The internet of things is most of the present and almost the entire future. The internet of things is growing, and present trends indicate it will touch $11.1 trillion by 2025. Home automation using the internet of things is known as smart homes. It all began very innocently in the 1980s when homes with remote controls for tv sets, air conditioners, and garage doors were considered to be smart homes.
Today this means much more. The internet of things means that all appliances, vehicles, devices in a home are connected to the internet and are learning from the preferences and trends of the members of the home and then perform in ways even exceeding customer expectations. Taking the basic example of the house cooling or heating, the appliances learn preferences from initial data and then go on to adjust temperature settings after locating the presence of people in a particular location. This also saves on energy in a big way.
How Is IoT Used In Home Automation?
There is no need for any adjustment. The algorithms used in the system adjust the settings of even a microwave oven. Future appliances could be seen without any control panel at all. For instance, a smart refrigerator can be told to increase ice production just before a party and while a party is still in progress.
The best benefit of the internet of things at home is the huge reduction in utility consumption. Most people overheat and overcome their devices. They forget to turn off lights when leaving a room and appliances after their use. The internet of things allows people to study the energy consumption of their individual appliances and gadgets and they, in turn, learn their usage trends and they turn themselves on and off automatically.
Smart home devices today detect sudden power surges, increase or decrease in outside temperature, detect gas and water leaks and even warn about a sudden surge in pollution which serves as an early warning to a catastrophe. Security is an area of great concern and security systems today are controlled by a unique IP address and have several features such as face and voice recognition. Security systems also incorporate smart locks that connect to wi-fi as well as blue tooth.
One of the biggest challenges today in home automation is to cross-connect appliances and get them to communicate with each other. Many appliance and device manufacturing companies have understood this problem and are working with each other towards the interoperability of their systems. For instance, a cam view doorbell from Ring’s can now be connected to several brands of smart locks. The problem of cross connectivity or cross operability of several gadgets has been solved to a large extent by voice commands. Most home appliances and gadgets have been configured to obey voice commands from Alexa and Google Home. This eliminates the need to have multiple complex operating and controlling systems.
There are several new types of gadgets to make home automation even more comfortable as well as manageable. There are magnetic sensor strips that can be attached to a door or a window and they will be sensed by multiple devices around the smart home. These strips can then be taught to detect leakages, any unusual activity in the windows, or even if the backdoor is open when it isn’t supposed to be.
The next innovation is the power control telemetry system which works both ways. It helps track individual sockets and monitor power consumption for better control. Electricity companies, in turn, get to know how consumers are consuming electricity and this helps them to design price structures accordingly.
There are now devices such as Ossia’s Cota that have further solved the problem of the interconnectivity of devices within a smart home and connect all smart appliances and objects into one environment. Solar power surfaces install sensors and allow windows, tables, rooftops and glass surfaces, and even the tops of devices to become self-charging devices and they can be detached from the electricity grid and save power for the home.
The internet of things is improving by the day. Machine. Learning, artificial intelligence has got together with the internet of things to make the present and the future of home automation a perk to enjoy comfortable and smart living. There is still a long way to go and lots of possibilities for the growth of IoT and its implementation into our lives and the sure, the future would be here sooner than expected.