Connecting everything and anything

The ‘internet of things’ could be the biggest home innovation since the vacuum cleaner. Jennifer Rankin reports.

It is 2030. After a day of wrangling over a new EU reform treaty to help a newly enlarged Union cope with 35 member states, a European Commission official drives home. As he approaches his house on the outskirts of the independent city state of Brussels, he whips out his mobile phone, presses a button and opens the gates to his drive. Another button and he has unlocked the front door, turned on the light and put on the kettle. Perhaps the talks have been particularly stressful (the UK is threatening to veto the treaty if it does not get its red lines). The stressed official presses another button on his phone, which will run him a bath and switch on an electric blanket.

Predicting the future is always a risky business, but some innovation enthusiasts think this is more than just a science-fiction fantasy. This scenario (free of European connotations) was one of the ideas presented at a Smart Home show earlier this year, a UK exhibition where businesses try to lure high-spending early adopters to part with their cash.

Not all the ideas were as outlandish as the omnipotent mobile phone that controls a home; for instance, one firm offered speakers that can be painted or decorated over. But a cluster of new ‘intelligent gadgets’ have led many pundits to talk excitedly about an ‘internet of things’, where everyday objects can communicate with each other and take the strain out of everyday chores.

Joachim De Vos, director of business communications and IT at Living Tomorrow, a five-year exhibition project in Vilvoorde on the outskirts of Brussels, predicts that this so-called internet of things will be the biggest major change in the home in the next 50 years. He says that "everything will be intelligent and everything will be connected" through nanotechnology, embedded microphones and radio-frequency identification (RFID). Giving a simple example, he says that a pizza package will be able to communicate with the fridge to ‘tell’ it what the correct temperature for storage and best-before date is.

If this is correct, it should please more than the technophile crowd. Smart homes have the potential to save energy, improve home safety and monitor the health of vulnerable older people. For example, a smart washing machine would pick up RFID signals from the labelling in clothing and could instruct the machine the correct temperature to do the wash. Prototypes at Living Tomorrow suggest that this could cut water reduction by 30% and energy use by 40%. Other innovators have mooted zoned heating and ventilation controls that would ensure rooms are at the ideal temperature at the right time, while energy and water consumption would be constantly monitored to ensure conservation.

Other designs for a safer home include smoke detectors that call home owners to alert them to fire, as well as the traditional job of sounding the alarm. Smart delivery boxes could allow bulky packages to be left in a safe place when people are away from home. Manufacturers predict these could be on the market in less than ten years’ time.

Meanwhile, older people could find their bathrooms become an ante-chamber to the doctor’s waiting room. A combination of smart mirrors and toothbrushes could perform routine health checks. For example, a toothbrush could measure body temperature, blood pressure and heartbeat through sensors and send this information to a mirror, using radio signals. This data would then be sent to a doctor or nurse. These RFID breakthroughs could be only 10 to fifteen years away.

But all predictions should come with a big health warning. Five years ago many industry figures were talking up voice technology as the next big thing. People would shout at their TVs to change channels and order their lights to switch themselves off. But so far, people are happy to use remote controls and light switches. This technology has only taken off in a minor way, for instance very limited applications on mobile phones and in cars.

In a book published earlier this year, The Shock of the Old, David Edgerton, a historian, warns against an "innovation-centric account" of technology. He writes that society’s understanding of technology is easily distorted by innovation and novelty can be confused with value. De Vos acknowledges this point: "You can innovate a lot, but there is only one question that is important and that is it right for me…technology should be all about people and not just innovation for the sake of it."

The ‘internet of things’ could be the biggest home innovation since the vacuum cleaner. Jennifer Rankin reports.