Published: 17 October 2014
Category: Industry News
The rise in smart home systems and devices connected by the Internet of Things has been dramatic.
A few products have helped spark interest in the category, in particular devices like the Nest thermostat and Dropcam security camera. These products have increased awareness in home automation. Their ability to integrate a good piece of hardware with an easy-to-use app has shown people that home automation is within everyone’s reach.
However, most of these devices, and the simple do-it-yourself systems that are also hitting the market these days, don’t offer the complete integration that a true custom home automation system does. Home automation is more than the ability to tap an app on a smartphone to turn on a light. That’s a nice feature, to be sure, but it’s only the beginning of what a real system can do. Most of the simple, off-the-shelf devices fall more into the category of cloud control than home automation.
The first thing to understand is that while many of the new smart devices are effective and fun to use, they’re not an integrated system. A smart thermostat on its own is still just a thermostat. It may let you adjust the temperature from your iPhone, but it doesn’t know that you left your window shades open or that the security system is disarmed.
Another issue that some consumers face when they start adding multiple Internet of Things devices to their homes is that pretty soon they’ve got a phone or tablet filled with individual apps, each one capable of interacting with only one device. That's the smartphone equivalent of having a basket full of remotes to run your home’s audio/video system.
As appealing as it sounds to simply use an app to control the lights, another for the thermostat, and an app to operate the audio system, it’s far from being a perfect solution. For starters, it can be rather inefficient and awkward, requiring a user to launch one app to control a certain device, back out of that app then launch another app to control something else, and so on. Also, because each app was designed by a different manufacturer, you’ll be dealing with inconsistencies in the layout and look of the individual control menus and icons.
A fully programmed custom home automation system is integrated in several ways. First, all the electronic systems in your house (heating and air conditioning, security, lighting, music distribution) can all be connected and powered by one central processor. The automation system knows the status of your home and how each system fits into the whole. With very simple interaction, you can be assured that all your home's subsystems are performing their tasks and responding to each other.
The thing that makes a smart home smart isn’t that you can turn on lights or operate your music through and app, it’s that the home system is 100 percent integrated, personalized and intuitive. Just as a well-designed home automation system is fully integrated, so is the control interface for that system. That interface—the devices you use to access the system—can be any combination of smartphone apps, keypads, touchpanels and handheld remotes. A fully thought-out system offers multiple ways to interact with it, not just one. For example, your smartphone may be the perfect
device for shutting off all the house lights when you’re settled down in bed, but when you walk into the kitchen it may be easier to tap a wall-mounted keypad or touchpanel rather than reach into your pocket for your phone. Good systems don’t make you rely on only one form of control. They’re tailored to your needs, rather than the other way around.
Further, an integrated system will use an integrated interface on your smartphone or tablet, so you’re not opening and closing different apps to interact with your house. One main benefit of a consistent user interface is that all the controls look similar so you only have to learn one method and one set of menus.
