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Future home-movie nights may be set up by just the touch of a button. |
“Pressing on the light switch will automatically dim the lights, the shutters will come down and the home cinema will be turned on,” says Tobias Arns of German technology industry association Bitkom.
“Users will also be able to operate consumer-electronics devices, such as the TV, via their smartphone or tablet,” Arns forecasts.
A smart home like that - where devices in the home are intelligently networked together - is not too far in the future, many experts believe.
“Probably not in 2014, but no later than 2015, a breakthrough into the mass market can be expected,” said Arns.
According to forecasts, the European market for smart home solutions will expand two-and-a-half fold by 2017 to over 4bn euros ($5.5bn). In 2020 there will be nearly 50bn networked devices in use worldwide, the Bitkom expert predicts.
“The research is already very advanced,” says Dirk Timmermann, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Rostock in Germany. However, as things stand many devices would not be able to understand each other’s language.
“This is not a fundamental obstacle, there only needs to be an agreement on standards.”
What already functions well is a type of relatively simple device, such as wirelessly networked light bulbs and sockets, that can be turned on and off via the Internet. The sockets can be plugged into a standard wall outlet and connected to the house’s internet router.
“All electrical devices that are connected to such a socket can then be turned on and off from anywhere via a browser or smartphone,” Arns said. In addition the user can create a schedule to have lights and electrical devices come on at a certain time.
“Some of these wireless sockets have temperature sensors or know the sunrise and sunset times, so this data can trigger the on-off switch.”
LED lights can function similarly, with some offering different lighting scenarios depending on brightness, light colour and the type of space to be lit.