Home automation is a way off yet, but it’s not science fiction anymore
We’ve all heard the rumours about Bill Gates’ automated house, how he controls everything form a central computer and barely has to lift a finger — never mind get off the sofa to turn on the air conditioner. Whether or not that’s an urban legend is anyone’s guess, but the days of the automated home are actually not that far off. Controlling your lighting, heating, air conditioning, stereo, television (probably 3D), kitchen appliances and every other electrical system in the house from a centralised remote or, even better, your mobile phone is the stuff of science fiction but it’s realistically possible.
We all know what happened with HAL 9000, Mother, and Cyberdyne’s mainframe: they went crazy, became sentient, and wiped everyone out. But those examples, amusing though they may be, are the stuff of fantastical movies. Home automation — sometimes called domotics — or some version of it has been around for decades, initially based on simple technologies that could piggyback on existing electrical systems and standard power circuits. But the advent of broadband Internet has changed that, widening the scope of what can be automated and how. If you can get phone number or an address from someone’s PDA without the aid of a wire, you can, in theory, turn on the heat and turn off the lawn sprinklers. And WiFi networks are the ideal modem of communication for these systems.
“This trend is already wide spread with home automation systems that control electrical appliances,” claims home and interiors expert Winston Lam at Kitchens + Interiors in Central. “Now, it’s gaining momentum away from appliances to deliver the ‘Wow!’ factor in kitchen cabinetry, which was featured at the Milan furniture fair a few years ago. It’s now available for the public through brands like Del Tongo.”
Lam is referring to kitchens because, for the most part, it’s the most obvious entry point for home automation right after garage doors (for those of us who have garages). “Most people start with their lights and electrical appliances, but more and more we’re seeing automation in rooms set up for cabinetry,” Lam says. The key to any automated home is in the interface — the way home systems communicate with each other. At present most homes have two mutually exclusive ones: traditional electrical that uses a radio frequency like X10 (developed way back in 1975 in Scotland) and modern wireless complete with touch screens. The trick is to get all systems to use compatible fundamentals. Once that happens (and tech research says it will) you’ll find even more uses for your iPhone.
The perception of the automated home remains one of the genius shut-in who’s technologically astute enough to find all the parts he or she needs at the local hardware store or Radio Shack. But there’s no shortage of suppliers and manufacturers in Hong Kong — and Asia — that can start your home on its way to automation. But true automation and a digital home remains, for now, high-end stuff. Like all new technologies, accessibility will increase once it becomes the market standard — along the lines of X10’s current status. “It’s a premium offering at the moment, but that will change in the near future,” theorises Lam. “It’s a bit like the growth of high-end mobile phone technology over the past few years.” And we all know where that went.
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