Smart home infrastructure is becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives thanks to advances in smart, connected technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT). Millions of our homes, much of our public infrastructure and many of the places we work are becoming more and more intelligent and automated, which has led to the rise of what have become known as smart homes and smart cities.
Smart homes are defined by their use of internet-connected technologies such as smartphones, remote sensors and other IoT devices to enable remote management and monitoring of many home appliances and utilities. From smart meters to automated lights and personal assistants, there are a growing number of applications for connected technologies within the home and many new homes are now built with a smart home framework.
One of the biggest benefits to smart home owners is how customizable IoT devices can be as well as how they can be used to help monitor and reduce both heat and electrical consumption. In this article, we’ll be detailing our list of five Internet of Things devices you’re likely to find in your next smart home.
5 Internet of Things Devices You’ll Find in Your Next Smart Home
Within our list we’ve included some of the most popular smart home technologies and devices available on the market today, however, smart homes possess a lot of potential for the development of even more advanced systems and applications in the not-too-distant future, perhaps with further integration of other technologies such as edge computing or artificial intelligence (AI).
1) Door Locks
Unfortunately, crimes such as burglary and theft can happen to anyone, and so one of the most popular smart home technologies are connected door locks. One of the biggest selling points for smart door locks is their ability to allow you to lock your home from anywhere using a smartphone app.
Tired of fumbling for your keys in the rain? You could unlock your home before you’re even out of the car using smart locks. Internet-connected smart locks provide an enhanced level of access control to users by giving them the ability to unlock their home from their office to allow friends or relatives inside, or just ensure they didn’t forget to lock the house on their way out that morning.
2) Smart Heating
Smart heating systems are a great way of ensuring your home’s heating bills aren’t hitting the roof. By monitoring your usage and notifying users when they could potentially be using less heating, many smart heating systems are able to bring in savings in certain areas. It’s also nice to be able to come home to a warm apartment after a day’s work with a few swipes of a smartphone app.
Other more advanced smart heating systems such as NEST can also be used as a smoke detectors and security cameras, helping them to provide an additional layer of built-in home security to their smart heating systems.
3) Smart Gardening
While many Internet of Things devices are located inside the home, the garden has not been forgotten in this era of ever-increasing connectivity. Smart gardening has becoming a thriving area of the smart home with automated, remote-controlled sprinkler systems, robot lawnmowers and various other garden-focused IoT applications currently available and many more likely in the future.
IoT sensors allow smart gardening systems to automate whether to increase or decrease water supply or even collect data on incoming weather patterns to determine the most suitable course of action. These systems can also be remotely controlled and customized by users to suit their requirements.
4) Video Doorbells
Another one of the more popular IoT smart home devices is that of video doorbells which allow users to receive video calls from their doorbells when someone is at their door. These appliances can also allow users to unlock and allow access to their homes remotely from smartphone apps.
One of the added security bonuses to video doorbells is that they are also able to notify home owners when someone is loitering near their property, without them having to push a button on the doorbell itself. You can even set some systems not to ring at specific times of day or during periods where It would be inconvenient.
5) Personal Assistants
Smart phone assistants have been around for a few years, now, these systems are becoming increasingly common around the house with Amazon’s Echo boasting the latest version of popular personal assistant Alexa. With automation technologies becoming both increasingly advanced and commonplace, we could soon see smart homes that could potentially be operated virtually entirely by voice activation or controlled using a personal assistant such as Alexa.
As our world continues to become increasingly connected and automated, the amount of data available for harvesting by personal assistants has grown inexplicably. We could soon come to a point where, by using technologies such as AI or machine learning, that data could be utilized in a way which far outreaches anything currently available on the market.
