Ambi Climate: “We revolutionize air conditioning with AI technology”

Focusing on people’s thermal comfort instead of temperature, the company is completely redesigning the experience of AC. The interview.

Ambi Climate is a small box created to bring real smartness to any home air conditioning systems, a technology that’s always been pretty dumb even when wi-fi connected to your home network, since it doesn’t have any real intelligence of the environment it’s working in and how people are feeling. Basically, Ambi Climate transforms the smartphone in an AC remote which works anywhere. So users can schedule their air conditioner when not at home or turn it up before they come back. It integrates with Alexa and Google Home, and is compatible with the IFTTT protocols. But the device is far more ambitious. Analyzing different elements like weather, sunlight, indoor temperature and humidity, with a combination of data both from the cloud and from its sensors, Ambi Climate creates a personalized profile that adjusts the environment. Making the AC more intelligent than it ever was.

Julian Lee, CEO of Ambi Climate, invented this device for his dog, he tells Domus. “Our initial vision for the product was relatively simple. I wanted to be able to manage the temperature for my pet husky and keep it comfortable when he was alone at home. He suffered from the hot temperatures in the summer in Hong Kong”. So, the initial design concept of Ambi Climate was based on smart air conditioner devices, focusing on turning on the AC with smartphones, setting rules and schedules. “But since then many features were added, and most important a dedicated AI was developed”. The decision came after a series of consumer interviews in several countries, including Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and Japan.

How did these interviews orientate your work?
Through the interviews, we found that while users did value the smart home features common in smart thermostats (such as timers, rules, and geofencing), they frequently pointed to a more fundamental issue in controlling the AC, with many users asking us questions such as: “When I set my AC to a comfortable temperature to go to sleep, why do I wake up cold the next morning?”, or: “Why does the room suddenly feel colder when there’s a thunderstorm outside?” or “Sometimes when it’s stuffy, I need to dial the temperature down - and then back up again when it gets too cold, so I feel like I’m constantly yo-yo-ing between hot and cold”.

Yes, setting up your AC is always a guess, sometimes a battle…
Usually, you set your AC on a temperature, and that’s all, the machine isn’t far more intelligent than this. You’ll make any further adjustment. The interviews led us to understand the multi-factor nature of thermal comfort and to challenge the current temperature focus of AC control.

And so you found out that you could do more than just an AC super-remote.
Our goal is to revolutionize the way people use their ACs with AI technology, focusing on their comfort instead of temperature alone. Through this, we are able to not just enhance comfort, but also reduce unnecessary energy consumption in the process.

Was it difficult to make it real?
One of the main challenges we experienced was building a sophisticated AIoT (AI+IoT) product. We have had to build more functions than typical startups, covering not only things like mobile app development and management of a cloud server, but also the design of the AI engine, as well as hardware-specific challenges - such as electronics, industrial design, mechanical engineering, manufacturing, logistics, and global distribution. Building a multi-faceted team capable of dealing with all these areas was the greatest challenge.

What was the toughest part of developing Ambi Climate?
The toughest part was building our proprietary AI system - being the pioneer of applying AI technology to invert the AC paradigm and create something that would enable the AC to focus on comfort, instead of temperature control, we lacked data to develop our AI. In the very beginning, we presented the prototype and the concept of Ambi Climate in front of as many people as we could, including our friends, family and internal team, and they helped us train our AI by providing us with data. We also received great support from the backers of our first Kickstarter campaign, who were instrumental in providing us with feedback and data, enabling us to develop our AI. Many of our early backers are still our current users and their feedback has been indispensable to the development of Ambi Climate.

What is Ambi’s AI capable of?
Ambi Climate’s true edge is in its AI technology. Human thermal comfort is much more than temperature; the current “temperature only” focus of ACs results in many common AC comfort issues such as waking up cold in the morning. While existing products that aim to solve the same comfort problems provide Smart Home integrations and allow remote control, different modes and timers, Ambi Climate mimics the human comfort experience. Our unique user thermal comfort AI engine automatically analyzes data leveraged from onboard sensors and external sources, and the user’s thermal comfort feedback to determine the impact of the various factors on each user and builds a personalized comfort profile for them. A second Machine Learning model learns the performance of the air conditioning unit in the home, taking room size, layout, age of AC and other elements into account. Combined, our system allows us to learn the user’s thermal comfort preferences, and continuously auto-adjust the AC mode and setpoint temperature in order to achieve optimal thermal comfort. According to The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), these factors are humidity, sunlight, changing the weather, and the time of day. Ambi Climate takes all these factors into account, intelligently combines user feedback with data from onboard sensors and auto-adjusts the AC.

Is there anything that you'd like to improve as soon as possible? Many of our users asked us what to do if their comfort preferences were different from their loved ones. To bridge common comfort differences, we recently have released a brand new feature, Multi-user Comfort. The new feature will automatically combine multiple users’ individual feedback into a combined comfort profile and auto-adjust the AC settings to balance everyone's needs, delivering balanced comfort to everyone in the same household, whether it’s a couple, family or roommates.

When I tried your product, it was pretty difficult to find the right remote model. Do you plan to enhance the setup procedure?
We have received feedback from numerous users that it is difficult to find the right remote model from the list. Apart from having a database of infrared codes which users can access to search for their remote model, we also provide an auto-pairing option for users to easily auto-pair their Ambi and their AC through a few steps in the app. Although auto-pairing may not achieve a perfect match between your remote and your Ambi, it is an easier way to set up. To make everything a breeze and as smooth as possible, we are constantly adding more remote models to our list, and we are also planning to streamline the whole set up process in the future. In addition, you can always contact our customer support team in-app and they will assist.

Are you satisfied with Ambi Climate's design?
When we designed Ambi Climate, we wanted the device to be less “techy” like other existing IoT products or gadgets on the market, but more domestic and able to fit well into a variety of home decors, just as the AI does with your AC settings. The aesthetic design of Ambi Climate was inspired by the concept of Ambient Intelligence. We believe that truly smart technology should be simple and seamless, fading into the background and augmenting the user’s lifestyle. Designing Ambi Climate based on this philosophy, we used neutral colours, soft, rounded lines, and chose materials that blend into your home. The finishing on the polycarbonate shell mimics ceramic materials; it combines with the beechwood base to give the device a warm, domestic feel.

And the app?
For us, customer experience comes first and we’re always striving to be better. We have been conducting interviews with our users to understand their needs and expectations, in order to provide a smoother and more user-friendly app while also offering the latest in technology and innovation.

What about sustainability and energy saving?
Ambi Climate came into this world to solve an array of problems many of us experience with our ACs - such as discomfort and high energy bills. Not only does Ambi utilize AI to provide personalized comfort and increase energy savings by auto-adjusting the AC based on multiple comfort factors, it also delivers a truly smart home experience to users by offering various smart home integrations and features: Multi-user Geolocation which allows for location-based control and automation, various voice control integrations and IFTTT, unlimited timers for easy scheduling and an open API for users to further automate their smart homes.

How will you enhance intelligence in the future?
We are constantly upgrading our AI algorithms. For example, we have recently upgraded our AI engine, introducing Multi-user Comfort which intelligently combines different users’ comfort profiles to auto-adjust the AC, balancing everyone’s needs and delivering balanced comfort to all members in a household.

Did you consider to build a full thermostat for summer and winter?
Ambi Climate works with not only air conditioners but also heat pumps. As long as the unit is equipped with an LCD-screen infrared remote controller, Ambi Climate is compatible with. Whether it’s for heating or cooling, Ambi Climate can deliver personalized comfort and energy savings by utilizing AI technology to auto-adjust based on user’s comfort preferences and changing conditions.

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