by Aman Gupta | Photo credits: Hanman International Pte Ltd | __ March 2015
For the last two decades, there have been giant leaps in the fields of networks and connectivity: where once we got excited looking at a 256Kbps LAN connection, today we cringe if our Wi-Fi is giving us speeds of less than 4Mbps. The Internet has grown tremendously—we are switching from IPv4 to IPv6 to accommodate the growing number of websites, laptops, and people on the Internet, but it is not just these three things we will have to accommodate in the future. Currently, we already have more “things” than people on the Internet, and by 2020, there will be over 50 billion devices connected to the Internet.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the future, welcome to the Internet of Things! To give you a glimpse into the future, we will talk about some everyday appliances that are now connected to the Internet to create the smart home of tomorrow.
Apple HomeKit
At the last WWDC, Apple rolled out HomeKit along with the preview of the iOS 8. HomeKit is a platform by Apple for developers to make iOS apps that facilitate and manage the functioning of everyday home appliances using one’s mobile phone. Lighting bulb giant Phillips and smart-door locks geniuses August have already teamed up with Apple, and smart products are slowly being churned out of their factories. Moreover, Apple has integrated Siri with the HomeKit, thus eliminating the need to even tap the touch-screen in order to switch off the lights of the room making an iPhone the only remote you will ever need in the home of tomorrow.
Nest Thermostat and Nest Protect
When we are discussing Internet of Things, Nest Labs – now a subsidiary of Google – cannot go unspoken of; unlike the rest of the products or firms we are discussing here, Nest Labs has churned out only two products but they have already taken over the world.
Let us first talk about the Nest Thermostat, which guarantees a decrease in energy consumption by 20%. The thermostat learns your schedule and has clever features such as “Auto-Away” that lower the house temperature (and save energy while you are away). The Nest Thermostat also comes with a companion app that informs you about how much energy you have saved by adjusting the temperature and within a week or two, you will never even have to change the thermostat since it has acquired information to make the adjustments for you. There are rewards called Nest Leaf for making energy-saving adjustments to your home temperatures that show up on your Monthly Energy Report.
Nest’s other product, Nest Protect is a smoke sensor that is less annoying than the ones we live with these days. It connects to your Nest Thermostat so in case of fires, the Thermostat shuts off the furnace gas automatically. Nest Protect informs you about the location and type of issue in a room using a friendly voice, instead of an annoying beep. It will then send notifications to your phone if you are away and something is wrong back home. Even colour-less, odourless, deadly, Carbon Monoxide cannot escape its sight.
Belkin WeMo
WeMo is an app, as well as a range of products and solutions by Belkin that work together using Wi-Fi or 3G Internet to create a home for tomorrow. WeMo’s best product has to be the WeMo’s Insight Switch. With these smart plugs, you can basically connect any device to the Internet; they can be switched on/off over the Internet. Even antique lamps or turn-tables can be controlled remotely if they are plugged into these Insight Switches. Moreover, the insight switches send notifications to your mobile phone about how much energy your device is consuming, giving you the control of your carbon-footprint. WeMo is also connected to IFTTT’s DO and IF apps taking automation to a whole new level; the IF app lets you “Switch on the WeMo Light Switch IF the Sun Sets” and with the DO app, you can create recipes to turn on the Optimal Brew Coffee Maker at a touch of a button.
Samsung Smart Home Solution
Samsung appliances already crowd our homes, so it is only appropriate for the company to venture into Smart Home Solutions and that, it has. Samsung is taking out several products particularly in the smart-home security arena that constantly keep you aware of what is happening at home even while you are on a different continent! Their range of IoT products includes CCTV cameras, door-locks, intruder detection systems, gas-leak sensors, among other things providing every paranoid mother mental satisfaction especially when the teenagers are home alone. It goes without saying that simple things such as turning on the air-conditioner or resetting the boiler temperature are now at your fingertips. However, the security solutions that Samsung is providing are impressive to say the least.
Long ago we envisioned our furniture and homes to be responsive to our commands and habits; now technology has turned fiction into reality. As with all advancing technology, we are excited to see where the Internet of Things will take us. Let us know what else you would want to include in the IoT!
Aman Gupta
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