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There’s an app to turn on and off almost everything in your ‘smart home’
First we saw Rock Hudson's bachelor pad, which could dim the lights, drop a record on the turntable and convert the couch into a bed with the flip of a single switch, in the 1959 movie Pillow Talk.
Then, there was Capt. Jean Luc Picard ordering "Earl Grey, hot" from the food replicator on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
And, the Syfy Channel introduced us to S.A.R.A.H., the Self Actuated Residential Automated Habitat in the television showEureka.
Smart home technology is quickly turning this type of fiction into reality.
"The smart homes wave is one of the fastest evolving sectors of the entire technology market," says Keith Crawford, IT services manager at Mainstream Technologies in Little Rock. Crawford has watched the development of smart technology for many years and been an advocate of incorporating it into the home environment. "We've seen an explosion in the last three to four years -- everything from environmental conditions, HVAC, electrical power monitoring, water utilization. ... There's probably not anything you can't find a way to measure or monitor," he adds.
THE INTERNET OF THINGS
Think how wonderful it is to program the coffee pot to have fresh coffee ready before you get out of bed. A smart home can have the coffee ready, turn up (or down) the thermostat to a comfortable temperature, turn on selected lights throughout the house, heat the oven, open the blinds and tune the television to your favorite station -- all by setting up a single protocol. It can even feed the family pet if you decide to sleep in, all by tapping into the "Internet of Things."
Kevin Ashton is credited with coining the phrase "Internet of Things" (often referred to as the "IoT") in 1999. It describes a network of physical objects that incorporate electronics, sensors and software to communicate with one another.
Crawford explains, "Take something simple such as being able to control the blinds in your house. You put in a small smart monitor -- something that's
remotely controlled and can report some sort of status -- that will hook to the blinds; and it's got power and the ability to talk back to a central controller. I just issue a command to that central controller. The sensor usually is dumb, the controller is where the brains of the operation are, and it's going to have some way to feed that information either into a Web page that you can access over the Internet or into an app on your mobile device."
A simple system, such as the morning routine described above, might be keyed to a certain time of day. More complex systems use IFTTT (If This, Then That) programming to monitor and adjust based on logical reasoning. For example, a system might include sensors that measure outdoor and indoor temperature and adjust a smart thermostat accordingly. If the thermostat activates the air conditioning to cool the room, it might communicate with the controller on the blinds to shut all blinds on the sunny side of the house.
But first you need to be sure that everything is talking to everything else.
THEREIN LIES THE HUB
According to a report by investment-banking firm Goldman Sachs, more than 28 billion things will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Many smart home products use proprietary apps, which leads to one of the primary challenges -- balancing the complexity of the systems to their usefulness. Managing multiple apps and getting them to work in tandem is much like the pile of remotes on the coffee table that control the television, DVD player and surround sound. "You may have 15 different apps and 15 different services to do 100 different things," Crawford says.
Manufacturers already have created suites of products that communicate with each other using proprietary hubs. The challenge lies in getting devices that use different technologies and protocols to communicate with each other -- especially in a market with many different technologies, including Bluetooth, Ethernet, Insteon, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave and Zigbee.
Joe Dugandzic, a lighting and home automation consultant in Arizona who blogs via YouTube about smart technology topics, says, "All of these competing standards don't necessarily want to hook in directly into every single other device from every manufacturer. But, if they can hook up to a hub, the hub provides the translation."
BATTLE OF THE BRANDS
Although smart technology has been available for some time, the big players have just begun battling it out to set the industry standard and dominate the market. Think HD vs. Blu-ray, Betamax vs. VHS or cassette vs. eight-track.
In January, Google announced its purchase of Nest Labs, a home automation company best known for its smart thermostats that can be controlled from anywhere. But, the thermostat is just the tip of the iceberg. Nest has created "Works with Nest" standards and partnered with companies ranging from Phillips Hue lightbulbs to Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Yes, your Mercedes-Benz can let the Nest thermostat know when you are arriving home so it can set the temperature to your preferences and turn on the lights.
Apple is developing HomeKit as its entry into the smart home market. HomeKit will interface with Siri and with the next generation of Apple TV. Apple has established the protocols for the system and is creating partnerships with manufacturers to make compatible devices.
Microsoft entered the market in 2014 by partnering with Insteon for its Windows Phone or any tablet, laptop or desktop running Windows 8.1.
Google, Apple and Microsoft will be competing with existing systems and manufacturers such as:
• AT&T -- Digital Life
• ADT -- Pulse
• Comcast -- Xfinity Smart Home
• LG Appliances -- Smart ThinQ
• Lowe's -- Iris
• Samsung -- Smart Home
• Staples -- Connect Hub
• Time Warner Cable -- IntelligentHome
• Whirlpool -- Smart
HOME INTEGRATION
Getting started can be as simple as choosing off-the-shelf products that are compatible with your smartphone or tablet or choosing an existing service provider. "It's probably going to either be your home security provider or your Internet/TV service provider," says Crawford. These companies have packages of smart services that are tied to their existing products. "If you go much higher [in the spectrum of smart home possibilities], then you're going to have to talk to a smart-home integrator," Crawford explains.
Whole-house systems incorporate touch screens mounted throughout the house that allow users to adjust settings throughout the house from any location. Control4, for example, uses in-wall and tabletop touch screens to access its controller, which incorporates everything from lighting throughout the house to home-theater settings to security systems, to climate control.
The combination of competition from companies such as Google or Apple and standardization of industry protocols should make smart technology more affordable. And, the variety of smart options keeps growing bringing the home-of-the-future closer every day.
Watch out Captain Pickard. GE and Keurig recently partnered to create a refrigerator with a built-in K-Cup brewer that can be controlled with a smartphone app -- soon everyone will be able to order "Earl Gray, hot."
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