The wait for home automation has been a long one. Automation has played a significant role in science fiction for decades, and has resisted countless attempts to crack the formula. Consumers are now beginning to see the fruits of those attempts in a host of new products that look to solve the home automation dilemma. Perhaps more important than what these products do is how they go about solving the problem.
The automation of science fiction is often portrayed as an integrated unit: a home server controlling all the functions of the home and interacting with the user via natural spoken language. This is problematic for a variety of reasons including the sheer cost of building a single system throughout an entire house.
Two other problems facing a unified home automation system are control and interaction. Running such a system requires a server to control it and single purpose automation computers have not gained traction. Security companies like ADT have tried to solve this issue by adding automation features to their security systems, but it is doubtful we will ever see widespread adoption of this type of home automation because it is tied to a niche market (about 17 % of homes have security systems according to Safe Guard the World). The most important solutions to home automation have not come in a single stroke, but gradually, through a number of innovations.
What we are seeing come to fruition is distributed home automation integrated through smartphones. Products like Hue, Kevo, Nest, Lockitron, and Scanomat all solve a single facet of the home automation problem but together they begin to add up to a practical solution. These solutions could not exist apart from the rapid adoption of smartphones. The ability to integrate with an always-connected computer that is in the user's pocket at all times drives up the usefulness of these devices exponentially. Distributed home automation solves each of the three problems mentioned above (cost, control, and interaction).
Breaking up the problem into separate components solves the cost problem by bringing the individual elements into an affordable range. While not cheap, $200 to automate deadbolts is within reason for many homeowners. $250 to automate temperature control in a home is an investment not an expense: enough energy will be saved over the lifetime of the device to cover its cost, never mind the convenience of smartphone integration.
The distributed model solves the control problem by placing the computational power responsible for running the device in a dedicated module hard-wired to the device. Since the computer running the system does not have to control every system, it can be tuned and focused on the single task it is are responsible for. This makes the whole system more efficient and robust.
The use of a smartphone as a control module means that the user has control wherever they are and whenever they need it. It puts that control in a familiar form factor and in a system that the user is already familiar with. Using smartphones for control means that we don't have to wait for accurate natural language interaction with computers, place microphones throughout our homes, or interact with the system through a hard-wired "smart-board" mounted on the wall. It allows for growth and upgrades both of the control unit (it's much easier to upgrade a phone than a server) as well as the automation units without interfering with the operation of the rest of the units.
The real breakthrough in home automation over the last decade is the widespread adoption of smartphones. By distributing the necessary computing power to individual automation devices and consolidating the control in an always-connected device users already carry it is possible to reduce the cost of automation while increasing ease of use. This lowers the barrier to entry and helps open a new market of consumer technology that will make our lives easier. Full, simple home automation is only a few steps away, though it will not look like we thought it would.
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