Source: Tuworm Creative
Artificial intelligence technology is gradually integrated into people's lives by helping people deal with daily affairs. Given that its basic principle is to allow machines to learn from experience and imitate human behavior, it has been widely used in important fields such as transportation, banking, medical care, national defense, and agriculture. In addition, the technology giants will also turn their attention to home scenes that are closely related to people, that is, home automation. The combination of smart phones and Wi-Fi technology provides the necessary impetus for this segmented scenario.
Home automation, a simpler understanding is smart home, but its definition has now shifted from basic comfort requirements and device control to a complete smart system. Specifically, this system can manage housework, provide equipment information, help people save money, and ensure the safety of houses through smart phones or voice control devices. It can be said that the integration of artificial intelligence redefines the role of home automation.
Tech giants fight for new products to enter smart home
As a strong competitive field, technology giants have stepped into it, trying to occupy a dominant position. This is true of Amazon and Google, both of which have recently released new products that want to attract people's attention.
The first is Amazon. Last month, the company released 10 hardware products at once, making Alexa an indispensable smart helper in all areas of life. For example, it has launched a smart microwave oven through its own brand AmazonBasics, which can pre-set several different fast voice commands to replace necessary manual operations. There is also an Echo Wall Clock, which can be used to set the alarm clock and even change the time display through Alexa voice control. For families without smart speakers, Amazon has launched a device called Echo Input, which can be connected to existing speakers at home, which turns it into a smart speaker with Alexa capabilities, enabling voice interaction with users.
Second is Google. At this week’s autumn conference, Google released a series of hardware products. In summary, it is the combination of some mobile consumer-grade hardware devices with different sizes of screens and Google’s artificial intelligence technology, including an intelligent Photo frame Google Home Hub, or a smart speaker equipped with a screen; a hybrid tablet Google Pixel Slate, Google equipped with a keyboard can be used as a notebook; and two smart phones Pixel 3/Pixel 3 XL.
Judging from the product launches of Google and Amazon, the competition in the smart home field is fierce. According to a report released in September by market research firm Zion Market Research, the global smart home market is expected to grow to a scale of $53 billion by 2022. This also shows the rapid development and popularization of smart home technology.
Smart home, let you have a sweet home
Smart home, as the name suggests, its concept revolves around all aspects of the house, such as smart kitchen, home healthcare, security, lighting, access control, HVAC control, and so on. For example, smart TVs are connected to the Internet and can access content through applications to complete video or music on-demand. Some smart TVs even include voice recognition or gesture recognition; in addition to remote control and customization, smart lighting systems can also Detect when the user is in the room and adjust the lighting according to their needs. Some smart lights can also adjust themselves according to the availability of daylight.
And smart thermostats, such as Nest, have integrated Wi-Fi, allowing users to monitor and remotely control the indoor temperature. These devices can also actively understand the behavior of the homeowner and automatically modify the settings to provide them with maximum comfort and efficiency. It is worth mentioning that the smart thermostat can also report on energy usage and remind users to replace filters. As for outdoor smart locks and garage openers, users can authorize or deny access. With security cameras, residents can also monitor their rooms when they are out or on vacation. Some smart motion sensors can also identify differences between homeowners, visitors, and thieves, detect suspicious behavior and notify them.
For users with pets, pet care can be automated through a networked feeder, and indoor plants can also be watered through a networked timer. Of course, other smart devices, such as smart refrigerators, can track video expiration time, make shopping lists, and even complete shopping after connecting to a smart assistant. All these equipments make home equipment more convenient, improve people's quality of life, and add more colors.
The pros and cons of smart homes
It's just that everything has two sides. One of the most popular benefits of smart homes is to reassure homeowners, allowing them to remotely monitor the house and prevent danger. For users, especially the elderly, there are also great benefits. For example, if they can be monitored, the elderly can live comfortably at home without going to a nursing home. If nothing else, the smart home can meet the individual needs of users in the future.
In addition, the emergence of smart homes will also improve efficiency. This efficiency has nothing to do with the pace of life, but refers to the maximum utilization of resources. For example, the smart home system will not keep the air conditioner on all day in the hot summer, but will make sure to turn it on when necessary after understanding the behavior of the head of the household; in addition, the smart irrigation system will only be used when needed. Water the outdoor lawn at the same time, and accurately to the necessary water consumption. In other words, through home automation, the utilization rate of energy, water and electric energy resources will be higher, which helps users save energy while saving money.
In recent years, smart homes have been trying to become mainstream, but they have not succeeded. The reason lies in its technical nature. What we must admit is that one disadvantage of smart home is the complexity of use, which is also a problem that smart home manufacturers and technology giants are trying to solve, hoping to improve the user experience. Specifically, for smart homes to be truly effective, devices must be connected. Regardless of whether the manufacturers are the same, they must use the same protocol, or at least have complementary protocols. But because this is an emerging market, there is no specific standard yet, but technology giants and manufacturers are currently working on agreements to ensure interoperability and a seamless user experience.
Another major issue is the safety of smart homes. In 2016, a report by NTT Data, a global IT service provider, showed that 80% of American consumers are worried about the security of smart home data. If hackers can hack a smart device, then they are likely to complete the unlock, enter the home or change the settings so that the head of the household cannot enter. In addition, once the hacker has accessed the relevant network, it will cause more serious attacks or data leakage. In addition, 73% of consumers worry about the privacy and security of data shared by smart homes. Although manufacturers collect consumer data in order to provide better products and services, trust and transparency are critical to manufacturers and users of their smart devices.
In general, whether it is machine learning or artificial intelligence, smart home systems have become more and more popular and more popular. They make home automation more adaptable to the environment. For example, the voice control system (Amazon Echo or Google Home) can learn and personalize the smart home according to the preference and mode of the head of the household. Some experts estimate that by 2020, 4.77 billion smart home devices will be put into use worldwide. It can be said that the prospects of this field cannot be underestimated.