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| What Will Smart Homes Look Like 10 Years From Now? (Time) |
Smart homes are likely to become more and more common in the future. We already have the ability to control many aspects of our homes on our phones, such as light bulbs, home security systems, and thermostats. This has the potential to make life easier for all of us, but especially for disabled users. The ability to do things like close the blinds, change the temperature, and lock your doors from your phone or with spoken commands could be life changing for those who find the fine motor skills required for these everyday tasks difficult, increasing independence and making day to day life simpler for many.
I also think the potential for making your home more environmentally friendly is really interesting, as smart lightbulbs and heating/cooling systems will likely decrease energy usage by increasing the precision of these systems- only heating rooms currently in use, automatically turning lights off when we leave a room, etc. This will increase energy efficiency and save user's money in the long run, as well as decreasing the environmental footprint of their homes.
The increasing presence of the Internet of Things definitely comes with privacy and security concerns, but it also has the potential to make life easier and more efficient for all of us.
I enjoyed this post a lot because of the angles you looked at your subject with. I had never thought about the access qualities that technology like this could provide for those who have disabilities, so thank you for enlightening me to that aspect. I do agree that these technologies are efficient and helpful to the environment by regulating our electricity and natural gas usage, but I'm also just on of those conspiracy theorists who thinks the FBI is listening and using my computer camera to spy on me (Why me? Not sure, but they're after me) so I get the skeevies thinking of a system literally hooked up to my entire home that can also listen to me 24/7. Guess it is just not for me, but maybe future me will think differently. Great post!
ReplyDeleteYou brought up a lot of good points about the benefits of moving into a smart home. I think you're right that the potential for the disabled and being more green will boost the importance of making this change. A lot of times just seeing how Alexas are being used against the users gives a very negative impression of the future of smart homes, but I think in time the tech will win us over because the benefits greatly outweigh the negatives for most people. Although, of course, privacy must be considered through all these changes.
ReplyDelete-Ashley Krattiger