Luxury Environments

Another busy semester has slowed down my Blog, but I am back!

Smart home technology is here. Smart home enthusiasts are here. Smart home demand...sort of here. Smart home accessibility...not so much. Even though the smart home marketplace and smart home innovations continue to grow, in terms of the environment being commonplace, smart homes are still seen as a luxury item. This is partially due to the fact that homeowners might not see the potential benefits of such a project and thus general demand, and thus the lowering of prices, is not happening any time soon. Apparently South Korea and the UK are leading the charge but estimates as to when smart homes will be common are still 2010+ projects. Even that sounds somewhat optimistic.

http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/new_homes/article2921916.ece

Your Smart Home Can Track You...

The majority of smart home technologies can track or monitor you and your home on some level, but a lot of times those tracking functions have to be programmed into the system to some extent. Here is a new smart home technololgy that is actually intended to track the movement of its dwellers. The technology is based on frequencies of noise in the power lines. In other words, a device measures the electrical noise emitted from appliances. Although not a perfect tracking system, the "usage" of your home can be monitored. The innovative aspect of the technology is that it could theoretically replace other forms of sensors (cameras and sensors) and thus use frequency data to initiate specific home scenes (or environments) or security responses.

For the full article, go here: http://technology.newscientist.com/article/dn12620-smart-homes-could-track-your-electrical-noise-.html

Open-Source Smart Homes

Think the software brains behind a complicated smart home system is too expensive to buy? Well, this is not always the case, specifically when you have open source smart home enthusiasts piecing together Perl based smart home software. The brilliant minds at Misterhouse (http://misterhouse.sourceforge.net/) have seemingly pieced together a nice piece of programming to help all home automation seekers.

From the site: "MisterHouse is an open source home automation program. It's fun, it's free, and it's entirely geeky. Written in Perl, it fires events based on time, web, socket, voice, and serial data. It currently runs on Windows 95/98/NT/2k/XP and on most Unix based platforms, including Linux and Mac OSX".

UK on the verge of a smart home breakthrough?

It seems the UK is gearing up for a smart home breakthrough - although they are probably 5 years away. The hope is that the marketplace will grow to an estimated £250m ($533m Cdn ) by 2012. A panel discussion hosted by ABB argued that more universal protocols and clearer focussed agendas are needed to enable the UK smart home industry - an industry that is lagging behind the rest of Europe. One member argued that

"with so many manufacturers and suppliers of the technology each pushing their own agendas, the waters have become muddied when it comes to communicating the benefits of smart home and intelligent building technology to end users," adds Burford. "To date, no-one has really taken a strong lead in the UK market and attempted to set down a de facto definition of the technology."

Once again consumer demand and universal technology protocols become difficult obstacles for the smart home industry.

For the full article take a look here: http://hiddenwires.co.uk/resourcesnews2007/news20070806-01.html.

Bell Home Monitoring

In Canada, Bell has jumped on the smart home bandwagon offering smart home safety and security. Targeting families and the aged, Bell's systemm is based on motion detectors, sensors, keypads and notification through wireless and the internet. An interesting system and although rather simple (it sort of reminds me of a basic X10 security system package) it seems Bell has beaten other telecommunication companies to the punch.

https://www.bellhomemonitoring.ca/portal/en/PreSale.aspx

Premium Home Entertainment

Here is Saleen Solutions vision of what a smart home could/should look like. Check out ehri website here: http://www.saleensolutions.com/SMART%20Wiring.htm.

Community Smart Home Integration

Although this is not a new concept, seeing it in practice is a very exciting step int he smart home field. A community in Dubai will not only have smart home but a smart community. One Media Communication Middle East (OMC) has launched "Live" - a community of smart homes that integrate personal home needs with upsclae community networking (valet service, concierge etc...) all linked with a networked touch screen system. OMC is actually taking this project another step further, proposing a business plan "that enables developers to generate revenues from advertisers and commissions from nearby service providers that soon reap a return on their smart home investment". The goal is to create another stream of revenue. This is taking home ownership and consumerism to a whole new level - integrating buying habits and desires directly into the everyday movements of the home dweller (as opposed to just sitting in front of the television set watching commercials). See the full article here: http://www.businessportal24.com/en/Smart_Money_Smart_Homes_216772.html

PS: Sorry for the delay between posts, it has been a busy couple of weeks.

Secure Your Home...NOW!

Secure your home before it is too late is the warning issued by Andrew Stratton. Stratton argues that "due to an increase in crime rates, security has become an important issue to be dealt with. For this purpose, there are many surveillance cameras that have come up". Although it is debateable as to whether crime rates have indeed increased or not (factors such as urban density, types of crime, underreporting of crimes etc... always complicate these claims) there is a growing sense that we have less control of the external world outside of our homes compared to pre-9./11. An interesting short piece that targets one of the main issues of my thesis.

Check out the article here.

Are Smart Homes Really the Future?

Can smart homes truly be the future of homes? Do we really want wired or wireless, centrally controlled, ambient environments? Are we simply not satisfied with our current version of home? Some companies, like Siemens and HellermannTyton argue that the technology is ready to go. All we need is consumer demand. Unfortunately, consumer demand is the tricky part. But there is good news...at least for smart home manufacturers. Today's average consumer is less fearful of technology than previous generations and even older populations have demonstrated an increasing level of comfort with modern computer technologies (Demiris, 2004). Demiris found that "older individuals' perceptions of videophone and monitoring technology...(received) an overall positive attitude...". As for the future or present status of smart homes, in the UK a house can be structurally wired for approximately 15,000 pounds and with prices continuously going down, the smart home future is much closer than you think.

Click the picture below for more information and the related article.

Advantech.Com - Their Smart Home Vision

Click the photo to enlarge or check out this link for more information: http://www.advantech.com/solutions/eHome/scenario.asp?Category_ID=1-EDZ11

Don't Worry, Your House Will Make the Call

Feeling under the weather? Depressed? Feel a mild stroke coming on? Not eating right? Don't worry, your home will take care of you. Architect Kent Larson "envisions a house that would automatically and unobtrusively monitor its owners' health and well-being through sensors, which would send an alert if a resident took a bad fall or wasn't taking her medication". In other words, don't worry, your house is watching. An interesting concept for those who are at an ge where the monitoring of health is critical, and really one of the main reasons why smart homes exist (for the aged and the disabled), but it's a little spooky to have your house tell you to "Put down that burger! Calories alert...calories alert!!"

Here is the full article: http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2004/tc2004077_7519_tc_171.htm

IBM - And now what?

Ironically enough, the IBM pervasive computing division no longer exists. This is not uncommon with many companies who ventured into the smart home industry in the late 1990s. The ideas where there but the technology and consumer desire were not up to the test.

Very dated future home article: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1999/02/17676

Smart Home Website Created

If you are interested in my smart home research, you can get all the basic information at my new website www.sfu.ca/~mdi. It is a very basic website, by no means can I design a good websites, but it does gives you some information on what my research entails. If you have any questions, let me know.

Webpage screen capture and link. Click it...you know you want to.

4 Million $ Designer Smart Home Residence in the Okanagan

This is a newly constructed, state of the art property with all the smart home bells and whistles.

"The system includes integrated lighting and security features with multi-point video surveillance, high-end home theater components and a Russound distributed audio video system delivering six sources into 10 independently controlled zones including 2 home theaters. The project uses Stealth Acoustics invisible speakers to deliver theater-quality sound without any visible openings or components. The system is controlled through multiple HAI touch panels located throughout the home and includes secured remote access and control through wireless PDA or Internet-enabled PCs. The $140,000 project included system architecture design, coordination of architectural features with the project architect and owner, structured wiring, equipment supply and installation, commissioning, and training".

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,134883.shtml

Home Depot Smart Home

Even Home Depot (!) has their own smart home. The School of Engineering at Duke University is responsible for the development of the project.

http://www.smarthome.duke.edu/