The smart approach: Connectivity is playing key role in the home

Connectivity is the key as more and more devices and appliances in the home are using the online world

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15 May 2012

Remember the days of terrestrial television? When there was a choice of three, four or five channels. Maybe fewer?

Today we have hundreds of television channels at our disposal but it is still not enough. Thanks to the latest generation of Smart TVs, we are no longer restricted to watching the channels served up via aerials, satellite or cable. We can have so much more.

The term Smart TV — like smartphone — is not an indication of intelligence but of possibility. The sets have Wi-Fi built-in or they are ‘Wi-Fi ready’ meaning you have to splash out a little extra on a separate dongle in order to get things working.

But that will allow you to access the internet via your television, watch videos on YouTube, see shows that had already run on the BBC iPlayer and even stream movies via services such as LoveFilm and Netflix without the need for additional set-top boxes cluttering up your minimalist living space.

And, as many rivals including Apple TV, Roku, Boxee and Google TV vie for consumer cash, some experts believe it to be more important than 3D. Little wonder that the BBC, ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, TalkTalk and Arqiva have teamed up for this year’s launch of YouView which combines FreeView with internet catch-up and video on-demand.

Yet Smart TVs are just one growing example of connectivity in the home where devices and appliances use the online world to bring extra functionality to existing devices.

“Generally, gadgets and appliances are becoming ever more connected,” says Will Findlater, the editor of Stuff magazine. “There’s a thermostat you can control remotely with your iPhone called Nest, smart appliances from LG that can send a shopping list to your phone or tablet, and home automation systems from the likes of Google and Microsoft that will allow smartphones and tablets full domain over everything from your home’s lighting to its locks.”

Connecting devices to the internet can also lead to a tidier house. There are Wi-Fi printers which eradicate the need for wires, for instance, with Apple’s AirPrint letting you send files to such a printer from your iPhone or iPad. Alternatively, Google Cloud Print operates with any web-connected device including computers, tablets and phones.

You can also go even further and connect devices around the home with your existing power cables, using their unused bandwidth to create a local network.

Special powerline devices are plugged into the electricity sockets and, when one is fixed to a router or modem, it allows all of the connected devices to hook into the internet. Pretty neat, huh?

And yet connectivity as an idea is not new. In 2007, an article on the technology website Cnet announced “the internet refrigerator has arrived,” referring to a Wi-Fi appliance by Whirlpool that not only kept milk cool but also controlled MP3 devices, phones, digital photo albums and DVD players from a built-in hub in the door.

Indeed, BT’s Futurologist Ian Pearson says automated homes have been possible since the 1950s and, while he is sceptical that there is a demand for connected kettles or toasters (“the only connectivity that may be justifiable is something to monitor electricity use or stuff like that,” he states), the quirks more than make up for it.

Consider a company called Cyber-Rain, which has a product that lets you control water sprinklers via the internet (not much good during a hosepipe ban, admittedly) and think of the possibilities of connectivity on the go: Simon Prior, product manager of car makers Vauxhall believes car stereos will be connected to the cloud within as little as 18 months.

One of the areas where connectivity is being most felt is in music. Time was when you would listen to a song via vinyl, cassette or CD.

Now music fans can not only listen to their tunes on a small MP3 player but they store those songs on remote

servers and have them play on any compatible net-connected gadget they have.

Apple has a service called iTunes in the Cloud which automatically adds any purchased track to an online library. This can then be listened to on any Apple device. Not to be outdone, Google is working on a home audio system called Project Tungsten. It’s a streaming device which hooks into your cloud library, allowing you to share tracks.

So important is the role being played by the internet on music that DAB radio which was once seen as the future of the medium is rapidly being taken over by the rising number of internet stations.

It is possible to stream stations from across the world as well as those big commercial channels closer to home.

“Connectivity is crucial,” says Dr Dianne Cook, a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Washington State University.

Dr Cook believes technology could even help care for people who are elderly or disabled, perhaps watering the plants and the garden, controlling the lights and curtains or emailing a relative when someone approaches the door.

“The home needs to sense the state of the physical environment through communication with sensors. The state of the home can be improved by communicating with controllers and devices such as appliances,” she adds.

All of which is sure to make us more productive, efficient and, perhaps in some cases, a little lazier.

“Over the next five years, it’s going to become perfectly normal to switch your washing machine on from your office desk or change the ambient temperature of your lounge on the train home,” says Findlater.

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The smart approach: Connectivity is playing key role in the home

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