Crafting Luxury Smart Home Solutions: The Power of Tech-Enabled Innovation

Here’s a closer look at how each step in our collaboration unfolded into a trusted partnership—

Getting Started with a Smart Faucet Mobile App

We started on a project for the client with a singular focus: crafting a user-friendly mobile app to help users set up a smart faucet product. The existing setup process was challenging for non-technical users to navigate—the new app made connecting the product easier, enabling users to easily access voice-enabled features.

As we worked to meet product design objectives, our teams quickly gained domain knowledge about consumer needs and smart home water management, informing our work on these tech-enabled innovations. Before long, we put all that learning to use again when the client turned to us for help on a new project—an embedded water sensor integrated into a showerhead.

This marked the first milestone in the growth of our partnership.

Branching into Embedded Work for a Shower Sensor

In the new project, our client needed embedded development help with a smart sensor for shower heads. Working with a product prototype, we enabled the water sensor to integrate with popular smart home devices.

As the embedded device collected water temperature data, it could trigger lighting changes to indicate when the water had reached the user’s preferred shower temperature. This tech-enabled innovation introduced a new level of interaction within the smart home ecosystem.

Earning the Right to be a Trusted Product Partner for a Luxury Shower Experience

When our client needed to develop a cutting-edge luxury shower system, they again turned to SEP.

First, Mobile Development
They had acquired an in-shower LCD interface and needed to upgrade the product’s design, connectivity, and user controls. The new system would seamlessly integrate with their existing smart shower technologies to create an unparalleled luxury shower experience. As mobile development began at SEP, other third-party providers were tackling the display panel and cloud connectivity.

Then, Cloud
Soon, however, our client also enlisted SEP for the project’s cloud development work to build tech-enabled solutions. Leveraging our proficiency in cloud architecture, we implemented the device enablement and connectivity for the Device and Mobile App in Azure. We automated their infrastructure deployments and created tests to enable a full CI/CD build and deployment cycle, allowing us to release to the cloud multiple times per day.

And Embedded
Encountering delays with the display panel, our client once again turned to us for embedded solutions. Stepping into the project, we started focusing on testing and creating an extensible architecture over time. The team used C++ for the embedded microprocessor and Java/Android to develop the embedded display’s user interface.

To increase robustness and allow for future over-the-air updates, we used a bootloader with an A/B partition system to securely deploy updates without risk of failure.

By refocusing on automated testing and architecture, the team could integrate existing libraries for connectivity and Bluetooth more easily. This efficient approach to technology-enabled development made adding new features and finding hidden bugs easier, eliminating the need for manual testing on future tech-enabled products and innovations.

All While Taking a User-Centric Approach

Our comprehensive approach included optimizing the user interface and experience. We meticulously crafted the Mobile App and LCD display to reflect the client’s brand identity. The app even features a pressure-sensitive touchscreen with fully digital controls.

With each new feature, we introduced delighter features for our client and their users, completely redesigning the user experience, including:

• Full Backwards compatibility with legacy product hardware
• Voice Assistant and Smart Home integrations
• Remote Start and Preset Customization via the Mobile App
• + More to come with our Over the Air Update functionality

Our team provided frequent technical demos before our client unveiled the luxury shower product at a home show. We tested connectivity and functionality, among other things, to ensure it would make a splash without hiccups.