I am still enjoying the recent Gartner publication on the future of smart devices in the home. The article says there will be 500 smart devices in the home by 2022. This makes the reality of home automation that much more critical.

The number of interesting home automation projects has gone up on the two sites I monitor (Indiegogo and Kickstarter) roughly 10 fold.

Where there were normally 1 –2 per quarter now there are 10 – 20 per quarter.

Of course there are issues with that many new entrants.
• There are established protocols for home automation (wireless and wired).
• Wired systems go in homes under construction or complete renovations. • Wi-fi systems go in existing homes.

Having a home automation controller allows you to have multiple smart sensors controlled by a single system and therefore available remotely from a single system.

Everything from home video surveillance to home water or leak detection is easily added.

The Gartner article speaks out the value for the silver generation (aging Americans). Children can engage with their aging parents without having to physically be there.

Automation systems can connect to a phone and notify of medical conditions and issues, pills that are or are not taken and the current mental state of the person.

Back in the day we did all of this with X-10. It was an interesting mix of technology and luck (in many cases to keep everything working you had to be lucky).

Today that isn’t the case systems work for the most part all the time. Interestingly is the reality of the number of types of sensors that are available.