Smart Homes of the Future- The Evolution
By: Anup Pande
Tags: Green Energy, Internet of Things, Connected Home, Sustainability, Smart Home

The evolution of homes have closely followed the evolution of mankind. From the primitive dwellings in the caves by the early homo sapiens to the present day cement structures inhabited by the modern human race, homes have undergone significant transitions and transformations.

However the present day human race considered amongst the most cognitive species on this planet , is still classified as Type 0 civilization according to Kardashev Scale that defines the measure of a civilizations level of technological advancement based on its ability to harness and use energy. We humans are currently capable of harnessing only partially the energy received by our planet and are estimated to reach Type 1 civilization only in next approximately 200 years to start harnessing the entire energy potential on earth.

This journey of evolution from Type0 to Type1 civilization requires us humans to develop living methods that will be more harmonized, efficient and sustainable. The basic building blocks of this will be the Smart Homes that we build, which at present are highly sub-optimal and pose quite a few serious challenges as suggested in my previous article.

In my view, the Smart homes in their existing avatar are gadget intrusive infrastructures that have a steep learning curve for its tech-challenged inhabitants. Also the existing Smart Homes till this time are primarily technology focused that is basic in nature and do not take in to considerations the dimensions of architecture, design and environment that are equally critical aspects of making a home Smart.I believe “Smart Homes of the Future” will be highly cognitive structures that will be an efficient blend of 3 critical elements

a) Sustainable Architectures

b) Green Systems & Solutions

c) Technology Innovations

Let us understand each of these 3 elements that combined will add tremendous value addition to the homes of the future.

a) Sustainable Architectures

The Smart Homes of the future will incorporate architecture practices aimed at minimizing the environmental impact of construction with innovative designs, techniques and materials.

1. Passive Designs: This technique makes the homes extremely energy efficient by leveraging on the elements of natural environment such as local weather conditions, sun direction, wind flow and the home’s outer shell. These are optimized for maintaining ambient temperatures, maximizing natural light and enabling maximum ventilation, thereby keeping the home naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

2. Heating and Cooling Systems: The home designs will incorporate solutions such as double stud walls, cool roofing material, fully insulated concrete slab, Rain Screens,UV resistant facades and geothermal heating and cooling system for the floors and ceilings of the house thereby increasing its energy efficiency.

3. Sustainable Construction Practices: The techniques on sustainable construction will use specified materials that come with the lowest possible carbon imprint. Using natural materials the impact of concrete, that is responsible for releasing a huge amount of carbon, is significantly reduced. Sustainable constructions also ensure durable structures that last long thereby reducing wastage and energy costs that will make huge long-term impact on global ecology.

b) Green Systems & Solutions

1. Alternative Energies: The homes of the future will be completely off grid and will not only consume but also produce energy using alternate renewable energy sources like Solar, Wind, Geo thermal, Hydro and Bio Fuels. Nuclear Energy can be deployed at city level for providing energy to the households.

2. Human Centric Lighting: The homes will have efficient & automated lighting systems that will follow the circadian cycle of natural lighting synchronized to the body’s natural clock resulting in optimal productivity during the day and sound sleep patterns during the night. This also offers tremendous mental and physical health benefits to the occupants of these homes.

3. Water Management: The Smart Homes will be built with inherent water management solutions like waste water recycling, rain water harvesting and xeriscaping. The houses will be designed to have smart showers or air pressure showers that consume less or no water, waterless washing machines, smart taps dispensing only the required amount of water and smart toilets that require minimal or no water for flushing.

c) Technology Innovations

1. Artificial Intelligence: AI as it is more popularly called, transforms the mundane smart homes to “contextually aware cognitive homes” having almost human like intelligence to learn and detect patterns for predicting and taking actions autonomously. It has the ability to make homes truly seamless and tech non-intrusive as it will not even be required to press buttons on gadgets, use mobile app or even give a voice command. The technology will come in the form of AI powered robots or platforms that will perform tasks as per preferences of its owners. Robots with AI capabilities also known as Home Bots will find huge application inside a Smart Home. Though these are still at a very early stage of development but are gaining fast traction in the smart home space with the tremendous utility and ability value that they augment in the home environment. The idea here is not to make humans dumb but to augment their efficiency by doing tasks which they anyways have been doing inefficiently like switching off lights, securing door locks, turning off water taps , cleaning homes, making shopping list, bill payment reminders, to-do list and many more.

2. Machine Learning: Machine Learning or ML is a statistical methodology of data analysis that builds automated analytical models through training and testing for learning patterns and predicting outcomes. The key part of this methodology constitutes of data analytics module where raw sensor data readings are processed and data patterns are identified using learning algorithms, so the system knows in advance the follow up action to an event occurrence. With those data patterns, a Smart Home system should be able to predict a user’s behavior based on historical data and develop the so-called situational or contextual awareness — i.e., understand a user’s intentions at a given moment and change parameters accordingly. It will also enable predictive maintenance of all the housing systems and proactively inform, remind and repair them even before the actual failure occurs.

3. Blockchain: With Connected homes of the present, security and privacy are major cause of concerns and also one of the reasons for their low adoption. These concerns will only increase with more smart devices getting connected to the home networks in future. Blockchain technology provides a secure platform that supports sensitive transactions where privacy and reliability are critical. Its inherent features of security and privacy protection will be used in Smart Homes for creating unique digital Identity for the occupants for giving them permission based access control. Data on security breaches, anomaly detection, land records, utility bills and medical records of the occupants can be stored. These information once stored on blockchain cannot be tampered with and also ensures complete privacy by not revealing the identity of the home owner.

4. Augmented/Virtual Reality: The technology of AR/VR augments the real world environment by over laying a computer-generated image or information on it to provide a composite view of the real and virtual environments.This augmented view can be used for interaction with the Smart Home for controlling the devices and knowing the status .It will also enable learning information about the devices like product manuals or troubleshooting guides. It can also be used for design purpose by super-imposing virtual interiors on real spaces for taking an informed decision before finalizing the design or purchasing the furniture. Further these can be used to provide virtual tours of properties remotely before making a buying purchase.

5. Microchip Implants : Wearables like Smart bands , Smart Shoes or Smart tags promise less user friction over the present day mobile applications for interacting with the homes but never the less still pose the challenge of intervention.Human Microchip Implants address this issue by directly inserting a microchip in to the human body that allocates a unique digital identity to the person along with storing his profile information. These implants will completely do away with the need of having any physical wearable on the body enabling seamless non-intrusive experience across use cases like controlling devices, making digital transactions, authenticated entries , seamless airport check-ins,digital voting and many more.

6. Converged Smart Platforms: Today in a Smart Home there are multiple systems deployed such as automation, security, safety and media servers .Currently each of these systems are deployed as silo solutions that do not leverage on mutual capabilities. It is this missing link that Smart Homes of the future will integrate through converged Smart Platforms capable of integrating not only the diverse internal systems in a home but also linking them to the ecosystem outside the home to fully harness the abilities of this multiplied system. The Platforms will be augmented with capabilities of each of the technologies discussed above and the future technologies as they emerge. These Smart Platforms will further interconnect to evolve in to a mesh of Smart Homes that will leverage to optimize mutual resources and capabilities there by enhancing efficiencies.

The methods and technologies as discussed above are already at the cusp of reality and these in my opinion will enable the “Smart Homes of the Future” to evolve beyond the uni-dimensional gadget centric structures to multi-dimensional sustainable abodes. It is these Smart abodes interconnected through Smart Platforms that will form the basic building blocks for the Smart Cities, Smart Nations and eventually the Smart Planet capable of harnessing and using the full energy potential, thereby enabling us humans in our quest to becoming a Type 1 Civilization.

Let me know your thoughts on disruptions that you envision will accelerate this evolution.Look forward to your valued suggestions and inputs — Thank you

(Reference : http://www.hondasmarthome.com/)