What’s the future of smart home technology?
When we look at the smart home technology of the future, technologies will become a cross-platform to provide complex decision-making solutions while increasing device capabilities.
India is at the apex of a digital revolution with the internet and smartphones being accessible to the masses throughout cities, small towns, and even villages. The Indian digital economy is expected to be at $1 trillion by 2025. This is more than half of Indian GDP of today. The sheer volume of internet subscribers and mobile phone users puts the country of billions into contention for the global IoT (Internet of Things) boom.
IoT comes with a concept that everything around should be electronically integrated and interconnected which is all about gathering and sharing of data. Things like smartphones, smartwatches, smart cars, and especially smart homes are all on the rise. IoT provides the homeowner's tonnes of options when it comes to security, comfort, energy saving opportunities, convenience and ease. Connectivity is gaining a lot of economic traction in industrial applications, Smart home solutions are pegged towards comfort and convenience.
Technological advancement in the field of smart home automation has happened at breakneck speed in the last few years. The result is a global market full of products and services that would have been deemed futuristic even a decade ago. The availability and rising affordability of a wide range of high technology products have given rise to a new sort of consumer, a more tech-savvy prospective buyer, who wants to communicate with their smart home, languish in the comfort, luxury and security that it affords.
With increasing disposable income, consumers have access to a whole new world of tailor-made smart products that can be customised according to their lifestyle and preferences. Smart tech often includes devices such as lights, thermostats, refrigerators, air conditioners, and other home equipment that come with WiFi capabilities. This set up allows the consumers to control these smart devices remotely via an app on your smartphone, and even monitor usage to control consumption to possibly save costs. With the creation of products like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, the dream of a futuristic, energy efficient and smart home is slowly becoming a reality for the mass market.
Personal assistant devices such as Google Home, Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod are currently all the buzz to connect your home to a virtual assistant.
One of the vital reasons for their success has been the element of “voice control” as a control interactive medium for the consumer. However, the biggest obstacle facing smart home technology is integration. If the television taught us anything, it’s that people hate dealing with multiple remote controls.
The same can be said for smart homes, consumers don’t want to have multiple key phrases or multiple apps, they want seamless integration with one user interface – in other words, maximum convenience.
While the existing technology is already enjoyed by millions, the next step up would be a true home-automation hub, which allows more devices to connect to a central bridge or hub for use wirelessly from a remote control panel, tablet or smartphone.
When we look at the smart home technology of the future, technologies will become a cross-platform to provide complex decision-making solutions while increasing device capabilities.
Machine learning, increasingly, will take on responsibilities like predicting and automating important tasks that comprise our daily lives. Anything from avoiding traffic on the drive home to the perfect temperature settings for your home the moment you arrive will become seamless background tasks of the connected world.
Smart home technology in the future will see a convergence between hardware and software that not only controls the day to day usage of your home but also enables homeowners to be smarter in all their decisions, in managing, maintaining and improving the home. A good home automation hub will allow the user to monitor the home’s security, climate, sound, lights and more from one central device. These hubs will continue to interact with the home’s WiFi network and act as a central location for each of the smart-home devices. However, instead of focusing on the basics like climate control and lighting, advanced smart homes will take advantage of the plethora of appliances with smart technologies. Today, home electrical brands like Luminous are already working towards creating smart switches, fans and other home electrical devices that will seamlessly merge with the evolving technology.
From fridges that create shopping lists to toasters that connect to the home’s WiFi network, the sky is the limit on which devices can be added to smart homes. While WiFi seems to be the default way to connect products in a home today, BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) is gaining popularity considering its gaining ubiquity and affordability.
Most people may start small and add a few appliances to their existing home. For new construction, a blank slate may allow the builder to add many smart appliances into space. The key here is connectivity for as many items as possible to maximize convenience.
Smart-home technologies are here to stay, and their focus will continue to be convenience and efficiency. With time smart homes will become an integral part of the lifestyle and that’s when more consumers will adopt home automation. While the current solutions seem to be focused on gathering data and simple control of appliances, the future holds unseen possibilities with machine learning, NLP (natural language processing) all this leading to a very powerful Artificial Intelligence and thus empowering every consumer.
(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)