Internet of Things and robots: who represents the future of smart home?

January 16 News, the U.S. Science and Technology news website CNET recently published an article that the High-tech industry has come to a fork in the road: for the future of smart home, we need a central computer, tell us when to clean the floor, when cleaning windows and cooking breakfast? Still need a versatile robot to help us do the housework.

This is also to say, our life will appear like Jarvis (Jarvis) Such intelligent control Center? Or will there be a robot like Rosie (Rosie), all the while, and will do all kinds of housework? Jarvis is a virtual human computer in the Iron Man comic book, helping Iron Man Tony Stark to remotely control its various devices. Rossi is a nanny robot in the animated "Jantsen family", and she takes care of the Jantsen family carefully.

These conflicting views were raised at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held last week. Last week, more than 3,600 technology suppliers from around the world attended the CES conference to explain their views on the future.

One is the company that manufactures intelligent thermostats and smoke detectors, represented by Nest, who are trying to integrate networked devices onto a single platform so that they can perform tasks together. The other is the robot company, represented by irobot, the maker of the sweeping robot Roomba.

But the scale of the market has not yet decisively shifted to that party because consumers have not yet made a choice: whether to prefer Rossi or Jarvis. "I'm not sure if the customer knows what they want," said Lauren Orvidas, vice president of Amazon consumer Electronics. "Orvidas oversees Amazon's online retail store, which offers a variety of consumer electronics, from cameras to mobile phones to wearable devices.

This situation will change in the future, with the development of technology, price decline, more and more people will want to have a robot. As for now, it is expected that investment in both types of technology will increase further, as every business that wants to make a difference in the market agrees that networked products will change our home life.

High-tech companies, whether giants like Google and Apple or the newly minted start-ups, view smart homes as the next battleground for smartphones, tablets and laptops. Cisco, the computer network giant, expects the number of global networking devices to reach 50 billion by 2020. The company said that over the next decade, the Internet would increase profits for businesses and save the Society for more than $19 trillion trillion.

The future of smart homes is also starting to inspire interest. But it is still too early to say that smart-home devices are being favored by consumers, even if the investigation companies cannot grasp consumers ' preferences. According to a survey conducted by the market research firm Forrester in 2013, 35% of respondents said they were interested in digital remote control energy management systems, but only 2% tried them. The company also found that 34% of respondents were interested in digital remote security systems, but only 5% of them tried the system.

Internet of Things

Now there seems to be a variety of smart devices. If you have an intelligent child bed that can track your child's sleep, there is a robot that can help you clean the grill. There is even a device that detects moisture in the soil and sends a message to your smartphone when the crop needs watering.

With too many home appliances to be networked, some companies are creating software platforms to manage these devices.

In this regard, nest is one of the most visible companies. Last June, the company announced the "works with Nest" developer program, designed to allow other vendors ' smart devices to interact with Nest products and data. For example, the company's partnership with Mercedes means that your car can inform nest to turn on the heating at home, so that when you get home, it's warm. This month, the company's "works with Nest" Project added 15 partners, including Philips and intelligent lock manufacturer August.

There are indications that Nest's move has begun to bear fruit. Google bought the nest more than 3 billion dollars last year, and now it has become a mainstream company, advertising on television and selling its products through Best Buy and Home Depot.

Finally, analysts believe that similar nest-built Intelligent device Control center, will help home appliances feel the owner's needs, so that automatically adjust everything. The nest device itself may eventually disappear at home, just acting as a sensor, while another control center controls the home device. Jonathan Gaw, an analyst at IDC, says, imagine a thermostat you can't see. He said: "The interface will be on your phone--what you really need is a thermometer affixed to the wall." ”

Robot rise?

When people talk about home robots, they almost always mention Rossi since the animated "Jantsen" was aired in 1962. She was portrayed as walking on wheels, waving a duster maid robot and rolling around the room in a pleated apron. She represents a versatile, versatile robot that uses a vacuum cleaner, cooks for you, makes coffee for you, and can react with tact in any conversation.

There is no such robot in existence, but it is not far away. At this year's CES conference, a large number of robots were shown, both innovative and bizarre. Some robots move back and forth in the showroom, controlled by the Internet, and a robot can get you beer or soda from the fridge.

Currently, there are several challenges to developing generic robots, and science fiction cartoons have limited future predictions. For example, in the cartoon "Jantsen Family", Rossi uses a traditional upright vacuum cleaner. Colin Angle, co-founder and CEO of irobot, predicts that real-life robots will be built into this dust-absorbing function.

But robots could replace Nest, an effort to build a home Smart Device control center. irobot Chief Technology Officer Paul Piegan (Paolo Pirjanian) believes that the biggest advantage of robots is that it can work as physical entities-roaming, serving, pouring things, etc.

irobot have every reason to believe that robots like Rosie will come into our lives. Its AVA Robot series is an enterprise-class video conferencing collaboration robot. The robot is a display mounted on a platform that can rotate around.

The company said it was only a matter of time before you and I met a robot like Rosie in my life.

Unpredictable customer

For the future of smart home, the market has not yet formed a clear answer, one reason is that no enterprise has become an obvious winner. When Apple launched the iphone, one of its most novel features was to replace the physical keyboard with a touch screen. In just a few years, sales of the equipment soared, and almost all other smartphone makers followed Apple, using touch screens in their devices.

But this is not the case in the smart home industry, despite decades of discussion.

Some companies and analysts believe that the reality will be smart home equipment and robots in conjunction with the use. "Everything is going to be interconnected," Brain Petty Brian Pettey, chief executive of Actobotics, Kansas robot supplier. "Patty believes that many different types of robots and services will be connected to the Intelligent Home Equipment control Center."

' In the short term, because of the price factor, a smart home with a variety of smart home devices may be a more achievable target than a robot with a similar Bill Morelli, ' said Bill Morelli, an analyst at IHS, a marketing research firm. At CES this year, Futurerobot, a Korean robot company, said its service-type robot furo-s at $75,000. The company dubbed its robot a nickname, Rosie, because it looks like a robot maid in animated (though it won't tell any jokes). A spokesman for Futurerobot said the Furo-s robot was not yet available for home use.

Eventually, Morelli, robots that can perform many tasks will enter our home. However, its function does not just stop at washing clothes or cooking. "It's very, very difficult for robots to make major breakthroughs," he said. ”

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)