From Science Fiction to Your Living Room
When The Jetsons debuted in 1962, it envisioned a world where technology aided every facet of life. In 1968, HAL from Stanley Kubick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was an artificially intelligent computer which controlled every aspect of its space ship and responded to voice commands even if it didn’t obey. In 1982, Knight Rider’s KITT had the brains and self awareness to not only drive autonomously, but also verbally spar with his human partner.
All of that is the realm of science fiction–a vision of where the intersection of technology and our daily lives might take us, for better or worse. Today, we are increasingly close to that reality. It started with things like automatic doors at shopping centers, dishwashers, motion-sensing lights, and remote controls.
Those are all components of today’s smart home, but what sets the smart home apart from simply one with a few conveniences is the connectedness and the overall awareness of all its components. In a modern smart home, you don’t even need to be in the house to turn on your TV. Every light in your house can be controlled remotely, on schedules, or in response to events.
The Realization of the Smart Home
The smart home knows that you’ve gotten out of bed and walked into the living room. If it’s still night, it will turn the lights to a low level and then turn them back off when it senses you are no longer in the common space. If morning has arrived, it will turn the lights on full brightness and start playing the day’s news headlines. We’ve had coffee makers with timers for quite some time, but in the smart home your coffee maker will start brewing at whatever time you finally dismiss your alarm clock. Your smart home can even automatically order your favorite pizza if you get home later than usual.
Now granted, today’s smart homes don’t really “know” anything of your routine in the common sense and they aren’t aware in the same way as the fictional HAL or KITT. However, with a combination of sensors, publicly accessible information, and clever programming, it can certainly seem that way. A really seamless smart home experience may take extensive planning, programming, and significant cost, but the payoff is the feeling of finally living that Jetsons lifestyle.
The Internet of Things
The brains of any smart home is the home automation hub. This is really a miniature computer, somewhere between the size of a deck of cards and cigar box that connects to your home network and the Internet. Some common smart home hubs are SmartThings, Vera, HomeAssistant, Iris, Wink, and the list goes on and on. Each one has slightly different features, functionality and supported devices. Most have the ability to control devices over the wired or wireless network. Generally they also communicate over Z-Wave, Zigbee, or both. These are two wireless protocols specifically designed for controlling smart devices. The two protocols work in similar ways, but are really competing standards. The X10 protocol uses your home’s power lines to control devices, and Insteon uses a combination of wireless signals and your power lines.
The types of devices a smart home hub can communicate with are literally limitless. Light switches, light bulbs, outlets, cameras, door locks, TVs, and audio devices are the most common. However, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and other home appliances are also joining in. You can get a tooth brush that tweets how long you’ve brushed or toilet that signals when the seat has been left up. If it has a battery or a power supply, you can probably get a version that connects to what is now known as the Internet of Things, and if it doesn’t have a power supply, just wait for someone to add one.
Voice Assistants
In the past few years, voice assistants have taken the spotlight. Amazon’s Echo was the first major player, then came the Google Home. Apple’s HomePod is trying to get some of that market now. Also known as smart speakers, these devices are basically stand-alone speakers with a built in microphone that listen for your commands. In response, they dole out information and music. When integrated with your home automation hub, they can even send commands to your connected coffee maker or toilet.
These voice assistants are the realization of science fiction’s technological marvels in two ways. They help us to interact with technology the same way we interact with humans– using natural language. They also regularly fail miserably to understand what it is we actually want. The devices are getting better at a rapid pace, and there are numerous competing brands to choose from. Who knows if we’ll ever see something convincingly self-aware and truly intelligent. Hopefully when we get there it will remember to put the seat down.