Gadget makers aim to add intelligence to the grand plans for smarter homes

Picture the scene: as you make your way home, laden down with shopping for the evening meal, your house senses your approach, turns on the lights and automatically unlocks the door as you reach it. By the time you reach the kitchen to prepare food, the oven has already begun to preheat, based on the recipe you chose while you were in the shop picking up ingredients.

Your home heating system switched itself on half an hour before you came home to make sure that the house was at your preferred temperature.

And when you go to bed tonight, your bed will adjust itself to make sure you get a good night’s sleep, ready to face the day tomorrow fully rested.

With the internet of things and the smart home, that scene may not be so far away. In fact, some of this technology is already available. Nest’s smart thermostat learns from your daily routine to control your heating; geofencing for smart lighting systems such as Philips Hue will sense when you reach a certain radius and switch on the lights. Meanwhile, smart locks such as the August Smart Lock will replace your keys and allow you to gain access to your home through your smartphone.

In recent months, there has been an explosion of devices that are connected to the internet, all masquerading as “smart”. There are some devices you’d be forgiven for wondering exactly where the “smart” starts – a so-called smart belt that tightens and loosens itself automatically, a bluetooth enabled baby soother and a pet tracker that will let you monitor your pet’s activity throughout the day, for example.

Different terminology

If there is one thing that we are learning as we go along, it’s that they aren’t always the same. “It’s the incorrect use of the word ‘smart’,” says Panasonic’s sales director for

Ireland

Tony Duggan

. “People say connected as smart. Connected is connected; smart is when it starts to add real value or benefit. Maybe as an industry it’s time we started thinking about different terminologies. There’s been a huge rush to put a wifi chip in everything you bring to market; what are you going to do with it?”

Panasonic is taking its time on the smart home. The company, which recently held its annual Panasonic Convention in Frankfurt, is looking for the right solution to bring to customers, rather than simply making all its appliances and electronics connected.

"It's about what kind of benefit it can brings to customers. I think just connecting devices doesn't make sense," says Michikazu Matsushita, managing director for Panasonic Consumer Marketing Europe. "As a company, this area is where we we want to expand and grow."

As part of its investigations, Panasonic is one of 18 companies that is backing the Fujisawasst smart town in Japan. The town, which currently has about 100 families living in it, is designed to be self-sufficient, energy efficient and foster smart lifestyles. That can be anything from creating a sense of community to using technology in the home to take over certain tasks.

But what about consumers in the rest of the world? While there are plenty of technologies out there to help guide the way to the smart home, the truth is, it can be a bit overwhelming.

The smart home, if it is to be successful, needs to be relevant to consumers.

"Is it something you are going to use once? How many apps have you got on your phone that you've used once?" says Panasonic Ireland's managing director Andrew Denham. "It's about proof of does it add value and enrich my life. The smart home product is about finding those unique opportunities. Everyone is a bit different in how they are going to use it. We want to spend the next few years really understanding and unlocking the potential."

Among the more useful items that have become connected to the internet is home security. At CES in January, Belkin showed off its new home sensors that would allow people to build their own home security system, from motion sensors to cameras.

Panasonic is also getting in on the act, with a home hub that can be connected to sensors on windows, doors and other entry points. That could trigger an alarm, connected to your smartphone, if there is unauthorised entry to your home, or be used to automatically turn on lights when you arrive home. CCTV cameras both inside and outside the home keep a close eye on what is going on while you aren't there, giving you peace of mind. However, there are no firm plans yet to release the system in Ireland. One area where consumers are seeing a lot of change is in the TV sector. In the coming months, the smart TV sector will see some change as manufacturers move their platforms to more open-source systems. While Sony announced at CES it would be adopting the Android TV platform, Panasonic has opted for Firefox, a "fitting" system for ts smart TV concept, Matsushita says.

‘Copy and paste’

Android is well known among consumers, he acknowledged, but Firefox offers its customers a seamless experience. It also differentiates Panasonic from its rivals, avoiding a “copy and paste” approach.

“We have to bring some unique technology in our products, also design,” says Matsushita.

But companies are facing new challenges in this sector. With the new level of connection comes a massive amount of data. And with that data comes responsibility. Samsung recently found itself in the spotlight over fears that its smart TVs were recording private communications and conversations and sending them unencrypted to a third party.

The controversy blew up thanks to the wording of the Korean company’s own privacy policy, but it has since moved to dispel the concerns, claiming the feature was only for use with TV commands, and could be switched off.

It’s not the first TV maker to be hit by privacy concerns. LG has also fallen foul of it, when it was discovered that its TVs were collecting data on viewing habits without users’ knowledge. That was solved with a subsequent update, but it’s not hard to see why consumers would be concerned about what technology they are installing in their living room.

“Our philosophy and what the company stands for fits well with Firefox,” says Denham. “The cultures are very well lined up - security, speed, safety. All these aspects which have been in the press recently, they’re issues that we’ve been concerned about around the TV because the TV is at the heart of the home. It’s really important inside the home that you protect; it’s almost more important in the home than it is in the mobile space.”

Despite the adverse publicity, he doesn’t think it will affect the progress of the smart home.

“The march of smart is happening and it’s happening on every mobile phone you have, every device you have,” he says. “It will allow a dialogue around that whole issue. I think it’s a welcome one and one we need to be having.”

Regardless of the individual companies’ strategies, it’s clear that there is a lot of scope for the development of the smart home; the successful ones, however, will be the companies that make smart products that work for consumers.

“For me it’s the internet of things that matter,” said Denham.