How does it look like when you walk into your current home? For me it’s like this: First, I have to dig into in my bag to search for my key, which is probably hiding somewhere in the bottom of my bag (if I’m lucky enough to not forget about it this morning). After I finally find the key, I can open the door by inserting the key into the keyhole. Then I would have to find the light switch in the dark in order to turn on the lights in the corridor. Well, because the heating is turned off when I left home, I will have to walk to the heater too to turn it on and suffer in the cold for at least 20 minutes until the heater starts to work. Later in the evening, after my daily Facebook session, my eyes start to become tired and I would love to sleep immediately without having to get out of my bed to turn off the lights at the other end of my room.
Sounds inconvenient and frustrating right? This is how I and perhaps many of you are experiencing every single day. These inconveniences that we experience is actually not a big matter, but what would stop you from making your life easier, less stressful and perhaps makes your home a real heaven to relax after a long tiring day of studying/ working?
Imagine this: Instead of having to remember to bring your key and going through all the hassle and stress moments while searching for your key, you simply use your fingerprint to unlock the door. The lights in your house will automatically switched on once you tell it do so. (Simply say the commands out loud: e.g. “Turn on the lights in the living room”) The best thing? Your heater already warmed up your home for you because you set a timer through your mobile phone before going back home from universities/ work.
What I just described is really the basic of the basic of what current smart home appliances can do. When fully implemented, your whole house will become a home network, which will connect all smart appliances together. To illustrate, with proper settings, you can set up a wake up mode. Let’s say at 7am. You alarm would went off at 7am and your curtain will open by itself. Your coffee machine would already start grinding coffee beans and start preparing you a cup of freshly brewed coffee. At the same time, your smart toast appliance would toast your bread so that your coffee and toast would be ready at the same time. Your fridge will pop up a notification to tell you that you are almost out of milk and you can just simply ask your home assistant, Amazon Echo or Alexa for instance, to add milk on your grocery list. When you leave the house, your heater will be automatically switched off and your vacuum robot will start cleaning the house.
In the near future, AI and Machine Learning would broaden the opportunities of smart home development. It might be able to watch over your health for example, and send life alert to hospitals if necessary.
References:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/03/13/7-predictions-on-the-next-smart-home-innovation/#10d9b53b2e78https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/06/06/best-smart-home-devices-and-how-iot-is-changing-the-way-we-live/#3adafaff43bdhttps://www.forbes.com/sites/paullamkin/2017/04/19/the-top-smart-home-tech-you-never-knew-existed/#2c0e7ce146c5
Hi Jessica,
The concept of a smart house always sounded very intriguing and convenient to me, and surely other people as well.
However, with the strong increase in IoT devices, I believe that this concept poses many security risks to people as many of these devices do not have the necessary security measures in place. You should check out this neat video that explains the risks of IoT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBCFUEGgQo8
Also, having a smart home also implies that there’s a ton of data about you and your habits, something that could be easily exploited for commercial purposes. They would (quite literally) know everything about you. Not really something I’d be willing to give up in exchange for some more convenience. But that’s just my opinion 😉
Like you said, in the near future AI would take a leading role in this.
However, a few cool tools that can enable you to get a bit closer to automations in your daily life can already do some of the stuff you described.
IFTTT, Workflow and Triggi are examples with which you can build simple but fun automations. With IFTTT, you could have your iKettle start boiling when you arrive at home in your BMW. And when it’s done boiling, iKettle could pass on a signal to your Philips Hue that starts blinking. Or have your WeMo Coffeemaker brew you a fresh cup of joe when your Fitbit registers that you are awake or simply when it’s sunrise. Or have your Samsung Robot Vacuum get rid of that dusty layer on your floor every time before you get people over.
With more home appliances on the market that allows connectivity, integration and better yet become smarter, it’s just a matter of time before every home becomes a smart home in an affordable way.
https://ifttt.com/search/query/Appliances
Another interesting development is a smart home system using predictive analytics to predict disasters. OneEvent would do this and warn home owners in time using a cloud-based predictive analytic engine combined with data gathered regarding motion, smoke, water, moisture, humidity, temperature and light. Based on this data, disasters, e.g. fires, could be predicted and prevented.
Awesome stuff.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/oneprevent-home-sensor-safety-system/
The topic you have chosen is a very interesting one I think. I am really curious what the future might bring for us regarding this topic.
The ‘fully automatic house’ has some similarities with animals in fully automatic farms. For these animals every day is the same; food intake, weight, production, hours of daylight can all be controlled over data. Everything is regulated, so that farmers can produce as many (meat, milk, eggs e.g.) as possible. I can imagine that a problem with those animals is that they are bored, because every day becomes exactly the same. Eventually, when people are accustomed to their relaxed/less stressful house, obesity, laziness, slowness and boredom grow to be serious problems.
Perhaps it is a bit weird to compare your idea with that of a farm, but the essential outcome might be the same. I think it a good idea to make small adjustments in the daily activities of the system to prevent boredom. When you start your day you might think that you do this the same every day. However, looking into detail you probably find that you do things differently every day, even if it is just the order of habits. I guess that most people like to be ‘surprised’ to make their day more fun. I would perhaps miss the ‘human aspect’. I am wondering whether the system can actually deliver such fine-tuned mechanisms. What do you think?
Hi Jessica,
A really interesting post. I can imagine the smart home just by reading your blog. Most of them will become the normal way of next generation of home and some of them have already been manufactured and released to the market. However, sales are not very appealing. First of all, the cost is too high. At lease for now, those fancy technologies are costing too much to fully install. A set of smart plugs cost around 200 euro. A set of Philips HUE light bulbs and control bridge cost another hundreds of euros. Not to mention smart curtain or smart TV, those are more expensive. Normal home devices will not cost that much. Therefore, price is a big issue for now. But i am sure that in the near future, smart home devices will become cheaper and cheaper.
In addition, there is no single company or manufacturer providing basically all products from smart lock to smart coffee machine. As a customer, i can only purchase different product type from different suppliers. The problem here arises. Different products are having trouble connecting together. Lastly, privacy and security issues concern me. As everything is controlled by AI, there is a risk for hackers to hack into the system. Physical and information security cannot be assured. All in all, it’s the trend of future home and it would be a great experience living with all smart devices.
Hi Jessica,
After reading your first part of the post, I totally see myself in that situation. Everyday I am looking for my keys or walking around in the dark because I have to manually turn on/off the lights. Currently I am sitting on my bed under blanket because I am waiting for the heater to start working. So your described situation is totally relatable.
But somehow after reading the possibilities of the smart home appliances I don’t feel drawn upon them. Reading them just gives me the feeling of being lazy. I hear myself saying ‘’what you cannot even turn on the coffee machine yourself?’’ Or ‘’can you not wait just a bit if the toast takes a bit longer?’’ In addition, what would happen if your internet connection fails. I already feel frustrated that I cannot use the internet while being on my laptop, how would I feel when nothing will work anymore because it is all connected to the internet?
However, I also discovered that smart home appliances have a lot of advantages such as increased energy efficiency, and increase in home security, as security and surveillance features can be incorporated in the smart home network.
Perhaps I would be totally sold if I ever decide to purchase a smart appliance, but currently, I am not totally convinced yet since it is quite costly to purchase one appliance, imagine the costs to be able to reach the situation you described above. In addition, I am also thinking about the consequences if all my appliances rely on my internet connection. An Internet failure is most likely to happen once, which will lead to a lot of frustrations on my sides. Although coming back to my house already warmed up does sound extremely appealing.