The Introduction To Smart Home Technologies

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

The concept of Smart Home Technology has been here for a while; the main idea is to introduce networking devices and equipments in the house. "According to the Smart Homes Association the best definition of smart home technology is: the integration of technology and services through home networking for a better quality of living." (Rosslin John Robles, 2010) . Many tools of computer systems are also integrated in Smart Home Systems.

Table of Contents

Introduction to Smart Home Technologies

Smart Home is collaboration of technology and services through a network for better quality living. A smart home allows the entire home to be automated and therefore provide ease and convenience to everyday activities in the home. This technology is used to make all electronic devices to act ‘smart’. In the near future almost all the electronic devices will take advantage of this technology through home networks and the internet. Many people think this technology as pure networking. Others think this technology will reduce their work load, but smart home technology is combination of both and much more. Smart home technology is currently being implemented for entire house in particularly kitchen and living room. Basically, smart home facilitates users with security, comfortable living and energy management features as well as added benefits for disabled individuals.

This technology might sound new but it just uses the existing technologies. A smart device is a common appliance with a much more complex computer installed to give it more functionality. These functions are the ones which makes it so different. Cable broadband, DSL, Bluetooth and wireless technologies provide a way to have a home networked for devices to communicate with each other as well as internet. These technologies either wired or wireless provide foundation on which smart home will operate.

The research standards have already anticipated a smart, connected home where multiple devices cooperate to pamper to users wishes with little or no effort. For example, in a home with remotely controllable lights, cameras and locks, it should be easy to automatically alter lights based on the weather and time of day as well as remotely view who is at the door before unlocking it. But such straight forward home-wide tasks are remarkably unavailable from the mainstream despite the fact that the needed hardware devices (such as wireless light switches, door locks, and cameras) are reasonably priced. Many analysts predict that the smart home of the future is likely to contain 15 to 30 connected devices and sensors, all linked via a home area network and connected to the Internet. The collective revenue generated from home automation and home energy management (HEM) segments will be worth more than $44bn in 2016, according to the predication made from market analyst companies ABI and Berg Insight. The comprehensive revenue possible of the smart home, however, will be somewhat on a higher side as devices from the entertainment, health and home security sectors will also become connected.

Evolution of smart homes:

The full vision of smart home services will be realized in progressive stages. At present, embedded connectivity is a novelty in a few high-end home devices. At some point in the future, connectivity will be pervasive and a feature of virtually all household devices. Smart home services will go through at least three distinct stages of market evolution as illustrated below:

Stage 1 - Connected Standalone Devices

Stage 2 - Connected Service Silos

Stage 3 - Integrated Smart Home

These stages are not necessarily consecutive. In some areas, such as home automation, suppliers are already linking multiple connected devices to deliver solutions in vendor specific silos. New and potential market entrants can nevertheless map their strategies to several notable characteristics of each stage.

These stages are not necessarily consecutive. In some areas, such as home automation, suppliers are already linking multiple connected devices to deliver solutions in vendor specific silos. New and potential market entrants can nevertheless map their strategies to several notable characteristics of each stage.

Stage 1 – Connected Standalone Devices

The main characteristics of this stage include:

Connectivity of various standalone devices to the service provider’s back-end systems and the Internet;

A separate control and interface function for different devices.

There will be many cases where monitoring and control of standalone devices will be the end-game: For example, there may be limited demand for relatively expensive HEM systems in emerging markets, so utilities companies will push ahead installing smart meters and potentially using these for a variation of demand response and demand side management services. Some utilities companies are reluctant to allow inter-connection between their smart meters and consumer-controlled devices, choosing to restrict access to the smart metering data. Similarly, regulatory restrictions for some health monitoring devices will not allow them to be connected to other home systems. But a majority of smart home vertical solutions would benefit from being inter-connected.

Stage 2 – Connected Service Silos

The main characteristics of this stage include:

Device connectivity and data management via dedicated control hubs, separate for each vertical;

A relatively-sophisticated range of service capabilities due to data sharing and limited point-to-point connectivity between devices.

At this stage, a wide variety of devices, spanning entertainment, energy management, security, health and wellness, in the household will include some level of IT capability designed to support smart services. Some of these devices will have complementary functions, making a strong case for the convergence of smart home services. As they use a growing number of connected services, consumers will value being able to use a single "My Home" place to view the performance of and control their home devices. Tighter integration will also potentially enable enhanced functionality: For example, an assisted living service could integrate data gathered from remote medical sensors with the readings from utility appliances for enhanced care management. Similarly, service providers may desire to economize on connected hardware or to enable better information integration to deliver new services or an enhanced user experience. Historically, consumers have been reluctant to pay significant premium fees for home automation services. It will be crucial to find a service "leader" for the smart home, which will create an end-user pull for other services. Among the most likely candidates for such service leaders are broadband and security services. Home security monitoring is already bundled with home energy services as part of home control and monitoring packages. Broadband service providers, on the other hand, are exploring the concept of a partitioned home gateway, which can offer broadband internet connectivity to end-users, and allow a utility provider to use the same hub to deliver home energy management services.

Stage 3: Integrated Smart Home

The main characteristics of this stage:

Sharing of data between different smart home devices and systems;

Existence of a single mobile-enabled home gateway or integration point as a platform for supporting different smart home applications.

The key feature of this stage is the creation of an environment where data from different application areas can be integrated to deliver a richer set of smart home services. These may be application-oriented services such as comprehensive energy management. They may also be support services, such as a central point of control to define security and access control policies across multiple devices related to the home. It is increasingly apparent that fully-integrated smart home services can deliver a lot of value to consumers and businesses alike. They help deliver a higher quality of life for the former and make business operations more efficient for the latter. Alongside the many opportunities, however, there also remain several challenges to the emergence of an integrated smart home. New business models and cross-industry partnerships need to be developed and implemented; consumer benefits in the form of cost savings and personal privacy need to be articulated in a manner that gains their trust; and, technical standards need to be designed to encourage interoperable and scalable solutions.

Many of these challenges can be addressed by organisations in the mobile sector working with companies from each of four key adjacent industries: utilities, home security, mobile health and entertainment. Mobile connectivity has a pivotal role to play in linking the devices and sensors within a home to the sophisticated data analytics systems and intelligent applications that service providers will create through cloud- or back-end systems. The remainder of this report discusses the issues that need to be addressed, current market developments and the GSMA’s plan of action to addresses the main challenges within its scope of influence.

Smart Homes Get Smarter as Utilities Join In

The move toward smart homes that are intensively networked and microprocessor-controlled got a small but important push in the U.K. last week. British Gas, one of the country's biggest gas suppliers, announced a partnership with AlertMe, a startup that specializes in remote home monitoring and energy management. AlertMe and its competitors offer customers a way to manage their home's energy consumption on the Web or from smartphone and tablet apps. 

The need to more effectively manage energy consumption is growing, and networked technology is uniquely equipped to help. AlertMe is partnering exclusively with British Gas for its Remote Heating Control service, which will be available to all of the utility company's 10 million customers. The new arrangement demonstrates that the smart home concept is spreading beyond forward-thinking startups and catching on with utility companies. 

For consumers, the most compelling advantage of this type of technology is the cost savings. Under the old system, homes were cooled and warmed inefficiently and at improper times, leading to wasted energy and money. Automated systems like those offered by AlertMe, Control4 and smart thermostat manufacturers like Nest allow residents to schedule their temperature-control regimen in advance or do so automatically based on their past habits. This has an immediate impact on home energy bills. If adopted on a large scale, it could have a broader environmental impact. 

Utility companies and tech startups aren't the only ones diving head-first into this space.Tech giants are getting in on the action as well. Google aims to weave Internet connectivity into a variety of household appliances with its Android@Home initiative. Meanwhile, Comcast's XFinity Home initiative is a partnership with Verizon to offer home automation services.  

AlertMe's solution is geared toward U.K. customers for now, but the company says it plans to launch a similar offering in the United States soon. 

Various Applications

Environment Based Application (King, 2003):

Lights are programmed in such a way that if nobody is at room it will switch of the lights automatically. And also can be used for special settings such as it creates an environment of theatre while watching a movie on the television and if it’s party time light will set to dim and creates an ambience for the particular situation just by a click of button. And if you forgot switch off the lights it will send a message to your cellular phone so that you can turn it off just by a click on your phone. Windows/Curtains are programmed in such a way that they close or open depending on the light/weather condition. This in turn helps in saving a lot of energy as in if sun is shining bright outside curtains opens and the lamps are turned off automatically. In order to maintain a particular temperature of water, heating of water is done automatically based on the needs as for taps, sinks and bathtubs etc a different temperature is maintained. Hands free taps so that no need to close the taps as well if forgot to close the there is no wastage as it turns off automatically if not in use. Even for air-conditioning temperature is set automatically based on the need as in how many people, room temperature etc.

Future demands on the electrical grid will encourage minute by minute home appliance management to prioritize energy services while delivering automatic savings to owners. Automatically synchronizing lighting, home appliances, climate control sensors and other home electronics minimizes energy use based on changing exterior conditions and usage patterns in the home. Smarter homes enhance consumers’ access to information, which enables better decision making, while raising overall societal benefit.

Security Based Application:

In a traditional home Fire/smoke detector are activated as soon as a fire is detected, but Smart home can do much better than the regular fire alarm system. It not only activates the alarm but also turns on light only in the safest route and guides the residents of house out, it will unlock the doors and windows for smoke ventilation, turn off all the appliances and dial to the nearest fire service station. Other than this video (CCTV) of the areas surrounding the house, window breakage alarms, when the last person of the house leaves it automatically locks all the doors and the windows.

Many insurers now offer discounts for existing centralized alarm services using sensors and cameras. The ability to deploy home sensors that can instantly notify the homeowner, selected neighbors, or the police and fire departments can enhance home security and provide peace of mind. These services can also empower

family members to remotely check on the safety of children and the well-being of elders.

Entertainment based applications:

The lavishness of the Internet is now available through the TV, which fundamentally shifts the definition of ‘content.’ Now consumer electronics companies can create open platforms for new lines of flat panel televisions that feature a portal which personalizes entertainment content from numerous broadcasters and movie studios. Over time, such devices might be subsidized by better targeted advertising, with a potential to share profits with other TV manufacturers with similar capabilities. This can lead to a win–win–win situation: reducing the number of commercials viewers have to watch, enabling broadcasters and advertisers to deliver more personalized entertainment options through targeted advertisements and giving TV manufacturers an opportunity to differentiate their products.

Health based applications:

A medical device maker designed embedded software that helps healthcare providers continuously monitor patients with implanted or other at-home medical devices without having hospitalization or office visits. Smarter home scales and sensors monitor fitness, well-being and consistent activities. These home health electronic devices can collect evaluative information about current health condition for disease prevention and overall wellness. Such devices may even be reimbursed in part or in full by insurance companies, government, or employers.

Other than this two main features there are several other features of smart home like for entertainment based applications, health based applications, domestic applications etc.

Structure and elements

In general the elements are divided into these parts (Toril Laberg, 2005):

• Sensors:

Sensors are used for checking continuously and giving the messages to central unit in case of changes in the surrounding area. For example movement of human or an object, heat sensors, humidity sensors, thermometers and smoke detectors etc.

• Actuators:

Actuators perform a physical action. Examples are doors, windows, window curtains, garage door openers, automatic light switches etc. And many other components of environment control systems are actuators.

• Controllers:

Controller takes decisions based on predefined rules. Controllers are microprocessor consisting of both sensors and actuators. For example certain values are recorded by the sensors, on which some calculations are done and the result of which is in turn given to the actuators, which in turn performs certain action to achieve a desired result.

• Central unit:

All units using decentralized bus system have their own microcontroller. So basically there is not much need of a central unit but however it is useful for rendering possible programming of units in the system. Some unit have their own central units rest others use a PC with some additional software.

• Networks:

Networks are used as the communication channel which is either wired or wireless which is used for interaction between two devices or with the surroundings. In Bus based networks all the devices in home can receive the message transmitted by a single device. As the message contains the address of the receiver, as soon as device comes to know that the message is for it, it reacts to the content of the message.

The network is the transmitter of the signals in the system. The most

used transmitters are signal cable (twisted pair), strong current cable

(power line), radio signals (RF) and to some extent lights (IR or optical

fibres). All modern smart home systems has a bus-based network.

In a bus-based net all the units in the system may read all the messages.

The messages include the address of the one or several units who are to receive the message. The system unit or units recognising their own

address react to the content of the message. A unit can receive a message

individually or as member of a group. Hence, in one case a message

can be submitted for one lamp to light, and in another case a message

for all lamps to light.

Bus standards

The units in the system must "speak the same language" in order to interact.

This implies the same standards regarding physical interfaces,

cabling, contacts, electrical current levels and in the structure of messages

to be interchanged. There are several standards both on the

physical and the logical level.

Open or proprietary standards

Producers of smart home equipment must choose the standards their

equipment are to follow. Some producers have made their own standards,

where one or a few suppliers own the rights and are the sole suppliers of

equipment for this standard. Such standards are called proprietary. By

choosing such systems the customer might be dependent of the supplier

for management, extensions and repairs of the system.

Other standards are developed through co-operation between the industry

and interested parties within the framework of public standardisation bodies.

These standards are accessible for all and are called open standards.

Systems based on open standards provide the customers with greater

freedom of choice in relation to suppliers, or in choosing another supplier

or service company.

By choosing equipment with proprietary solutions, one must either relate

to the sole supplier or "translate" between the standard used by the bus

system and the signalling system of the equipment. This usually implies

the installation of additional equipment to convert the signals. This might

be cost increasing, imply loss of functionality and impede maintenance.

Systems based on open standards are the most beneficial, because one

is in a better position to choose freely between equipment and service

suppliers.

The most relevant standards are:

EIB (European Installation Bus) is an open standard widely used in

Europe. All municipalities in our surveys used the EIB. EIB is available for

powerline (EIB.PL), signal cable (twisted pair: EIB.TP) and radio (EIB.RF).

EIB.TP is currently the most widely used in smart homes.

KNX is a new standard resulting from an amalgamation of three

European bus standards, with EIB being one of them. KNX is expected to

replace EIB in the near future. Today we refer to "EIB / KNX" as a common

term.

LON (Local Operating Network) is a proprietary standard, used for energy-

control, steering machinery and access control systems in industry

and larger buildings. The standard is mostly known for powerline signalling,

but also supports signal cables (twisted pair), coaxial cables, radio

and fibre optical transmission.

X10 is a standard for powerline signalling, widely used for management of

domestic electrical commodities, like lamps and radiators. It is also used

in environmental control systems in single houses. The protocol has a

small range of commands, limited to start and stop.

BACnet is a standard developed in the USA for the control of functions in

larger buildings, but has so far not been observed in European smart

homes. BACnet is supposed to easily communicate with the EIB.

Internet protocol (IP) is not used as a bus system, but is relevant for

communicating in and out of local networks during re-programming and

maintenance.

Networks based on the mentioned standards are able to communicate

with other systems, but the functionality in the interconnected system will

not be better than its weakest link. A standard called OPC (Open

Connectivity) describes the interface for interaction between networks with

different standards.

• Interface:

The user’s communication with the system is either through computers or by a remotely device such as mobile phone or a tablet.

Smart Home Services and Requirements

The addition of basic wireless connectivity to a device is typically a significant step

forward in product innovation. However, our long-term vision of smart home services

extends far beyond basic connectivity.

We believe that many product and service developers have yet to imagine the new kinds

of services that will appear in the future smart home. These will be enabled through the

adoption of interoperability standards, which will foster greater collaboration amongst

communications and service providers, utilities and health sector representatives

and also a new breed of service and technology providers with strong data analytics

capabilities.

Each of the different types of organisation will need to address a mix of technical,

operational and functional requirements, driven in part by the emergence of new

business models, partnering arrangements and regulatory factors. This chapter outlines

some of these key requirements in relation to future smart home services.

5.1. Smart home services

Smart home services must be designed to address the needs of the mass market

consumer: Affordability, reliability and usability. The production of large volumes of

devices will provide the economies of scale necessary to drive down equipment costs

and deliver affordable solutions; this has been repeatedly demonstrated over the history

of the mobile communications industry. This leaves two service requirements to be

addressed:

Usability – Usability will be a key attribute of intelligent services that make use of sensor data and

control connected devices, such as the supply of smart meter and sensor information to homeowners

to enable remote control of smart appliances and security systems, or the gathering and analysis

of data used in assisted-living applications. Many of these services will initially be delivered in silos,

independently of one another; over time, interoperability technologies and data aggregation capabilities

will allow more sophisticated services to be provided. Designers need to consider the user interface and

quality of integration across different silo functions. Of equal importance will be the consumer’s initial

experience of installing and configuring smart home devices: The economics of mass-market solutions

dictate that consumers will have to self-install many of their connected devices so a positive out-of-thebox

experience is an important usability goal.

Reliability – The challenge of delivering reliable end-user services can be addressed through a largely

hidden category of enabling services. These are sometimes referred to as horizontal or platform services

and their aim of to ensure a trouble-free end-user experience. They ensure suitable home- and widearea

connectivity, including device provisioning, registration, authentication, data transfer, content and

rights management, etc. Enabling services also encompass maintenance functions, such as application

and device status monitoring, remote repair, firmware updates etc. These are typical functions

associated with any well-designed ICT-based service.

The requirements associated with smart home service categories are considered in more detail below.

5.2. Smart home service delivery requirements

In the future smart home, devices and sensors will need to be connected via secure,

reliable, high-bandwidth wide-area networks. Scalable and interoperable IP-based

communications protocols will be required for both wide area networks and home

area networks to facilitate the sharing of content and to permit interoperability of

home devices, therefore encouraging innovation and the creation of value-added new

services. Ideally, information from multiple devices needs to be accessible through a

single user interface or portal. Robust back-end systems are required to gather and

process data from sensors and connected devices, and open APIs are needed to allow

the development of innovative smart home applications. Last but not least, the business

ecosystem needs to evolve.

We have identified six key components of the smart home system that address these

needs as illustrated in Exhibit 11 below:

1. Home Environment – the home environment needs to accommodate a wide range of connected

devices, each using different wireless technologies in both dedicated and shared spectrum bands.

A home gateway will be needed to control and monitor devices, connected via a mix of wired and

wireless backhaul technologies. The gateway will be used to connect a smart home HEM to a smart

grid, while allowing remote control over heating and ventilation appliances; the charging of electric

vehicles; and, in-home energy production sources.

The smart meter and the home energy gateway may be integrated into a single device or be two

separate physical devices, depending on specific local market factors. In some markets smart meters

will have to conform to strict regulatory specifications resulting in a dual-gateway architecture. In

some cases, this could mean the emergence of two types of home energy gateways – one owned by

the utilities to control home appliances, electric vehicle charging and renewables to balance electric

grid load (similar gateways could also be owned by healthcare and security providers); the second

one owned by home users, would be used to aggregate information about various connected devices,

control them and potentially pay for them. The latter gateway should be able to interface with a range

of devices that gather information and control home appliances; therefore, it needs to include an open

standards-based component and easy-to-use APIs to support different applications, most likely from

different service providers.

Either type of gateway must have stringent security features to deal with the threats of cyber-hacking

and energy fraud, while controlling end-user access and information privacy.

Although there are now a large number of home energy monitoring devices on the market, the

delivery models and business models have not evolved clearly. From the householder’s perspective,

HEM systems need to be plug-and-play and connectable to other devices in the home, with automatic

control of energy consumption, linked to the time of use prices, where these have been introduced.

The decision by Google and Microsoft to withdraw their HEM tools from the market illustrates the

difficulties service providers face (see case study below).

2. Wide Area Connectivity – the wide-area network (WAN) connectivity requirement is for a two-way

system of communications, capable of connecting large numbers of devices simultaneously. It needs to

provide the widest possible coverage and availability for urban and rural homes alike. WANs also need

to be able to evolve to address the needs of future smart home services and applications. For example,

future service requirements will progressively impose a need for more frequent and higher bandwidth

communications on the underlying transport medium.

Utility companies are asking for a 10 to 20 year life-cycle for the communication systems connecting

smart meters; other home appliances, such as refrigerators and washing machines, could have a

replacement cycle of 7-8 years. It must therefore be possible to manage large-scale technology

upgrades with minimal system disruption and un-planned costs, ideally using over-the-air upgrades,

or through easy replacement of modular communication components. As the value of information in

smart home applications increases, end-to-end security will become an increasingly essential feature.

3. Back-end Environment – back-end systems are required to gather and analyse data readings

from smart home devices and then trigger control events. In the first instance, these systems need

to provide information in a form that is useful to home monitoring and control service providers

(such as utility, security and healthcare companies) and also to householders. The growing number of

connected households and devices means it is critical that these back-end systems are both robust

and scalable. The back-end systems need to be dimensioned for millions of households per country,

accommodating the 30 sensors per household that may be necessary to make a home monitoring

system comprehensively meaningful to occupants.

In addition to gathering and hosting large volumes of data securely, back-end systems will also be

required to provide access to external service providers; this may be because data from different

providers – utility, home appliances, ancillary electrical appliances, among others - need to be

integrated in delivering smart home control and monitoring services.

4. Enabling Service Features – The smart devices in a household need to be managed in ways that

deliver a high quality user experience while masking technical complexities. Device management

services, for example, will need to support service activation, configuration, virus protection, remote

diagnostics and firmware updates. The communication process between household devices, a gateway

and provider back-end systems also needs to be managed. Basic management functions include formal

delivery-acknowledgement or store-and-forward processes, for example. For more sensitive data,

encryption and message-acknowledgement features will be increasingly important. The management of

network connectivity has to ensure high levels of availability under normal operating conditions and to

manage failure situations in ways that do not overwhelm wide-area networks and back-end systems.

5. Third Party Service Providers – The number and diversity of suppliers across energy, mobile health,

home security and entertainment sectors means the supplier ecosystem for connected devices will be

highly fragmented. There will be a need for applications and services that help device vendors and

household occupants to manage their lifestyle and energy consumption in aggregate.

New business models need to emerge to allow service providers to gain access to data for use in

developing new services and applications. Data analytics service providers, for example, may seek access

to the back-end system so they can offer reliability analysis, predictive maintenance or even social

networking applications designed to help households to benchmark their consumption patterns within

their local neighbourhood. In the UK’s smart metering sector, a Data Communications Company (DCC)

will be established to provide data rights and access to control management functions, in addition to

translation services, to facilitate access to data by independent value added service providers.

6. Business, Ecosystem and Technology Environment – smart systems in the home will require

the marriage of expertise from the communications and IT sectors with that of the utilities, home

security, mobile health and entertainment sectors. Partnerships and cross-sector collaboration are to be

encouraged. Such partnerships will need to create a trusted service delivery environment in the eyes of

regulators and consumers. They will also need to encourage the development of service and application

developer communities, and address the differences in their expectations for technology evolution,

service life-cycles and control of the customer relationship.

Role of the mobile

Mobile networks will connect a growing range of devices from smart meters to security

cameras and gaming consoles in the home (see Exhibit 13). Meanwhile, mobile handsets

and tablets will provide a screen and an interface for monitoring and controlling smart

home devices from anywhere with mobile coverage. Inside the walls of a smart home,

mobile networks will coexist with various short-range wireless technologies. Moreover,

suppliers from the mobile ecosystem will also contribute sophisticated functionality and

service applications, building on their established consumer applications expertise.

In the chapter below, we review the assets the mobile industry can bring to the smart

home, as well as the roles mobile operators could potentially play in the future.

6.1. The value of mobile

Mobile connectivity brings a number of business and technical capabilities that will be

crucial for the successful uptake of smart home services: The mobile industry delivers

each of the following:

Wide-area coverage at cost points which are far more attractive than those offered by satellite,

fixed- and private-wireless networking alternatives.

A dependable communications platform - a recent pilot8 in Ireland with a mix of access

technologies, including GPRS, RF mesh and PLC found that GPRS delivered the most reliable

performance for meter readings, compared to alternative approaches, by a significant margin.

Trusted brands well known to consumers - phones, smartphones and tablets have reached the

status of being ‘constant companions’ for most consumers.

Commercially-viable and credible partners for companies in adjacent industries – the mobile

industry includes numerous large and financially robust communications- and equipment-suppliers

that are comparable in size to utility, health and entertainment providers from adjacent industries. The

mobile industry has also shown itself to be adept at managing rapid technology change, a capability

that many adjacent industries will also need to master.

Complementary technologies to enhance the functionality of smart home services. Mobile

operators’ capabilities include billing, authentication and security control, providing context, situationaware

and location information, as well as distributing smartphone and tablets as complementary

devices for user-interface and remote control functionality.

6.2. The role of mobile

The exact role that will be played by mobile operators in the future smart home is yet to

evolve, and will vary from market to market, depending on the evolution of smart home

services and the strategy of each individual operator.

Exhibit 14 below shows a generic service delivery value chain and describes the way

in which data from multiple sources is applied in delivering a range of smart utilities,

security, health and entertainment services.

The role of mobile operators in this value chain can vary from that of:

access provider for connectivity services alone

enabling services provider

full service delivery where the mobile operator has a direct customer relationship

On a practical level, mobile operators may need to adopt specific commercial structures

to participate in the smart home services market. Regulatory conditions, such as

limitations on the use of consumer data, may enforce a strict business separation

between the connectivity, data management and service delivery platform elements

of a communications service provider, for example. The U.K. is currently developing

this kind of regulatory framework for the utilities market where multiple connectivity

providers, supported by a single data management company, is envisaged.

In cases, where a mobile operator and an utility provider are partnering to deliver smart

home services, for example, the question of which company manages the customer

relationship is a recurring theme. Some utilities companies, which are strategically

focused on energy production and distribution, place a low priority on managing

the customer relationship, while others wish to be the only entity dealing with the

consumer.

New smart home services will not necessarily fit cleanly into communications or utility

categories in the minds of consumers. The need to combine mobile and utilities expertise

may well favour a joint-venture style of business model to target this market. There

are precedents for this kind of approach in the mobile money sector where financial

institutions are partnering with mobile operators. Several mobile operators have started

to recruit executives from adjacent industries to expand their role in the embedded

mobile market.

It is clear that mobile networks, mobile operators and other suppliers in the mobile

ecosystem can provide considerable value to companies looking to add connectivity

to their devices and services and target the emerging market for smart home services.

While the building blocks are all present, there does remain some further work

to facilitate cross-sector collaboration, to implement new business models and to

encourage interoperability standards. These are discussed in the next chapter.

The app-controlled smart home is now a reality

Intelligent, digital control of the environment around us has long been an uphill battle, with HVAC, lighting systems, and home automation being relatively recent innovations. In the past decades, our homes have become both increasingly comfortable and complex, but now we’re finally getting to the point where that comfort and complexity don’t have to go hand-in-hand.

We’ve all heard about crazy things like Android-powered refrigerators and Arduino curtains. Those are interesting and undoubtedly cool, but they feel like technology for technology’s sake. There is an increasing number of products available at the consumer level that are much better than previous, hacky or expensive attempts at controlling and automating our homes. We’re no longer in the realm of future tech — today you can control and automate your home right from your smartphone without spending a fortune and without a centralized home automation system.

Below are some examples of systems for the home that are app-controlled, affordable, and (at least somewhat) practical.

Philips Hue

This clever little lighting system has the ability to dim, brighten, and change the color of its bulbs on command. The bulbs are all controlled by the bridge, a small, powered device that plugs right into the back of your wireless router. It uses Zigbee’s Light Link to communicate so there’s no need to rely on power-hungry WiFi. After that’s set up, all you need to do is install the free iOS app, and log into your account on the Hue site.

With Hue you’ll be able to control up to fifty bulbs at a time with a simple app on iOS or Android. You can select a color from a favorite photo, create color combinations from scratch, or even use color themes from other users. Even better, you can quickly set up automation for your bulbs to do things like dim at night, slowly brighten in the morning, or change colors when it’s dinner time. A single LED bulb is available for $59.95, but a starter pack is available that includes the bridge and three bulbs for $199.95. (Geek.com has a fullreview of the Hue system if you’d like to learn more.)

Nest

One of the most-hyped app-controlled appliances ever is the Nest thermostat. This clever system was designed by a company co-founded by Tony Fadell, a former Senior Vice President of the iPod division at Apple. With the Nest, not only do you get a beautiful looking thermostat, but it also has the ability to learn without the need for specific programming. Once you have it installed in your home, you just treat it like a normal thermostat. You turn it up when you’re home, down when you leave, and up again when you wake up. Soon it will learn what your pattern is and you’ll always come home to a house that is the perfect temperature. This kind of learning system is a huge step forward in the smart home.

Each Nest unit is $249. If you’re up to installing it yourself, you can order it and go about your businesshttp://images.intellitxt.com/ast/adTypes/icon1.png. If you prefer for a professional to install the thermostats for you, it costs $119 for the first unit to be installed, but only $25 a pop for every subsequent unit. Of course, if you’re interested in controlling the Nest wirelessly, there are also free iOS andAndroid apps available.

Wemo

Finally, we have the Wemo from Belkin. This is a combination of a switch, a motion sensor, and an iOS app. Once you have Wemo devices installed in your house, you can control any device you have plugged in right from your iPhone. Did you leave the light on downstairs? Just launch the Wemo app, and switch it off. Do you want the TV to be on for you when you come home from work? Put it on a timer. With the motion sensor, you can even have everything turn on when you enter a room, and turn off when you leave. It even has IFTTTintegration that allows you to do things like post to Twitter or email yourself every time a certain event is triggered.

The power of the Wemo is how it simply it works with the devices you already have in your home.

The real downside is the price. A single switch is $49.99, and a switch with a motion sensor is $99.99. A Wemo for every plug in your house will get pretty expensive, but that can be said about pretty much any of this app-controlled tech.

The appified home of the future

As more people use these technological innovations in their homes, the prices will start to plummet. The adoption will skyrocket in a positive feedback loop. The most interesting part is that innovative, app-enabled products are already cheaper than previous attempts at automation. A single dimmer from a more traditional automation company like Crestron can range somewhere between $100 and $300 — that’s more than the entire Hue starter package. Not only are we seeing prices go down, but these products are multiplying in uses. Today we have climate control and lighting, but not far down the road, the devices we have in our pockets will be able to control most anything. Brew coffee from your desk. Feed your dog from work.

This piecemeal way of adding technology to your home is feasible in a way that completely retrofitting your home is not for most people. A quick trip to the Apple store, and $200 bucks later you are well on your way to an app-controlled home. The initial investment is so low that most every home owner can tinker with this great tech. In the end, this is why app-controlled tech will take off while traditional automation systems won’t.

Case Study

The Brown Box (Loxone UK Ltd, ) is project by Loxone Electronics; it’s a real home, a home which has all the aspects to be a smart home. And also it won the Smart Home 2012 award. There is much functionality, as per the owner’s needs. These functions are inexpensive, easy to set up, and improve the quality of living. The centerpiece of this project is the Miniserver which, controls all the devices smartly from the blinds and lighting to the sauna and home cinema, makes life in the home much more convenient, and meaningfully supports the owners.

Components used for the project (Loxone UK Ltd, ):

1 Miniserver (Loxone UK Ltd, )

11 Extensions

1 IR Extension

1 1-Wire Extension

3 Dimmer Extensions

2 DMX Extensions

2 EnOcean Extensions (retrofit in the old basement)

Technology used for the Project (Loxone UK Ltd, ):

Loxone Cloud Services: Caller, Weather

Cisco firewall, Telekom internet connection

KNX sensors - switches, motion sensors, weather station

Ultrasound sensor to measure water level in rainwater tank

EnOcean motion sensors and door contacts for the retrofit in the basement

Warm white and colored LED lighting

CFL with dimmable balasts, controlled via 0-10V signal

Reed switches on garage doors for security

Controlling Dreambox & Denon AV receiver via LAN

Control of Sony TV via Loxone IR module

Sonos multiroom audio system (controlled via LAN)

Mixture of 0-10V and I/O valve actuators for UFH and radiators

Loxone room sensors for temperature and humidity measurements

Automatic blinds:

In the morning blinds open to capture the sun and warn the room. This event occurs as soon as there is enough light outside that you don’t need light inside. Around midday, according to room temperature and amount of sunlight coming in, the blinds will shade the house and then close in the evening according to the local sunset timing and not at the fixed timings. And also it can be accessed manually from a switch or a Smartphone.

'Good night' button:

In the evening when it’s time to bed just a quick press of the Good Night button does the entire trick. Everything (devices) is either put into standby mode or has its power cut. This not only saves money but also provides a radiation free home. The lights in the kitchen and living room goes off completely, lights in stairways are turned on (lightly dimmed). Apart from this it also includes security features such as all automatic doors close and lock, the alarm goes on for certain zones (garage, cellar) shutter blinds are all closed it they are not closed yet, and in case if any doors or windows are open, the light flashes for three times just to indicate that some door/window is still open. After about 10 to 15 minutes all lights in whole house turn off automatically.

Siren for alarm:

When nobody is at home, motion detectors act as the alarm sensors. If some unauthorized person gets into the house, the final level of alarm goes on i.e. all the lights in the house blinks randomly, the blinds opens and the music system plays Siren at full volume and also a call to home owner straight away and in case if it’s a false alarm it could be reset on the phone.

Easy Remote for Old People:

Now a day’s remotes are more complicated which the old peoples are unable to handle, so to avoid the hassles and make life easier for them by giving only one switch which does everything.

Varying Temperatures:

Different temperatures for different rooms as per the need are maintained. Irrelevant to the weather outside this function allows maintaining constant temperature for under floor. Thus the bedroom is always kept at a pleasing 18°C, whereas the bathroom and living room at a comfortable 23°C. When we know a guest is coming, a simple change to the schedule ensures the guest bedroom and bathroom is up to the perfect temperature when the guests arrive. Once the guests are gone these areas simply go back to "standby".

Central Lock:

Central lock is a feature where if the owner of the house leaves the house, all the lights and devices are automatically turned off and the alarm goes on. And also every switch in house turns into central off switch just by triple pressing.

Accessibility:

All you need is a firewall and a fixed IP address to access your home from anywhere in the world. So if we are back home from a tiring journey and want to take a sauna bath just to relax, all you need to do is press the button and get it ready. And if it’s too cold outside and want to feel warm as soon you reach home, then just turn on the heating before you are back home. And also allowing the delivery man in, for an important delivery even you are not at home.

Remote Access:

By bringing together garage door, front door and side entrance we can open or lock up remotely for example to let in a neighbor or a delivery man in through the door, without the need of going all the way to the doors, just by click of button on your Smartphone or any user interface.

Conclusion

Since last decade we have been hearing futuristic sounding predictions about smart homes, but now they have become an achievable reality. Smart home technologies are currently affordable only by high end homes only but in near future we will have it as standard features in each in every house. At present these technologies are vendor dependent but soon open standards will be available which will make it much easier for designers and manufacturers to design a system, which are cost effective, reliable and flexible. For now the maintenance charges are very high because all equipments are not largely available and not many companies manufacturing it so less services available. But in near future we will have zero maintenance, integrated solutions, and the technologies will be structured into modules and will be expandable. Increasingly, everyday appliances and objects are developed to act smart, opening up a world of new possibilities and further altering how we live our lives.