The Final Statement (Updated)
An intelligent house is a house that automatically programs itself, by observing the inhabitants, in search for patterns. After the pattern is found the house then starts performing the activities automatically every time the pattern is noticed again.With the rapid advancement in the field of science and technology, we encounter new and creative innovations every day. This is even more prominent in the field of computers and electronics. Every year, electronic devices are being more advanced and computers more powerful. They are capable of doing things never before possible. Computers are being integrated into ever more devices around us. Wrist watches, phones, ATMs, radios, TVs, even toys and musical instruments are becoming more intelligent due to integration of computers into them. But what about something that is very close to us, our house, are they becoming intelligent as well? This blog was maintained to help us answer this question. The most intuitive answer to this question, solely based on current trend would be “yes”, so the initial statement was chosen to be “Intelligent houses are going to change the way we live”. The goal of this investigation was to see if this statement was true or false.
What is a Smart House?
When we take a look around our own house, we find intelligence at every corner. In TVs, refrigerators, Computers etc. but yet these are all isolated devices and they function independently. A smart house on the other hand can control these devices and make decisions on its own. A smart house is any house that exhibits certain degree of automation and intelligence, like opening or closing the doors, turning the lights on/off etc. Or the houses that show more complex behavior. These are the houses that automatically program themselves by observing the inhabitants in search for patterns. After the pattern is found the house then starts performing the activities automatically every time the pattern is noticed again. According to a research paper named “Engineering Smart Houses” by Boguslaw Pilich http://aasiz.blogspot.com/2010/02/engineering-smart-houses.html , Smart houses can be divided into three distinct categories based on varying degree of intelligence.
· Controllable house
· Programmable house
· Intelligent house
The Controllable houses are the houses that controls different aspects of the house by using different sensor and centralized control panels. Programmable houses are preprogrammed so that the house can show desired behavior. All the functions are preprogrammed so these houses are usually not able to “learn from their experiences. The intelligent houses on the other hand are houses that can “learn” by observing the behaviors of its inhabitants.
But where are these houses?
So, all the electronic gadgets and home appliances are getting more and more intelligent, but even with so much research (and achievement) in these fields, we don’t see our houses getting smarter. We don’t find a house that greets us when we get home, any where in the neighborhood. So, is it a science fiction? Well, it is not. Even though the areas of computers and electronics have matured, the field of home automation is still at its infancy. But there are large numbers of research going on in this area. And many prototype houses have been made all over the world. Reference to few of them have been made in the blog.
So, why is the evolution in the field of home automation lagging behind?
The main reason is the nature of the field itself. Unlike all the popular electronic products in the market, a company can not simply produce a “smart house”. In other word, there is no general solution that meets every one’s needs. Home appliance, electronic gadgets or even vehicles have a very similar production process. They are designed once and then mass produced and marketed all over the world. But a house is a personalized place and people living in them have different behavior or life styles. A house programmed to suit one family might not be comfortable for other families. So the smart house technologies has to be very flexible so that it can be applied to different types of houses with different numbers of inhabitants and with different home appliances in them. But current solutions are very specific to the users and houses, Due to this fact; the cost of designing a smart house is very high. So, ordinary people can not afford to convert their houses into a smart one.
Another reason for the slow adoption of this field is the difficulty in installation and upgrading these systems. The system needs to be part of the construction-skeleton of the house (eg. hidden in the walls) . This makes the installation/upgrading of such a system in an existing house difficult and expensive.
Existing home automation system are more like a gadget, they increase the comfort level a little bit, but are not always user-friendly for everyone in the family. Thus, many people compare 'added value versus cost' and conclude that it is not worth the money.
Apart from this, there is also security concerns about these houses. Having a computer controlled house also means that it is vulnerable to hackers and software bugs. If the system is connected to the internet, it is theoretically possible to control the house appliances from any where in the world. While, having the lights and TV turn on/off by it self may be a good way to scare the children, it will certainly not be a pleasant experience for the house owner. Also, people might also have a 'big brother is watching me' kind-of feeling when all their moves are being monitored by a computer.
Never-the-less we can still see signs of intelligence even in the houses today. Automated doors, sensor controlled lightings, cooking appliances with timers; these are not the thing of the past, they are all around us right now, and they all show primitive form of intelligence. So, there is a definite sign that houses are slowly evolving.
But, do people really need smart houses?
Well, this is like asking “Do people need iPad?” they can surely live without them. But humans are hungry for new technology, and anything that makes their life easy, they will adopt and accept. A smart house definitely promises to make lives of its inhabitants easier. With time, our lives are becoming busier every day. In today’s corporate world no other resource is more valuable than human resource. People are required to do ever more tasks in ever less time. The result is that people look for solutions that either makes them more efficient at doing the task or that relieve them completely from doing the task. This trend is most prominent in factories, where man powers are being replaced by automated robots. But there is no doubt that it can also be seen in our daily lives as well. So people would definitely accept a helping hand, be it in form of a house maid or a smart house. Yet there are more subtle advantages of smart houses. In one of the blog post we saw how a prototype smart house can help people with dementia in their day to day life http://aasiz.blogspot.com/2010/01/smart-houses-helps-people-with-dementia.html . This is not only limited to people with dementia, people with various forms of disabilities can benefit form the smart houses. It even promises to make lives of elderly people easier.
Apart from this, smart houses also show great potential to help reduce the energy problem that we are facing today. One of the features of smart houses is to make sure that the resources being consumed in the house is not being wasted. It can help us monitor and use the resources like water, gas and electricity more efficiently. For example, a smart house that is aware of human presence in the house can automatically turn on/off the heating system as required. It may also control lightings and other appliances accordingly. This feature prevents a huge amount of energy from being wasted every day. Problems that we are facing today, like global warming and energy crisis are of big concern. These problems are very likely to push the research in the field of home automation.
Will we see smart houses in near future?
The field of home automation is partly fueled by advancement in other technology too. Advancement in computers and programming techniques like artificial neural networks has brought home automation into a whole new era. Technologies like Bluetooth and Zigbee make it more convenient to make the sensor networks. Fast internet connections make it possible to control and monitor a smart house from any corner of the world. Smart devices like plugwise http://www.plugwise.com offers easy control of household devices. Many researches are being conducted in this field. There are new companies emerging that promise to offer comfortable smart houses in near future. While it is difficult to answer “when we will have smart houses widely available?” based on the trend in research and technologies we can say that we are moving towards the direction of intelligent houses.
So, will intelligent houses change the way we live?
To answer this final question we have to look at the evidence from other technological products. The inventions such as TV, radios and vehicles have made a huge impact on human society. They have all changed certain aspects of our life. Even minor technological products like mp3 players and ipod have changed how we consume music. Thus, advancement in Home automation is certainly going to change some aspect of our lives. But, unlike other products this change is not going to be sharp. It is very unlikely that houses are going to be “smart” over night. It is a gradual and slow process. As the technologies surrounding this field advances, so will the “intelligence” of a smart house. And as our houses get smarter, we will learn to live accordingly.
Ashish Vaidya
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