Virage Laboratories

12/31/2021

The last order of 2021 => dispatched!

It's been a busy first month - thank you to all of our customers, potential customers (what are you waiting for?!?) and supporters.

Happy New Year to everyone, and see you in 2022!

12/17/2021

OK, so Virage is private and local...but what can it do for you while it is being private and local?

Home automation is the idea that with sensors (that provide information) and controls (that allow the state of something to be changed on demand), as well as a hub to connect everything, it is possible to make the routine things that you need to do around your home happen automatically.

This might be turning on the lights when you open a door, sending a warning if it is raining and there is a window open, or turning off all the lights on your main floor with the press of one switch, if it's after a certain time. The possibilities are really endless, and can let you save energy as well as spend less time managing routine tasks.

Virage has developed a line of products to both monitor your home, and control things within it, as well as the all-important hub to tie things together. Keep an eye out for our next post where we'll talk more about our products, how they interact, and what they can do for you.

At long last, welcome to Virage! We’ve been working hard on building our website, product line, support documents and other things to give you the best experience we can!

12/11/2021

When talking about privacy and security, everyone's mind goes to data breaches or being hacked, like we discussed in the last post, but part of being secure is things working like you expect.

Imagine you go away on vacation and set lights to turn on at certain times, or you rely on motion sensors to turn on the lights so you can safely enter a dark room.

If these needed the cloud to work, a glitch in your Internet connection, or as detailed below an outage in the cloud service, would prevent anything from working.

Virage's local processing cuts the risk that someone else's mistake (or a business decision to cut a service) spoils your carefully laid plans.

Upended package deliveries, took down major streaming services, and prevented people from getting into Disney parks

12/08/2021

So, what do Virage products do that others don't?

We've said before we're private and secure, but what does that mean? Let's unpack those ideas over our next few posts.

There's a lot of press about home automation, and equally there's a lot of press about leaks of private information from online companies, notably cloud service providers.

So how are these two things related? Well, to make their products easier to set up, most home automation systems rely on cloud services to function.

That means when you use an app in your phone to turn on the lights, the app isn't talking to the light, it's talking to a server *somewhere* (likely overseas), through the internet, and telling that server to tell your light to turn on.

For this to work, whoever runs that server has to have access to your home network and your phone, and knows when you turn the lights on or off. Even if you trust them, if they leak information on how to access your stuff it's a real risk.

Virage products are built around local processing - that means your private information doesn't leave your house, and isn't stored on some else's server, safeguarding both your privacy and security. As an added bonus, this also means that if your internet goes down, your Virage stuff will keep working!

https://www.viragelabs.com

12/03/2021

Hey! After a few delays we're excited to announce that our eCommerce site is ready for your shopping pleasure!

Because we've been quiet for a while, here's a reminder:

Virage Labs makes reasonably priced, private and secure home automation products.

We offer a full line of devices including light switches, dimmers, plugs, door contacts, and motion sensors. We have also developed a hub to bring it all together and unite all the smart products in your home in one place.

All of our products are ETL or CSA/UL listed, and ship from Canada, so check us out!

At long last, welcome to Virage! We’ve been working hard on building our website, product line, support documents and other things to give you the best experience we can!

05/21/2021

What's interesting in the race for yet more smart things is answering the question, what devices do we really need to be smart?

Everyone's answer will be different based on their own experience - at Virage, for example, we thought about a smart coffee maker, but decided that if you needed to make sure it had water in it, coffee, and a cup, remote control wasn't all that useful. On the other hand, turning on the lights based on when you enter a room or open a door is pretty useful. Not sexy we admit, but super helpful when you have an armload of stuff!

What we are doing at Virage is applying our real world experience to developing IoT devices that will help simplify your life, let your home manage itself, and ultimately spend more time doing what you want to.

We'd love to hear more about your ideas for things that should take care of themselves!

A new report shows that IoT manufacturers need to revamp their development processes if they want to withstand the pressures of the next few years.

07/07/2020

Another example of why keeping your home automation data inside your home network is crucial:

https://scitechdaily.com/new-research-reveals-startling-privacy-risks-of-home-security-cameras/

By sniffing even encrypted traffic from web cameras to Cloud servers, its possible to see when you're home, and when you're likely away. Combine this information with cloud-based timers for lights and it's a diary of your activities.

Virage systems are completely private, and data only leaves your network if you choose to let it.

Stay safe, and don't let your personal information run wild around the web!

An international study has used data from a major home Internet Protocol (IP) security camera provider to evaluate potential privacy risks for users. IP home security cameras are Internet-connected security cameras that can be installed in people's homes and remotely monitored via the web. These

02/18/2020

Welcome to Virage! Our vision is to create a private, affordable and usable home automation ecosystem that lets our users unlock the potential of their homes. Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we unveil more of our product line and plans to bring it to market.