Smart Home- Tech Homes
There has been a lot written about "networked houses of the future," wherein all electronic appliances are either connected to each other and/or to the Internet. The "killer application" of such houses is supposed to be remote activation of heating, lighting and other household functions. But this is not my vision of the smart house future. True, connectivity to external networks will allow monitoring of electric, gas and water systems; of security perimeters; and even of people (for home health care, for example, or for house arrest!). But the defining characteristic of smart technology is not so much external connectivity as the ability to sense and respond to surrounding conditions.
Consider the smart technology contained in latest model high-end cars, enfused with microchips to monitor and activate responses to tire inflation, anti-lock braking, fuel/air mixture, inside/outside temperature differential, etc. These microchips represent disembodied intelligence, programmed to take the decisions the driver would take if he or she had supremely accurate real-time information, split-second reactions, and a degree in engineering! Note that each of these microchips functions independently; it is not connectivity that makes them smart - it is their pre-programmed responsiveness.
So too will it be with smart house technology, my vision of which might be called "just-in-time" technology. Just-in-time is a concept developed first for manufacturing, and now for all marketplace activities, which maximizes efficiency, productivity and effectiveness by delivering the right amount of resources only to the places they are needed, only when they are needed. I anticipate that smart houses will follow the same dictum, delivering just the right amount of heat, light, power, hot water, security, etc., only where needed, only when needed. Such a house would be smart enough to sense and prevent water pipes from freezing or fires from burning. But it would also be smart enough to let itself be overridden by humans, who may choose to shut things off once in a while
Smart houses will have smart appliances, but again, defined by responsiveness, not connectivity. Smart refrigerators, for example, will not scan their contents to place shopping orders with online grocers over the Internet (that's silly). But they will sense how much of what types of fresh and frozen foods are stored in them and adjust their temperatures accordingly. No need to be any colder than necessary.
Similarly, smart dishwashers and clothes washers will automatically sense, based on load size and soilage, how much hot water and detergent are called for. Clothes dryers likewise sense when clothes are sufficiently dry and turn off. Mundane, perhaps, but smart, and efficient.
Following this pattern, smart (i.e. responsive) technologies will become pervasize and ubiquitous. Homes will be filled with small, unobtrusive, simple, inexpensive devices, each embedded with pre-programmed microchips, each dedicated to a specific function or activity, each connected to a proprietary network by some broadband channel. 1. am talking about a myriad of separate devices for video entertainment, music, radio, talk, chat, news, finance, weather, traffic, sports, gaming, shopping, travel and more. Why not? This is already the trend, with dedicated devices for Web surfing, e-mail, schedule keeping, finding movie times, reserving tickets or restaurant tables, etc.
The Internet may or may not play a major role in this future. But the idea of convergence -- that smart technology means all devices connected through the same network - is a non-starter. Why do I feel confident in this prediction of disaggregation? Because it meshes the technological trends (digitalization, miniaturization, bandwidth) with consumer and marketplace trends. And because it integrates smart technologies into everyday life activities by meeting the prerequisites of consumer technology success: utility, simplicity, and affordability.