A smart home is about devices communicating and having the ability to interoperate with an emphasis on the last part. The smart home is beginning to finally become a reality for more than just passionate tech nerds.
How to build a smart home in six easy steps. Well, advice on how to design your smart home has come in plenty, most of them saying it is really easy. In reality, it has been the opposite, but this is about to change. For some time now, there has been a plentitude of smart devices, says Erik Svalberg, Home Entertainment Product Specialist for LG Electronics Nordic.
Today you can have a fully connected home with sensors to monitor temperature, humidity, air quality and energy usage. But despite all the various connected appliances, sensors and virtual assistants – the real “smartness” has been somewhat lacking because of independent systems not able to communicate with each other. You practically had to be a passionate tech nerd to figure out how to connect all your devices with each other, says Erik Svalberg.
The interaction is key
It has been up to us to find just the right smart device for our home, install it correctly, and choose the right settings to keep it in sync with the rest of the home. Most people won’t do this; it’s sometimes expensive and often too difficult.
– For a long time now, technology and function have been the driving force behind the smart home, but setup and interaction have required us to learn and adapt. That is about to change however. The smart home is finally starting to find its way back to us instead. Currently voice recognition can follow a natural dialogue and machine learning lets devices adapt to us making the interface truly intuitive, he says.
It’s supposed to be easy
The era of closed ecosystems is soon to be gone; a truly smart home should be built on an open platform, where different manufacturers together can provide flexibility and have cooperation between an almost infinite numbers of smart devices.
– We will also see more and more smart home people actually want them. Your smartphone can be one hub, but just passionate your smart TV or soundbar. These hubs will be easily reachable for every family member.
The hub will speak to some of your devices, that in turn will connect to other appliances, making technology do some of the work that you used to do before. In the near future, there will be two types of smart home in your home: those you interact with just passionate and those that operate independently or find it’s from these other devices. So whenever you buy for instance a new washing machine, there will be no programming, no connectivity hassle. Just plug in and connect.
A smart home is supposed to be easy, and interoperability is the key in a truly smart home. For producers, this is the future for the smart home, Erik Svalberg says.
Erik Svalberg
Home Entertainment Product Specialist, LG Electronics Nordic
Photo: Christian Nilsson