The Internet of Things (IoT) prognostication is everywhere, and IoT is disrupting the way we live, work, and communicate. Smart Homes is unraveling the culture of convenience and a seamless life. Gartner forecast approximately 20 billion IoT enabled devices, while IDC predicts a $1.7 trillion IoT market globally by 2020.
The idea of home automation or smart homes is not new. In 1923, a Swiss-born Architect Le Corbusier described a house as “a machine for living in.” Since that time, researchers have seen umpteen attempts to make this vision into a reality, and in most scenarios, the adoption was limited due to the mindset of “To do it yourself” enthusiasts.
The IoT is all about connectedness and the things around us talking to each other through sensors. Right from our coffee-maker, refrigerator, air-conditioners, thermostats, to our cars, the sprinkler system, to computers, smartphones to our home lights, windows, to the water system and you name it. A universe where all these devices are constantly communicating and controlled remotely via a simple push of a button or via voice command. With the rapid advancements in IoT, it is possible to achieve this level of automation in the Smart and Connected Home, a dream that has become a reality.
The advent of IoT has brought a paradigm-shift in transforming people’s lives and work cultures. The next-gen growth engines are substantially affecting the entire national and international ecosystem of Industries and people. The key drivers of IoT are ease of use, efficiency, and productivity for building a Smart Citizen, a Smart Society, a Smart City, and a Smart Nation.
The early adopters of Smart Home technology solutions and products are undoubtedly the younger generation or the Millennials who have a better imagination for a smart world. On the other hand, the older generation is grounded in their real-life application. This is also due to the limited education or the knowledge among the older consumers. The term IoT is mostly unfamiliar, but the idea of things being smart is a concept which most understands felt they were already experiencing it in their daily life.
In the present-day scenario of the smart home, the environment is, on an average, one in four internet users in the USA owns an intelligent home device or product – internet connected smart doorbell or a garage door, to a smart refrigerator or a smart meter. Even an internet connected home security alarm system.
The factors that motivate the consumers to purchase a smart device or product are the following: 1. Safety 2. Savings 3. Convenience 4. Control and Monitor. However, many barriers are preventing the adoption of the smart home automation by the mass-market despite being the developed economies such a US. While the adoption of the smart homes in the developing economies such as India or China will take a decade to get there.
The challenges are many but the significant barriers preventing the mass-market smart home automation are Safety & Security, High device or solution prices, lack of knowledge, the Generation gap, lack of education & training, lack of Privacy, etc. technological fragmentation of the smart home ecosystem where the consumers require multiple networking devices, apps and more to develop and run their smart home.
Despite all the challenges that the industry is posing, several stellar IoT smart home devices have already hit the market and paved way to penetrate into the homes of the thousands of consumers across the globe. Products like Amazon Echo is the first recognizable name within this space. The device acts as the central hub for all other smart home gadgets that you may have. Its voice-activated assistance, Alexa makes it convenient by reading you, today’s headlines or biggest stories so that you can focus on cooking the dinner while still being able to catch up with the News.
Nest, one of the another most popular smart home devices in the line, a learning thermostat which can automatically adjust temperatures based on your location. It uses a far-field sensor to determine the time and temperature from a distance. Its recent update allows it now to work with Alexa too. The August Smart Lock provides enhanced security and safety for home, and it is easy to install, works with Siri via Apple HomeKit. Likewise, for Smart bulbs, there is the Philips Hue Wireless dimming kit for your white-light needs or Led bulbs for power saving. There’s also the Lifx Color 1000, which can change color as required by you.
The Smart Home market is swarming with products and solutions that are unimaginable, and with every passing day, hundreds of such innovative products are making their way. The first and obvious benefit of Smart Homes is Convenience, as more connected devices will be able to handle more operations (lighting, temperature, monitoring, etc.) and free up the individual to perform other activities. Apart from this they conserve energy and help reduce costs.
For example, If you would like to conserve energy you would want to ensure that the air conditioners are turned off when you aren’t home which will reduce consumption of energy and lower your electricity bill. This is not just for one device that I am referring but for all your devices at home that requires being powered.
To create a proper functioning of any Smart Home their is a need for the best kind of root infrastructure. The home network is a large mesh-like system which connects all and various appliances in your home, from refrigerators, to toasters, to air conditioners, to washing-machine, etc. which depends upon your requirements, you might consider having more than one home network required for powering your smart home.
There are a variety of intelligent home network technologies to select from, wireless and wired and wired and wireless, each with its pros and cons. Besides, the home network, you will need a smart home hub which acts as a central communication system between the different devices within your network and authenticates you to give commands for the device to take action. The Smart Hub functions as the brain of your Smart Home Automation System which allows you to connect your devices or things within your network to a single control center making it a secured environment.
The Security which is one of the most significant concerns can be further enhanced by having your own secure Intranet or Virtual Private Network. Please refer to my article on how the “Intranet of Things” addresses this security concern by having an internal VPN which is not connected to the external network protecting my privacy and security of data. Nevertheless, the other factors which govern the decision of consumer adoption are the individual preferences and desires around the smart home products, and devices demonstrate looming confusion for the consumer. It is not necessarily the most-valued features, or value proposition are often the real drivers of importance – Some might be mere necessities while others might be just table stakes which makes it difficult for the consumers to be able to articulate what features or functions that are genuinely novel or valuable.
To summarize, the consumers do value the benefits of Smart Home solutions, but the future of “Smart Connected Homes” constitute significant roadblocks and is uncertain regarding its adoption because the answers to the following questions remain unanswered – Whether or not the technology will benefit the entire set of demographics irrespective of age groups? Will the industry stakeholders address the security and privacy concerns relating to the consumer data? Whether or not the technology will be interoperable, and the cost of owning a complete “Smart Home” solution will be made affordable!?!
