After getting through the crazy Bay Area traffic, I’m finally approaching my house. Thanks to the new audio book I was listening to in my car, it didn’t feel as bad this time. As I approach my house, my phone indicates that I am in a close proximity to my garage door and asks if I want the garage door opened. I say “hi Siri”, and confirm that I want to open the garage door. I park the car, walk to the front door that is nicely lit by automatically controlled front porch light, and the smart front door lock unlocks the door for me. It used the outside camera, video analytics and pre-stored image of my face to confirm that I am the owner of the house, and then re-confirmed that I really am who I look like by checking that I’m in close proximity through my phone signal, all before I even put the car key fob back in my pocket. I also like the fact that once all of this is confirmed, my house alarm is automatically turned to stand-by mode. No need to run to the alarm display panel and enter some code and press multiple buttons to turn the alarm off. The alarm system is particularly smart in that it differentiates between an intruder and my dogs walking around at home and does not sound the alarm needlessly when they come and go through the electronically monitored dog door. My dogs are excited to see me, but are already well fed through the automatic, connected dog feeders. I know, since I checked on my phone to make sure they were getting their food and did in fact eat their food before I got home.
I love the hot summer days, but today was a particularly hot day. Thanks to my smart thermostat, my house is at a cool temperature. I hear the multi-speed air conditioner working a little harder now that I am inside, but my phone tells me it has kept the temperature at a fairly comfortable range for the dogs all day. This thermostat knows I like the house a little cooler when I am home, so it’s at it now. The dimmed living room light is slowly turning up higher as I approach this room. But I need to change into something comfortable first, so I head for the bedroom and the living room light slowly dims again, almost as if it is disappointed I didn’t stay longer. In its place, as I move through the corridor and then into the bedroom, the other lights automatically come-on before I get in to each room, thanks to the cameras that notice my presence and know how to differentiate me from my dogs.
I ask my automated home system to start playing my Jazz selection as I change. Music starts playing only in the bedroom. I leave the bed room, and while the lights are dimming and shutting off, the music starts in the living room, and slowly quiets down in the bedroom.
Time to grab a cold one and watch something on the TV! But did I remember to order more drinks after the party I had this last weekend? I recalled that I did, thanks to the reminder I got from my refrigerator about running low on a few things which I ordered easily with the touch of a button. I feel too lazy to make something to eat tonight, so I decide I’m going to order out. I ask the TV to come-on, and tell it to show me the list of my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. I pick an Italian restaurant that does home delivery, and tell my TV that I want a plate of Lasagna and Tiramisu for desert. I see a confirmation on the TV screen that my food would arrive in 30 minutes, and the total for my order which is automatically charged to me. I confirm and tell the TV I want to watch a movie. What type of movie do you want to watch, my TV asks? A Sci-fi movie that is less than 2 years old. I see a fairly long list, but I narrow the list by telling my TV to only show me the ones that have very high viewer ratings. Once my movie’s selected, the music stops and my multi-channel sound system comes-on, ready to shake the room when the movie action scenes demand it. The lights dim automatically, the shades close, and the air conditioner goes to a quite mode at a lower speed and I’m ready to enjoy my night of a good sci-fi movie, delicious Italian food, and a chilled drink… Life is good!
Or is it? Of course, this was all a fantasy. Those of you, who are into the home automation, love to tinker and play with high-tech toys, and perhaps spend a good amount of your time researching the latest and greatest home automation gadgets would say all of what I described is possible to do today. And you are right. When I was writing this, I was actually thinking of devices that are individually capable of handling each task described: Smart thermostats have been around for a while now and are already in their 2nd and 3rd generations. There are many smart door locks, Internet controlled garage door openers, dimmers, blind/shade controllers, wireless multi-room music systems, etc. There are also devices that can listen to what you say and act on your commands.
So why don’t we all have a smart home that does what I described and more? I feel that there are many reasons for this. Home automation is nothing new. I used to have (and built my own!) computer controlled dimmers and light switches years ago. But it hasn’t been until recently that many of these devices have started to take advantage of new means of communication that are more reliable, require lower power, and makes them more accessible. But this accessibility and connectivity has also come at a cost. There has been an explosion of communication protocols (Good ol-WI-FI, BLE, ZIGBEE, Z-Wave, Insteon, etc.) and “hubs” that the smart devices connect to so that they can be controlled via Internet or send data.
And there lies the problem. What is the best choice? Do you go with the Google Nest as your hub for the home, or let your new AppleTV become the gateway and center of your automated home? Or should you forget about these and go with someone else like Logitech, SmartThings or Insteon (Microsoft’s choice for home automation)? Logic would suggest that with newer technologies, particularly when they cost as much as these new smart devices cost (a door lock for $250?!), you would be better off trusting the big companies to stay in business and continue to enhance and add new functionality.
On the surface, that sounds like a reasonable choice, but when you start to look for the devices you need to make the dream automated home a reality, you find that the big companies are still far behind and the smart device choices are very limited. And that’s not the only problem. Even when the smart controlled devices you want are available and compatible with a particular system, it may not be as easily configured, managed, monitored, and integrated as another brand that is not compatible with your system, not to mention that these systems still lack sufficient level of security to keep the hackers out of your home.
And hence, unless you are ready to wait another year or two for all of these issues to be resolved and systems become more complete, you’d have to be a hobbyist and really enjoy tinkering to complete your dream home setup with smart devices from different companies that are not compatible, but somehow can be controlled through apps that manage different communication standards and multiple hubs. Keep in mind that when you go this route, you are on your own and your millage may vary, since when you run into problems (and from experience, I can confirm that you definitely will!) no single company would come to your aid.
Fortunately, there is still hope that the dream automated home will someday become a reality for everyone, and not just the tinkering hacker. The big guys, Google and Apple are working on creating an eco-system of products that work together, rather than to selfishly try to build everything themselves. They have created operating systems and frameworks to make it easier for third-party device manufacturers to build compatible IoT devices.
Google is touting Brillo, an operating system derived from Android, and also a cross-platform communication layer with developer APIs that all the IoT home devices can communicate on, called Weave. Google promises to simplify the user interface for the IoT devices as well, using the Brillo, hopefully not only on an Android phone, but on the iOS phones as well! Brillo won’t be available until Q3 of this year, and the developer stack will be released in Q4. Google also launched a partner program called “Works with Nest (WWN)” so companies can make their devices compatible with the Nest products (thermostat, camera, smoke+CO alarm) and integrate easier.
Apple’s answer to reducing the complexity of home automation is the HomeKit which was announced last year. It is supposed to offer a common language for smart devices to communicate with each other. And it supports Siri, so theoretically, you should be able to control all your HomeKit compatible devices with your voice using Siri. It appears the latest AppleTV is targeted to become the entry point for HomeKit devices, allowing one to control their devices with the AppleTV remote using Siri, but it does not appear to be targeted to act as a main hub for all smart home devices. Maybe Apple does not believe there is a need for a hub if all devices are already Internet connected, but that would leave lower-end devices such as light switches and dimmers out of reach by Siri. I am sure Apple has a plan for these as well, or maybe other manufacturers building these devices would make their hubs HomeKit compatible. Already, there are a few HomeKit compatible devices. There are also rumors that Apple is coming-up with an application that would control the HomeKit compatible devices, allowing uses to easily find and add new devices and wirelessly manage them.
And there are a few devices that either already do, or plan to support various protocols and frameworks, making it less risky to get in early and buy a device that would not support the eventual winning technology. But all said, and as you can tell, it’s still too soon to go full speed on automating a home. For now, I have only picked a few devices that make my life a little less complicated, such as the Nest thermostat, Nest Camera, and a few internet connected dimmers and light switches. Hopefully next year I can write an update about my fully automated, Internet connected, voice controlled, and energy saving home that greets me with a big smile every time I drive home after a long day and a long commute…