Hello Hunters!
I’m one of the founders of Zac with @geoffreyhck. Zac is our first product we began 2 years ago.
Don’t hesitate if you have any questions and all your feedbacks will be a pleasure for us.
Have fun !
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But... why a Raccoon butler? Why a hologram? Why not just use Alexa or Google home?
@thatmattgardner The idea of the raccoon came up by making the personality of Zac, how he would react, look like, what he would inspire to users. We wanted a unique multi-generational lovable character and at the same time a nonchalant yet elegant style that fits his butler's role.
The hologram has always been a way to display that we loved. Our inspiration comes from Jarvis of Iron Man. We think Zac is more present with us in the room than in a screen of pixels.
It is also an innovation in the Human Machine Interface, it’s not intuitive to talk to an inert object, just like there is not a lot of people that talk to Siri or Ok Google. It is more natural to talk to something that looks alive, for example, many people talk to their animals. That's why Zac is a lively anthropomorphic raccoon: to bring this life and personality from this home automation box and not just talk to a lifeless object.
That's a good question that many people ask. Alexa and Google Home are great in terms on voice recognition but in home automation, they lack some functionalities in our opinion. First they are not compatible with many objects, and when it is, it relies on the cloud, so if you have any connection problem, you can not control your house. Zac works with much more objects and works locally, without the cloud, so that you are able to control your house even with connexion problem and it is much more secure. Also user data stay on the box, we respect user privacy and, on the contrary, there is a high probability that Google or Amazon will be interested by their users daily life information.
Another point with Amazon Echo or Google Home, you have to be next to the box to use it or buy a lot of devices to put in each room of your house, and it doesn't work outside. With Zac, you can talk directly to him when you are next to him or via your phone when you’re too far, even from outside, at work for example.
Last but not least, Zac helps to make energy savings and can reduce the energy bill up to 20% by showing your consumption and by predicting how much you will have to pay at the end of the month if you doesn’t change your habits! Zac is not here just to add comfort at home, he helps to save money and energy !
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@thatmattgardner yeah I feel like the hologram raccoon butler looses something when it crosses the pond.
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