Smart homes used to be a concept reserved only for science fiction films, whether they were from the Disney Channel or major motion pictures straight from Hollywood. Outfitted with a bevvy of impressive gadgets and devices, such homes almost lived and breathed for the characters wrapped up in a fictional narrative.
Now, smart homes have now slowly started to surface into reality. But are they effective? Are they worthwhile? Is there something here for everyone?
Consequently, let’s take a quick look into the public’s perception of the smart home.
Corporate Limitations
Few companies out there will ever admit fault. Instead, they project mantras of ‘we can do anything and everything without breaking a sweat’ and choose to position themselves in the public eye as a bullet proof force. That said, customers are mostly drawn to stress-free, straightforward solutions to complex problems. While automation has been pitched to do just that, the lie is quickly starting to unravel.
Smart technology mostly relies on an internet connection, and when that connections goes down (which it often does for many people, particularly those living in valleys) the smart home is then totally out of the owner’s control. Additionally, all their products can essentially be hacked into because of the reliability on the internet. Ultimately, these obvious, crippling drawbacks go completely unaddressed by the companies behind the gadgets, but the consumer public is beginning to pick up on it all.
Mild Distrust
Certainly, smart homes seem extremely slick in theory. That said, this is why they’re perhaps best left for the world of cinema to explore. For many people, smart homes are not at all a smart idea, and they bring with them a growing sense of discomfort that few other experiences could match. In the end, not every innovative idea needs to be explored.
After all, one BBC journalist transformed one of her homely rooms into a smart home fortress, and described the experience as living in a ‘commercial surveillance state’ without a ‘single hour of digital silence’. Obviously, this is incredibly dangerous. While adults are free to make their own bad decisions, once families, children and vulnerable elders are thrown into the mix, things are perceived as being a lot more sinister. Home is for the family, and the family alone, without other corporate entities snooping in for the sake of data collection.
Compatibility Issues
Not all change is good, and this is something that the buying public know all too well. A central hub of automation being rooted in the home for every light, television or toaster to be controlled by is an expensive, complicated arrangement. Still, firms such as Schneider Electric make home automation a bit simpler to be more compatible with less tech savvy consumers, but many of them will simply prefer to stick with what has worked for them so far.
Aside from Schneider Electric, different companies are creating many different smart home products, like Apple, with their technology being exclusively compatible with other products in their brand. Of course, this leaves people in an expensive mess if they’ve purchased various technology from different brands, thoroughly confusing them as to what works with what. Frankly, it all causes headaches for many consumers, and many of them would rather keep on using their traditional appliances that are easy to use and firmly under their control.
