How IoT & Smart Home Automation CHANGES the Way We LivePosted by Pereira Wilder on May 16th, 2021 The smart home The concept behind the smart home is an automation system can operate systems around the house. The variety of potential options are considerable and includes environmental systems (lighting, heating, climate control etc.), entertainment systems, individual appliances, and home security systems. While the idea is that lots of operations could be automated - thus saving the house owner time and effort - these systems can also be user controlled. An example would be having the ability to set the heating ahead on later if you were going to get home later or telling the entertainment system to find you some suitable music for working to. There is significant potential for IoT smart home solutions to change the way that people live. The primary ways include: Saving time. Most of the IoT smart home products are designed to remove of our hands the various nugatory activities that we have to do on a daily basis, leaving more of our time for important or enjoyable activities. Improving standard of living. By making the home an easier, healthier and less stressful place to maintain, smart home automation using IoT might help improve the standard of living. Saving cash. Fully utilizing IoT can save money on house operating costs, for instance by reducing unnecessary heating or lighting bills and integrating with smart grids to give an individual greater visibility on the electricity they are using. The health and security benefits One of the main areas that is explored for smart homes is that linked to improving health. Several IoT smart home products have already been developed that try to monitor the status of the environment in the house. This consists of, for example, monitoring the health of the air across numerous categories - humidity, temperature, dust, CO2 etc. These details is then transmitted to a control interface where the user (the home owner or house occupier) can examine it and take appropriate action. Alternatively, this could be linked into other systems whereby automatic action can be taken to bring conditions back again to the desired level, such as for example automatically turning air cooling or filtering systems on. Other appliance-based solutions that are on the market include fridges that can monitor the status of food, checking for spoilage or similar, while automated cleaning might help reduce dust and dirt in the house. Meanwhile, linking in security systems into IoT has made homes better. Probably the most popular way this has been done is through using IoT enabled cameras in or around a house that enable an image or video feed to be sent so that the home owner-occupier has the capacity to check on the situation when they are away or if they are in another portion of the property. Often these types of devices have multiple features integrated into them, such as automated motion sensors, sound detection, event-triggered video recording and so on. Future developments It's generally accepted there are three generations of home automation development up to now: First generation: wireless technology with proxy server, e.g. website : artificial intelligence controls electrical devices, e.g. Amazon Echo; Third generation: robot buddy who interacts with humans, e.g. Robot Rovio, Roomba. While the leading edge of technology often gets the news, in many homes there is still substantial progress to be produced with the first and second generation of systems. It is entertainment-linked systems that generate probably the most media coverage, with the various personal home assistants - such as for example Amazon's Echo, Google Home, Sonos One, Apple HomePod and others - having been particularly popular. With the growing and accelerating roll out and uptake by customers of IoT smart home tools and solutions, demand for additional services or tools is likely to increase. The sheer selection of potential within the smart home will ensure that IoT within the house will continue steadily to develop in the years ahead.Like it? Share it! More by this author |