Anyone who manages many devices in their smart home via an app often has to scroll through long lists of device entries. A floor plan of the apartment would significantly shorten the route to the right button. But hardly any control software offers this practical feature.
Amazon Alexa will be the first of the currently major commercial platforms to add an interactive floor plan. Not only should the operation be convenient, but also the creation, as the tech company announced at a launch event in Arlington, Virginia, USA. Golem.de was there and looked at the function.
Map View displays all rooms in the apartment and shows which devices are located there and where. By pressing icons, you can access buttons for control functions, such as turning lights on and off, regulating the temperature of the heating, opening or closing a smart door lock and accessing the live feed from a security camera.
Clear floor plan instead of a long list of devices
The advantages are convincing: You don’t have to remember what a device is called or which room you have assigned it to in order to find the appropriate device entry in the corresponding room menu. Instead, you simply scroll on the two-dimensional map to the location where the device is located. You usually already know its installation location. We didn’t know what the demo devices we were standing in front of were called either. By looking at the floor plan, we were still able to clearly identify and operate them.
At the launch event, Amazon showed the floor plan in the smartphone user interface of the Alexa app. Map View should be integrated there first. Amazon wants to add the function to the Echo Hub later.
Mapping requires lidar sensor from iPhone Pro
We couldn’t try out how to create the map. According to Amazon, it works like this: You walk through your apartment with the app open and access to your smartphone camera and film it. The software creates the floor plan from the recordings. You then arrange the devices in the right place by hand. The Alexa app doesn’t do this by itself.
The camera lens alone is apparently not enough for an exact floor plan. For a correct display, Amazon relies on distance measurements from lidar sensors. This can be a problem because not all smartphones have such a sensor. It is included in Apple hardware, for example. Specifically, Amazon Map View is limited to the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max, 13 Pro and Pro Max, 14 Pro and Pro Max devices. Unspecified iPad Pros also support the function.
This significantly limits the number of potential users. Amazon did not comment on the extent to which it is possible to create the floor plan with the Apple devices mentioned, but then also use it on other types of smartphones.
Video: Map View – Amazon maps the smart home (manufacturer video)
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The feature is expected to be available in the US soon. Amazon left it open whether she would come to Germany. It would be very desirable, because floor plan functions in smart home controls are a real rarity, especially when they are accompanied by an intuitive operating concept.
With the Conrad Connect service, which has now been discontinued, there was temporarily a commercial provider of such map functions. A floor plan can also be created on open source systems such as Home Assistant – but only with a high level of private enthusiasm.