be smart home functionality to me.