Thursday, May 21, 2015

Issue 596 Smart Homes May 21, 2015

Here we are going for a lighter topic than yesterdays.  In this case we are going to talk about some cool stuff going into smart homes.  Let's discuss.

What we have and coming soon:

1. Complete control:  With smart home technology, you probably noticed that everything is controllable from a smartphone or app on a computer.  We know it can control lights, temperature, and alarms, and even cameras in the home, but they even allow you to control your faucets, and even the locks on all your rooms.  So if your child wants to have a party while you are out, you can lock your bedroom door from miles away on the other side of the world.  

2. Smart electrical: Energy efficiency is becoming more and more important, to the point that your home may fully automate energy distribution.  So your home using your alarm system can sense if you are asleep, and shut off bedroom or televisions for you.  It will also know where to rout electricity.  So if you are not using hot water, the electrical system will turn off the part of the boiler or cut off the electricity going to that.  If you are watching television downstairs, and not say the radio (your home will be able to tell the difference) it will rout power away from the radio to save energy.  This is already in the works as the military is currently testing this system for their temporary and permanent bases/camps and it works well with Tesla motors foray into batteries for the home.  As such, solar energy, batteries and other power systems need not become more efficient to generate more power as we will use machines to use the energy collected in a more efficient manner instead.

3. Smart Fridge: Of particular note is smart fridges that can order your food for you.  It will sense what foods you use most, and automatically order them for you from the nearest grocer to be delivered to your home.

4. Smart walls and tables: Never paint a room again, because you'll never have to.  The walls will be able to change color and even have patterns just like what you can do to your computer's background.  This is due to flat screen technology being placed on walls like wallpaper.  This also means you can watch television, or listen to the radio in any room via this tech.  So who needs a laptop when you can simply use this technology on a wall or table to type like you do on your touch screen tablet.  (This is further away, as the technology is still being developed).


Conclusion:  Both the first and second are very near term developments and look set to be the standard for future home building.  These two technologies will continue to evolve as USB technology replaces traditional plugs and thus hooks up every electrical device to the internet and thus the home's electrical grid.  The smart fridge requires radio frequency identification chips (RFID) to replace barcodes, while as stated, smart walls and tables are still in development and honestly need to become accepted over a more flexible, portable tablet pc.  Other ideas include car recharge stations, 3d printers, and dedicated servers so that each home has its own private internet network.  I look forward to how things will continue to change.

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