How Smart Your Home Can Be
Smart home technology becomes increasingly popular. Back then in 2015, according to the of CNET’s joint survey with Coldwell Banker, 81 percent of American smart-home device owners said that they would prefer to buy a home with this technology in place. Today this number may be much bigger. How does home automation work? What do we know about its opportunities and challenges? Let’s try to find out.
A bit of history
Early home automation started at the beginning of the 20th century when electric power distribution was introduced. Electricity became increasingly available and this allowed using the first labor-saving devices, such as washing machines, water heaters, refrigerators, sewing machines, dishwashers, and clothes dryers. In 1975, a company called Pico Electronics came up with the first general-purpose home automation network technology, X10. It made communicating among electronic devices possible using primarily usual electric wiring for signaling and control. Despite several higher bandwidth alternatives, X10 remains popular.
With the Internet becoming more available, the smart home solution became more available as well. Today you can control your home automation devices from any spot in the world with the Internet connection, having only an app on your smartphone.
How does it work?
A smart home network includes a number of devices that can be monitored and controlled remotely. Usually, it refers to “on and off” devices, such as lights, power outlets, electronic locks, security sensors, etc. All these devices are connected to some control panel which is, in turn, connected to the Internet. This enables remote control and monitoring via an Internet-enabled PC, smartphone or tablet.
Opportunities
A smart home system provides you with many opportunities.
Firstly, it is the detection of such problems as water leaks or a carbon dioxide leak. Also, home automation allows fire control.
Secondly, it increases security of your home. Video monitoring and motion detection systems enable you to control what happens at home while you are away (the smart home system can also be programmed to send you notifications if some potential threats are detected). You can also use access control and central locking of all perimeter doors and windows.
Thirdly, it enables energy savings. Occupancy sensors can detect if someone is on a premise and turn the lights off. Your thermostat can be programmed with different target temperatures to decrease energy usage when nobody’s home. You can even set up a „coming home” event and turn on lights and heating or air conditioning when you are driving home from work. A „leaving home” event is also possible. It turns all forgotten lights and appliances off and helps you to save energy.
Fourthly, it makes your home more comfortable. Do you think that some window lets in too much light? Program your blinds to close at this particular time every day. Do you want to water your flowers on time? Set up some schedule for your sprinkler system. Theoretically, you can even turn on your kettle (if it is Internet-ready) while driving home and make some tea later.
Challenges
The most serious of them is vulnerability. Security solutions don’t keep up with the pace of smart home technology. In 2016, Earlence Fernandes, Ph.D. student of Systems and Security at the University of Michigan conducted a little research about security holes in Smart Things system and found out that its apps (or SmartApps) had such categories of vulnerability as excessive privileges and insecure messaging. For instance, if an app could automatically lock a door, it also would have an ability to unlock it. Fernandes’ team studied 499 SmartApps and found out that 55 percent of them had access to more functions than they needed. Also, researchers discovered that messages sent by SmartApps can be envisioned as similar to instant messages exchanged between people. Smart Things devices sent messages with sensitive data, such as a PIN code to open a particular lock. Even when a SmartApp had the most basic level of access to a device (for example, permission to show a battery level) it could receive all the messages generated by this physical device.
Lack of unification also poses a serious problem. All smart home system manufacturers have different standards of networking systems. This challenge is solved only partially: such smart assistants as Alexa or Google Assistant work with the help of software abstraction on top of the network. It is quite risky because developers are forced to make sure their product supports three or more different smart home software ecosystems. It inevitably makes smart home systems susceptible to hacking. But this problem has a chance to be solved. At the end of 2019, Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, Zigbee, and a host of other companies joined together to create a new standard for a smart home system which will be based on Internet Protocol (IP). Let’s wish them luck and hope that a smart home will be smarter, more compatible and secure.
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