In 2017, there were 141,91 million Smart Homes worldwide and it is expected that this number will grow to 478,22 million (!) in 20251. Smart Homes are homes where households have domestic appliances installed that enable home automation and can control and monitor households functions. Examples can be smart lightning and smart voice assistant speakers, such as Philips Hue and Google Nest, which, in combination, allow you to control all the lighting in your home by voice.
The statistics mentioned above provide evidence on how the world is accepting smart home solutions. Companies, such as Google, Amazon and Apple are continuously developing new smart home devices, which decrease the effort required by residents in their domestic life. Not surprisingly, many households find these innovations more than welcome, as it allows them to relax more in their homes with simple tasks, such as turning on lights or setting the temperature, being automated for them. However, not only the comfort of having everything in your house automated is a reason to accept smart home solutions.
A voice assistant in your home can be a lot more than a simple device that can turn on the light. Devices like Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Nest can actually speak to you with weather forecasts, jokes or even bedtime stories. Given this fact, these devices could be well-suited to help fight loneliness and isolation of elderly people, which are serious risk factors in these peoples lives2; especially in recent pandemic times. The AARP foundation in the U.S. have executed studies that saw them handing out smart home speakers to seniors in order to find out whether these devices can help reduce this loneliness3. The studies’ results have come out very positive, as the participating people have been able to quickly adapt to the speaker and some even calling the device “their best friend at times”.
Other than fighting this feeling of isolation, having a helping hand in and around the house is also very beneficial for the elderly. Since this group of society is assumably the most limited in physicality and mobility, domestic automation can be a perfect addition to their home.
In conclusion, not only having a fully automated home, allowing residents to have a more relaxed domestic life is one of the benefits of smart home solutions, it can even help to prevent or fight serious social and health issues. Loneliness can be a big issue for elderly people and offering them a smart speaker can help them improve their social situation by a distance. Moreover, seniors are the perfect group who can use some assistance with their domestic life and its tasks.
References
- https://www.statista.com/forecasts/887613/number-of-smart-homes-in-the-smart-home-market-in-the-world
- https://www.nia.nih.gov/news/social-isolation-loneliness-older-people-pose-health-risks
- https://www.aarp.org/home-family/personal-technology/info-2018/isolation-loneliness-technology-help.html
Interesting read! I hadn’t thought of smart home solutions as tools against loneliness. It makes me wonder what the potential is for artificial intelligence as a companion to humans. Maybe it will be hard to distinguish AI generated speech from human speech in the future. If you are further interested in potential AI relations with humans I highly recommend you the film Her (2013).
Personally, I’m hesitant when it comes to installing smart home solutions at my own home. Privacy and vulnerability issues are concerning me. I have read articles saying that some home solutions from companies you mentioned are always listening to you and sometimes using that data for commercial reasons. Also, some smart home solutions bring vulnerabilities with them. Think of people potentially hacking the smart systems in your house for malicious reasons(e.g. opening smart locks). I’m curious to hear your opinion on these concerns!
I am personally very excited about the potential of AI in the future and already have some smart home appliances installed at my home. Privacy concerns are not bothering me that much, since, for example, with the commercial reasons you mentioned, I rather see an advertisement for something that I am interested in than some random ad.
The potential risk might be a reason for concern, although my appliances do not contain or give access to vulnerable information, as opposed to a doorlock. I do think that when more people start accepting smart home solutions, the security will obviously improve as well and this risk becomes minimal, although it is of course still there. But, then again, physical burglaries where personal, physical documents are stolen are also always a threat. Thanks for the recommendation by the way!
Very interesting insights! I too had not thought of smart smart home solutions as a tool for fighting loneliness. Loneliness is one of the biggest issues for the elderly so it is nice to see that studies show positive effects of these solutions. I think smart home appliances are incredibly convenient and easy to use. I don’t have any installed in my place, but when I see homes that have them I am quite amazed. Privacy and security are of course big issues like you have already mentioned, but I also think that once these solutions become more adopted, new regulations will come into place. I wonder how long we have to wait until we don’t even have to move from our beds to organize everything inside the house.