Very good friends. I'm calling him. 2016 is going to be the year of the smart home.
It will be the year that everyone, including your technophobic grandparents and friends, embraces the Internet of Things. It will be the year that it finally moves from being the exclusive domain of early adopters and power users, and into the mainstream.. You can quote me on that.
So what gives me so much confidence? In a word:evolution. Smart home technology has had its own Cambrian explosion and promises to make your life a lot more comfortable for years to come. This is why.
Amazon has had a busy few years.
In April 2014, they released the Dash Wand. This allowed people to replenish their groceries simply by scanning the barcodes of the goods they ran out of. Less than a year later, they followed up with the Dash button. Available exclusively to Prime customers, it allowed people to order Amazon products with the push of a button. No passwords, computers, or thought required.
A few months later, Amazon Echo Amazon Echo Review and Giveaway Amazon Echo Review and Giveaway Amazon Echo offer unique integration between voice recognition, personal assistant, home automation controls, and audio playback features for $179.99. Does Echo break on new ground or can you do better somewhere else? Read More One of the key features of this is that by simply speaking to a metal and plastic cylinder, you can order items from Amazon. “Alexa, ask me for some pens.”
So what do these have in common?
They are not trying to change The shopping experience. Amazon doesn't want to add layer upon layer of artifice. They will never, for example, launch a virtual reality shopping app. That's not their style..
They're just doing what they've been doing since the mid 90's. They're making it more convenient to buy stuff online. They have distilled the process of buying things into Its purest and simplest form. . The Internet of Things gives Amazon an excellent opportunity to do just that.
I have no doubt that this trend towards simplification is reflected in the smart home landscape. Eventually, device manufacturers will realize that people don't want to replace their current “dumb products” with complicated dashboards and features they'll never use. They just want the gadgets they use. to be better .
They will begin to understand how machine learning algorithms work. 4 Machine Learning Algorithms That Shape Your Life. 4 Machine Learning Algorithms That Shape Your Life. You may not realize it, but machine learning is already all around you, and it can be amazing. Degree of influence on your life. You don't believe me. You'd be surprised. Read more, artificial neural networks and artificial intelligence (AI) What artificial intelligence is not what artificial intelligence is not the intelligent and sentient robots that are going to take over the world? Not today, and maybe never. Read More
We are already seeing great progress in this direction. The Nest Learning Thermostat is a great example. You can learn how it is used, and set the temperature of the home according to the owner's usage patterns. The latest iteration can even control home cooking units, to generate hot water on demand without being prompted. This is a great example of a smart home product that doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, but just does it better .
The WeMo Insight Switch has a similar design philosophy and purpose.
This is a "smart" Which smart plug is best for you? Which smart plug is the best for you? Even if you're not into the whole smart home automation trend, you should still get some smart plugs. They are one of the easiest smart home products to use. Read More The units themselves are cheap, single-use (although they can track and monitor power consumption), and don't have complicated interfaces. You only control it through your smartphone. It does a job with a laser focus, and it does it well.
This is how it should be.
Computer-operated smart homes have been around longer than you think, either as real-world products or conceptualized in fiction.
In October of this year, former MakeUseOf writer Mihir Patkar interviewed someone who lived in a smart home for 20 years. This is what you should know. I lived in a smart home for 20 years. This is what you should know. MakeUseOf spoke to one of our regular readers and commenters, Ben Stutt, from Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA, about his experiences living in a smart home. Read More he described what the houses of the future would look like, with every mundane task automated and computerized with a mesh of mechanical Rube Goldberg machines.
believe me. Smart homes are nothing new. Despite that, it's only recently that smart homes have started to take off. Why ?
Well, there are a number of reasons. One of the biggest is that the screen and UX technology needed to make smart homes truly enjoyable to use has only recently come to fruition. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the video of Microsoft's Smart Home concept, which was released in 1999.
In six minutes, he describes what Microsoft thought the home of the future would look like, through the prism of the technology that was available at the time. You will notice that many of the predictions he made eventually came true; of being able to track family members in real time (powered by Google Latitude) How to find a cell phone location from an Android device How to find a cell phone location from an Android device Lost your phone or want to see the location of a A friend's phone?Here's how to locate any phone from your Android device so you can control lighting, sound, and security systems from a single control panel.
Despite that, you can obviously see that it's not a seamless and (dare I say it) elegant experience. The mother in the video has to use a static desktop computer in the kitchen to control the environment. The daughter was using an old Microsoft CE Pocket PC, with a monochrome screen and a resistive touch screen. Appliances were controlled from a static touch screen control panel, again with a nasty resistance touch screen. This was the crème-de-la-crème of smart home technology in the '90s, and it's still a bit of a drag.
So what changed? In a word, smartphones. 4 Ways Your Smartphone Will Drive Smart Home Technologies 4 Ways Your Smartphone Will Drive Smart Home Technologies Smart home technology remains a hot niche; but that could soon change due to the humble smartphone in your pocket. This is why. Read more.
Virtually every piece of smart home technology can be (and very often can only be) controlled via a smartphone. That's not hyperbole.
We are now at a point where you can adjust the temperature of your home, watch your security camera, and check for carbon monoxide from anywhere in the world, simply by using a smartphone. It's something that's convenient anddeeply personal .
Phones themselves are great devices for controlling smart home products, simply because they've evolved over the last ten years to be inherently easy to use. Google and Apple both have "style guides" that tell developers how to write apps that are accessible and consistent.
Even the cheapest smartphone in 2015 has a screen that is relatively sharp, clear, and legible. Also, touch screen technology has gone from slow resistive touch screens to multi-point responsive capacitive touch screens being the norm.
Smartphones have essentially unlocked smart home technology, turning them from frustrating, linked experiences into something personal, portable and delightful to use .
When a consumer technology product is first introduced, they are expensive and attract only a small niche of users. Then, after a little while, they drop in price, reach critical mass, and become ubiquitous. The only variable is how long.
It took twenty years for the laptop market to go from $2600 Powerbooks to $200 Chromebooks. That's not adjusting for inflation. It took five years to go from $500 iPads (the first successful mass-market tablet), to $50 Kindle Fires. Now you can get a half decent smartphone for around $30. It's remarkable.
Smart home technology is no exception to that, as prices have fallen steeply in recent years. Our Christmas Home Automation Buyers Guide 7 Home Automation Gifts to Wow Your Geek Friends 7 Home Automation Gifts to Wow Your Geek Friends Are you scratching your head trying to figure out what most friends and relatives will receive this Christmas? Maybe I should get them some smart home automation equipment? Read More Virtually everything on the list was under $200. Some, like Belkin's WeMo Light Switch and WiMo's Insight Plug, could be had for less than $50.
As prices continue to drop, we can expect to see more and more homes with smart home technology. They are now entering the price range where they could be an impulse buy. Especially when you consider that some of the most popular products on the market have the clout and marketing finesse of Google, Philips, and Honeywell behind them.
So, let's recap. The latest smart home gear is all about enhancing existing devices and processes, not augmenting them with additional features. Devices are getting more beautiful and easier to use, and they are getting cheaper every day. All this is a recipe for success..
But what do you think? Let me know in the comments
