Today, the smart home promises simplified daily life within everyone’s reach. Falling equipment costs and industry players’ efforts to ensure the interoperability of the systems on offer have intensified this democratisation.
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Smart homes
Once the preserve of seasoned consumers, home automation has become more understandable and accessible to the general public in recent years. Now connected, home automation has been able to modernise and renew itself under “the name Smart Home”.”
After a hesitant start, the smart home market is on the up. According to the report, it is expected to be worth more than 137 billion dollars by 2023, and the trend could well accelerate, driven by the rapid growth of another sector: smart speakers. After the release of Google Home in France last year, Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod are expected to follow in the spring of this year.
The Rise of the Smart Home
Smart thermostats, lighting control, lock and shutter control, alarm systems… The scope of smart home applications is considerable, and the benefits are numerous. The ease with which the connected home can be controlled via a mobile application or hub has been a major factor in French people’s enthusiasm for these technologies.
Among the connected solutions most popular with homeowners are intelligent heating solutions to optimise energy consumption and combat high heating bills and home security solutions that provide early warning and rapid intervention in suspicious events.
Voice control is the new engine of the Smart Home
These control interfaces are about to undergo a veritable revolution with the rise of voice-controlled smart speakers: artificial intelligence enters the home through the front door. By speaking directly to the onboard intelligence of their connected speaker, owners of this type of speaker can control their home by communicating with it. The speaker is able to decode voice commands and respond appropriately by analysing user habits.
After Google Home, available in France since the summer of 2017, the range of smart speakers is set to expand this year with the release of Amazon Echo and Apple Home’s HomePod. It’s still too early to predict which solutions will eventually dominate the French market. Still, their manufacturers, led by Amazon and Google, are waging a fierce war to impose their ecosystem.
Compatibility with the connected devices already in the home has yet to be clearly defined, which raises the question of how to harmonise all these connected devices. Even though most manufacturers are working to develop products compatible with each of the significant speaker brands, compatibility is sometimes limited to Google and Amazon models only. There may also be subtle differences in functionality between the same smart home device and one of the speakers. This is the case, for example, with certain LED light bulbs, which may be compatible with both Amazon Echo and Google Home, but only Google Home can change their colour, whereas Amazon Echo only allows you to turn lights on and off and dim them. Finally, controlling proprietary devices such as Google Chromecast or Amazon Fire TV via competing brands’ speakers is impossible.
Security remains the black spot of the IoT
With 8 billion connected objects circulating worldwide and several billion more expected to arrive on the market by 2020, security will undoubtedly become an increasingly central issue for manufacturers. For now, however, fear of piracy and concerns about data protection remain significant barriers to the mass adoption of smart home equipment. And rightly so: many everyday smart objects lack reliable protection and are particularly vulnerable to attack.
So, following simple rules to protect your smart home from intruders is essential.
For example, it’s best to buy connected devices from reputable brands, change the default usernames and passwords on your devices, and ensure you systematically carry out any updates offered, including fixes for security flaws. At the household level, it is advisable to equip yourself with a reliable router, secure your Wi-Fi connection by choosing a sophisticated password, hide your IP address, and back up your data anonymously in the cloud to make it unusable by a cyber attacker.
Then, once all is set up, you can fully enjoy your Smart Home benefits and chill at home with a nice cocktail tipped with some natural JustBob’s CBD oil!
