Smart Homes of the Future
The technology of the future could potentially sense your feelings and preferences if it’s linked with biometric data. From toilets that can pick up on our health through analysing waste to a system that knows when you’re returning home, smart tech will become much more advanced just 50 years into the future. Tom Cheesewright, Applied Futurist, believes it’s not a massive leap to get there.
Most appliances already have an internet chip that may not have been activated, so adding the connection would cost about 50p on top of the materials. Powering these technologies needs to look vastly different to today, as a mains connection or battery power is what’s currently needed. To get around constant battery replacement or the integration of wires, Cheesewright believes smaller, high capacity batteries will be available that self-charge on ambient radio waves. Going even further down the tech line, almost everything will be smart in 50 years’ time.
A survey of 2,000 people saw 43% of UK homeowners already having smart technology in their home in some form. 63% of which wanted to expand on what they had over the next year. One of the biggest concerns with whole house integration of smart technology was security.
Personal AI will become a common thing, especially in home integration. Personal assistants will be tailored to you, knowing your habits, seeing your health data and knowing your movements. The idea will be to know when you’re home, to turn lights and systems on and ensure your home runs as smoothly as possible, rather than keep tabs on you.
Augmented or mixed reality might become the next step after this, where people would spend upwards of 8 hours a day. Cheesewright believes this will start to happen automatically as biometric data and device connectivity becomes more readily available. When you get home, your system will know when you last ate, what you plan to do for the evening, if any of your favourite shows are on, as well as how emotional you’re feeling.
Not only this, but the stock levels of your fridge can be seen, which can give you suggestions for different recipes and your home could prewarm the oven for you as you’re heading home. Perhaps the most useful aspect of a fully smart home would be the inclusion of a smart toilet. A lot of ways in which your health can be measured can come from your waste, so a smart toilet could potentially save your life.
According to data from the same study, 65% of homeowners find new technology overwhelming, so an entirely AI-driven smart home could be a little too much for most people. Although the changes will happen gradually over the next few decades, it might be a while before we see truly smart homes on the market. In the meantime, you can settle for integrated smart security systems that are compatible with smart speakers. At the moment, motion detectors can turn on lights and start video cameras recording, but one day your AI assistant could do all this work for you.