Imagine saving hundreds or thousands of Euro's on your company's energy bill by automatically switching off the lights and espresso machine when the last employee is leaving the building.
Or what about opening your garage door automatically upon approaching your home? And guess what? Thinka has garage door functionality in Beta right now!
This kind of automation is called ‘geofence’ and is based upon the location of you, your family members or colleagues.
It is a virtual fence or circle around your home, company or any other location. You trigger it when you enter or leave this circle. It is a HomeKit automation that looks a lot like ‘People Arrive’ or ‘People Leave’ but a little bit more specific.
To create a geofence in HomeKit, go to ‘Automation’ and click on the ‘+’ to create a new one. Click on ‘People Arrive’ to create a trigger when you enter the geofence. Click on ‘Location’ and select a or enter a location. You can make the fence or circle larger by clicking on the location and then drag the fence. Repeatedly if you need to.
This way you can create a geofence of 10km around your office. Or 200m from your home. Click done and you can choose the time the automation should run, for instance just during the day. Clicking next once more allows you to choose one or more scenes and one or more accessories that should be triggered.