When talking about Smart Home Ecosystems we don't know what the future devices will be but we can guess. This article by Balla Erika (9th October 2024) talks about what to expect in the next decade.
AI-Driven Personalisation - The smart home will be able to be customisable and suit all of your needs instantly. It is beyond simple voice commands the systems will anticipate your needs, create a home that adapts to your lifestyle, through lighting, and temperature, and prepare you for your day. It will be able to create a truly comfortable home that is efficient for you.
Sustainability and energy efficiency - your homes will be able to be adjusted to optimize energy use in real-time to minimise the amount of energy waste. There will be zero-energy homes that will be equipped with advanced energy systems that work off renewable energy sources enabling the homes to become self-sufficient. Water conservatories will also become more advanced with an in-depth irrigation system and leak development system, greywater recycling, and other methods that will ensure that the system is as sustainable as it possibly can be.
Robot assistance and home automation - these will become staples in homes revolutionizing how we do daily household chores and tasks. They will be able to assist in the kitchen as personal chefs or prepare food for dietary preferences and nutritional needs, they are also capable of restocking groceries and cleaning up. They will guarantee accuracy consistency and ease to make your life as stress-free as possible. Toilets will have health monitoring sensors that will be able to revolutionise healthcare by tracking your vital signs and detecting early signs of disease. Other advanced robots will be able to vacuum, mop, and adjust to individual surroundings to create a spotless home.
Health care and wellbeing - smart furniture will be able to track sleep patterns and adjust for better rest. Chairs will monitor your posture and suggest movement when needed. Mirrors will be able to assess your skin health and give recommendations. AI-powered home gyms will offer personalised workout plans with AI trainers that will adapt exercises to your needs and give real-time feedback on your form. There was also a potential for virtual reality in home gyms to make them more engaging. Home health monitoring through smart mirrors and toilets will be able to provide health check-ups and detect any issues early on so that everyone can get the best health care available.
Advanced security and biometric systems - AI-based surveillance will be available that the AI analyses security footage in real-time distinguishing between regular activity and potential threats. It will learn from your patterns, recognise faces and pets, and have the capability of automatically locking the doors and triggering alarms. Biometric access controls will become the norm with traditional keys being forgotten, and fingerprint and facial recognition will allow seamless and secure access to your home. With the ability to grant temporary access and revoke it at any time to create a fully safe system. Proactive threat detection, when monitoring the system it will notice any unusual sounds, movements, or unusual activity to be able to safeguard you.
https://www.londondaily.news/the-future-of-smart-homes-what-to-expect-in-the-next-decade/
This article by IDEO is about AI assistance which will be a central point in the future of smart homes. Intuitive, social, trusted, nurturing, and multimodal is what AI needs to become for people to be interested in and engaged. When people are talking about current AI assistants there are very mixed reviews with lots of positive reception and enthusiasm but also lots of skepticism and concern.
This article makes a really interesting point about how AI is not generically the same for everyone or custom in the way we understand it. It will redefine personalization, adaptability, and solutions for the individual user.
Currently, at the minute AI software is to solve or help with specific issues but in the future will not have to pick the right one as it will intuitively respond allowing easy access that everyone can use. An AI piece of technology that is already showing this type of behavior is Perplexity AI which has a simplified entry point by offering several large language models, as their focus is on mapping sources of data allowing the users to further explore.
The next area of AI would be an AI that uses I'm to conduct multiple other AI that work together, with minimal instruction or prompting. Forethought is the first customer service that uses things like Simplified and Arc Max to integrate seamlessly with your web browsing experience.
I can also help people engage with others and lead us to healthier human connections. There are already opt-in AI assistants that use data from our phones to offer suggestions and assist on actions that support their social goals.
The next area that an AI could develop into would be an AI-powered journal that acts as a digital mirror it gently nudges the users towards their goals and helps them reflect on their day, it helps support them and provide reassurance.