Defigo
Smart Doorbell
Defigo makes life easier and safer for those who live in an apartment building and for office owners.
Tech Solutions & Platforms
Hardware: Single-board Computer
WebRTC (web real-time communications)
C++ QT framework
Front-end software: Swift, Kotlin, Angular, Java
Back-end software: Node.js
Key Features
The call button and access control
Phone call alerts
Bilateral video chats
Building access security
RFID tag terminal
Design customization
Personal profiles (with individual modes and settings)
Managing access to buildings and apartments (an admin website)
Existing control systems integration
Cloud integration
Case type
Internet of Things
Mobile
Web
Internet of Things solution for access control
The basic idea behind the Defigo product was to make it easier for residents of apartment buildings to get into their apartments as well as provide business owners with a tool to manage office personal access.
Defigo hardware and software allow people to do away with numerous keys and avoid the risk of losing them. At the same time, the product is planned to help customers by letting in third-party service providers such as cleaners, repairers, cooks, gardeners, or babysitters, even whilst they are away from the apartment or office.
As a result, Defigo was designed as a smart doorbell with an interactive screen and administration panel. Defigo doorbells are IoT devices interconnected with users’ devices (mobile phones mostly) that can be managed remotely. The product comes in two forms — one for residential buildings and the other one for offices and business buildings.
The development process consisted of several stages — research, planning, the study of market survey results and plan correction, focus group interactions, design and data architecture, hardware market research and equipment customization, software development, testing, and real client feedback processing.
Product advantages
Keyless access to a building, remote control of the doors — create a customized profile with Defigo intercom and forget about physical keys with this smart doorbell. Discover more features of the product in the advantages section.
The product was built for the national market (Norway) and took into consideration the design aspects of local buildings and local users’ needs.
In line with its monetization concept, Defigo is distributed through the corporate website. Users leave requests to install the Defigo hard and software, pay for it and the service is installed.
The virtual call button works as a buzzer and lets a resident know that someone is at the front door. The button is displayed on the touchscreen of the intercom device. The mobile app displays video from the camera and transmits audio. Users can open the door with their app.
If a person doesn’t have Internet access to open the door using the Defigo app, the door device will contact residents via a regular phone call. In this case, only audio will be available.
The intercom station behind the front door has a camera, screen, microphone, and speaker. A multimedia signal is transferred from the door device to the residents’ mobile devices. They can have a real-time video conversation with the person pressing the door button.
The person in charge of building security can manage the entire system, by gaining access to its database via the website (resident contact details and rules for access).
RFID tag terminal — people can also open the door using key cards if their mobile devices are out of Internet range or their device has run out of battery power.
If residents already have an access system, they can continue using it with the same RFID tags. Defigo can be also integrated into other security systems like access video recording.
Residents can choose what their virtual buzzer button will look and sound like, what resident information and apartment numbers should be shown, and what kind of features the device can perform, (family button, personal button, animation, etc.).
The Defigo system is based on cloud storage. That’s why data can be managed from any Internet-connected device. The product store names, settings, number of accesses, video, and audio if necessary.
Challenges and solutions
Unstable single-board computer processing
Problem
We considered several equipment options, but it took a long time to find a truly reliable single-board computer.
Solution
The solution was found after trying and testing 5 equipment options from manufacturers from different countries.
Low-resolution video streaming
Problem
The quality of media delivered to the end-user depends not only on the quality of the Internet connection but also on the performance of the equipment. The single-board computer that we used as an intercom had to decode data packets quickly, but at the same time not fail during prolonged operation.
Solution
We changed the protocol for transmitting streaming video from RTMP (real-time messaging protocol) to WebRTC (web real-time communications) as RTMP didn’t work well for our purposes.
Long streaming video transmission delays
Problem
Our task was to reduce the video transmission delay. The difficulty was that not every intercom supported this data transfer standard.
Solution
We searched the market and found a suitable device. As a result of our tech experiments, the delay of multimedia data transmission was reduced to one second or less.
Apple software updating issues
Problem
When it came to updating the Defigo app on the App Store, Apple's native libraries got updated together with the App Store publishing policy.
Solution
This challenge demonstrated that third-party factors must be taken into account when planning a project.
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