How far are we from "smart home"?

"Smart home" is one of the most popular fields in recent years, the major science and technology manufacturers to follow up to make it more and more attention. But for most consumers, the distance from the so-called "smart home" seems to be quite a long distance, many smart home equipment also due to the function and experience of the short board and in a unsalable state.

American Science and Technology blog site Gigaom well-known writer Stassy Shigkinbotam (Stacey Higginbotham) recently issued a paper on the development of smart home and the current problems of the analysis, the following is the main content of the article.

Today, most people do not have a good home for smart homes, according to Parks Associates, a market research institute, that only 13% of households now have Internet devices that are not computers, mobile phones or tablets, so smart homes are still a long way from mass consumers.

Last week I was in a meeting with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) on the Internet standards team on the "How to let consumers adapt to smart home," The topic was discussed, and then gained some basic mature ideas.

The current smart home is still not satisfactory, why do they say so? Before I spend 300 dollars to add Philips hue smart lights to my living room, I have to think about why I need them. Fortunately, I am personally familiar with tools such as IFTTT (If this Then), so I can see the great convenience of connecting the lighting systems in the home with the Web service, reminding me of the movements of the stock, contacting my editors, and positioning my husband, and so on.

However, compared to the Wi-Fi networks that people already rely on, there is little dependence on smart home, so the most important problem at the moment is how to get people to really accept these devices and let people have the urge to automate their families.

In my opinion, there are now altogether three obstacles, namely the marketing of products, selling prices and people's concerns about personal privacy.

Why do we need smart home?

For the marketers of smart home devices, even though they describe a rosy prospect, such as when a child comes home from school and gets a message for the first time, such as a smart home device can be on standby when a family member wakes up in the morning and so on, But consumers are often not convinced of these seemingly tempting prospects, so marketers should start with the most basic consumer needs.

It is necessary for us to understand the concept of "smart home", is it fully automatic? Is it fun? Is it energy efficient? No one knows what conveniences a smart home can bring them, or why they need a smart home, which is what many consumers ask the most in emails sent to me.

These and marketing difficulties actually involve two other issues: smart homes are shared, but also more complex. Both of these questions require a new understanding of smart home devices that allow them to see how much change they can make to their daily lives in connection with the current technology. The technology industry, for example, has been very successful in marketing the two areas of computers and mobile phones, and has turned them into private devices that most people have, but for smart homes it is obviously far from being able to do so.

So from a marketing point of view, it's hard to figure out how to sell a highly personal and shared device, just imagine if your smart device is triggered by mobile or mobile apps, it's a problem for guests, kids, or the entire family, after all, some people use Android phones, Others use the iphone, so it's hard to unify.

The development of Home hub

When we talk about the complexity of smart home, we start with a basic premise. At present, most of the home hub manufacturers provide a super detailed programming solution is not recognized by consumers, manufacturers set smart home equipment application logic is often disconnected from the real use of the environment, the former mostly more rigid, and the latter the requirements are more flexible, So it's easy for consumers to lose interest in smart homes.

Another problem is that people usually buy a whole set of smart home equipment, but instead buy several devices that they really need. Usually, these devices need to be connected to the cloud to be used properly, which will naturally affect the device manufacturer, such as the additional cost of input and the device may be broken in the network or the API block in the case of a crash.

Now that the hub has become the main solution for smart homes, they typically have strong computing power, Wi-Fi networking and power outages to continue to work, but this still requires consumers to configure and manage these devices in the same way that engineers think, but in practice it doesn't make sense. Instead of trying to figure out what our real needs are after a lot of experimentation like an engineer, we can meet their real needs from the start, allowing smart home devices to quickly integrate into his life and play an important role.

Let's connect with each other

There are two current solutions, either by adding a learning algorithm to the device or by using a communication protocol or framework such as AllJoyn or open Intercommunication Consortium to establish a connection between the devices. With these technologies, the user's device can obtain relevant information from the surrounding environment, and then transfer the user's requirements to any networked device. Unfortunately for now, these learning algorithms are very slow, nest is one of the most typical examples.

AllJoyn and other similar networking frameworks (such as IBM's Open source networking framework, developed using block chains, Telehash and BitTorrent three technologies) are interesting, but only after widespread adoption will the value be truly realized. This technology will become another DLNA, it sounds like a solution for audio and video compatibility, a panacea for personal PCs, consumer appliances and mobile devices, but ultimately wool.

The start-up product Club, founded by Tom Coates, a former Yahoo executive, Tom Curtes a solution to ensure that the devices are interconnected and perform their respective roles. His idea of this "home appliances chat room" service allows users to log into a virtual chat room and see how each smart home device "thinks" and "makes a decision". This is an interesting proposition, but the need for a higher level of artificial intelligence technology can eventually become a reality. Imagine a user catching a plane the next morning and logging into the virtual chat room at night, convinced that his smart butler would be able to arrange everything for him so that he could get up and catch a plane.

Smart home should be to allow users to see what is happening at home, affecting the decision of those devices, rather than for each device to write the operating procedures.

Smart home is too expensive!

The cost of replacing smart home devices is very expensive, and the new product may be 5 times times or even higher than the old one. For example, the price of the Nest Smart thermostat is 250 dollars, and the previous Honeywell Smart thermostat I used at home was priced at 70 dollars. The upcoming August Smart Door lock Price is 250 U.S. dollars, the current market Kwikset Intelligent Lock Price is 30 U.S. dollars.

Most people don't believe in high technology, especially considering the marketing issues discussed above. Of course there are many ways to solve the problem of high cost of smart home equipment. One way is to highlight the performance of the device. Again, Nest is a good example.

Once I attended a family dinner of a friend who was the CEO of a non-tech company. I noticed that the Nest thermostat was installed on the wall of her house and asked about the product. She told me that she liked the device and that it had brought her a lot of fun. In fact, she returned home early that day in order to reduce the temperature of the house to meet the evening party. She doesn't care about it because she likes to fiddle with the device.

She went home early to lower the temperature of the nest thermostat. She drove home to adjust the temperature at home, and she could have controlled the device by phone. She was not a foolish woman, but evidently she did not notice the Nest thermostat has remote access capabilities. She was unaware of the existence of this function. Nest Thermostat is a beautiful ornament in her home, and she also attaches great importance to the learning ability of the equipment.

These learning abilities are another reason why people ignore the cost of smart home equipment. This makes you change your mind: nest is not a thermostat, it's a learning thermostat. Remote access is not a highly marketable feature, and it is clear that you pay higher costs for these devices with the ability to learn.

August Intelligent door locks are similar. Jason Johnson, the company's chief executive, will tell you it's not a lock, it's a robot. This robot can follow your instructions and let someone into your house even if you are not at home. Is this lock worth 250 dollars for this reason? I do not know.

But the cost of smart home equipment will fall. We are in the early stages of the transformation of consumer product production, and as demand increases, the cost of Wi-Fi modules and microcontrollers will gradually decline. Moore's law will prove it.

More worry

The last worry about smart homes is that viruses can invade your home bulb or access your camera lens with a Google server network. In this respect, people put forward many methods and measures.

But I think that consumers will have to play a role in their own, such as updating their own passwords, patching their systems, and understanding possible problems in a timely manner. Equipment manufacturers also need to do these things, and take further steps, such as letting users know about security upgrades in a timely manner, and constantly testing security vulnerabilities. When the device is connected to the Internet, it is likely to be compromised from the time of shipment.

The Government must also play a role. In terms of security, government regulators should penalize companies that repeat problems or do not update their software in a timely fashion. In terms of privacy protection, government regulators should introduce rules on metadata (MetaData) rather than just preventing companies from disclosing personally identifiable information. We also need to prohibit the unreasonable search and seizure of digital equipment as part of citizenship.

Line

As you can see, the solution to these problems is not simply to tell the consumer that they are able to spend 5 times times the cost of ordinary equipment to gain a networking experience. High-end home automation provider Savant, a salesman once told me that in the years to come, people will accept smart home devices just as they would in an indoor pipeline. Of course, this guy is selling smart toilet, but I think he's right.

For consumers to buy smart home equipment, the key is to solve their security and privacy issues, but also to enable consumers to understand the cost and function of equipment.

We need to address the legal, design, engineering, and communications issues of smart home devices and then return to the services and products themselves, ultimately allowing consumers to use them without misgiving. After all, we humans create tools to adapt to them, but to adapt them to us.

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)