The story of smart technologies is already a couple of decades old, but it often sounds surreal and a bit too futuristic. After all, most people believe that smart homes will behave like totally independent entities without any control whatsoever.
The truth is that the concept of smart technologies is still in the early stages of development, but it is already showing signs of what awaits us in the near future. In this post, you can learn more about:
-The idea of smart homes and their key features in 2020
-11 functions smart homes will have in the next decade
It’s a long story, so let’s waste no more time on the introduction!
Smart Home Definition and Key Features
Before we start dwelling on smart homes of the future, we need to explain what it means in 2020. By definition, a smart home is a home that incorporates advanced automation systems to provide the inhabitants with sophisticated monitoring and control over the building’s functions.
Today, it mostly means that a home is equipped with advanced lighting, voice-assistance, and air conditioning systems. This enables inhabitants to automate or control these systems remotely in order to reduce energy consumption and make their places greener.
But smart technologies keep evolving.
Let’s compare it with another field of work – once upon a time, students could only work with an essay writer service to help them with assignments, but now there are lots of complementary systems such as the best paper writing services or the dissertation writing service.
The same logic applies to smart homes – new technologies keep emerging and we can soon expect a whole range of new functions and appliances. There are already around 175 million smart homes in the world today, but the numbers keep booming. The industry revenue grows at a steady annual rate of almost 18%, thus resulting in a projected market volume of $175 billion by 2025.
The situation definitely seems very promising in the smart home industry, but what can we expect in the years to come? Let’s check it out in the following chapter!
11 Smart Home Functions to Expect in the Coming Years
Smart technologies are extremely diverse and versatile, so it’s impossible to name all trends in this field. What we can do, however, is to point out the top trends that are likely to dominate the market in the next few years and decades. Here are our 11 picks:
Voice-powered everything
Voice assistants such as Siri and Cortana are already widespread, but the future of smart homes is completely voice-oriented. It looks like smart home inhabitants will soon be able to communicate with almost every device in their houses and control functions using nothing but verbal orders.
Mini microphones
This feature goes hand in hand with the previous one because it will make all-around voice assistance achievable. This essentially means that you can walk through any part of your house and still give voice instructions to your appliances in any other room.
Augmented Reality (AR)
AR is a sort of technology that adds a new layer of digital information over the existing real-world surface. For instance, you can watch a favorite basketball team on TV and expect an AR-powered system to display a whole bunch of supporting information and stats about players.
Health sensors
This function is already alive and kicking through small gadgets and wearables, but smart homes will take it to a higher level in the next decade. Namely, a smart home will come with medical diagnostics and hence monitor your health condition to identify possible problems and help you prevent major illnesses.
Smart fridges
We bet all of you gourmands out there will love this smart home function! Smart fridges automatically identify food supply shortages and make instant refill orders. That way, smart home inhabitants must never really worry about buying their favorite food and beverages.
3D printers
3D printing or additive manufacturing is a process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital file. You can already purchase a 3D printer, but it is probably too expensive, large, and limited functionality-wise. But things are going to change soon as most smart homes will have advanced versions of 3D printers.
Smart showers
Another benefit of living in a smart home is the so-called smart shower. The idea is simple – you wake up early in the morning and your smart shower immediately welcomes you with your favorite music and a perfect water temperature.
Roll-able TV set
Modern TV sets are not going to be static and firm. On the contrary, they are going to be roll-able, so you can simply hide them after watching a TV show or a movie. It’s a genuine space-saver that leaves smart homes with more room for other items.
Shape-shifting furniture
Similar to the roll-able TV set, shape-shifting furniture will also allow smart home inhabitants to reorganize the place and enjoy additional room and comfort.
Robotic kitchen arms
It will take some more time before robotic kitchen arms become a reality, but they will definitely make a revolution in your smart home. Robotic kitchen arms can prepare meals and clean up after lunch or dinner, thus saving you time and nerves.
Tech-free rooms
A lot of people will ask a simple question: Can I hide from technology in a smart home? The answer is positive because smart homes of the future will also contain tech-free rooms. This is the place where you can take some rest without getting disturbed by smartphones, TV sets, computers, or any other type of digital technology.
The Bottom Line
Smart technologies are already present in our homes to a certain extent, but the system is still developing and about to show its true nature in the following decade. In this post, we analyzed the concept of smart technologies and showed you 11 features of a smart home in the nearby future. Which function impresses you the most?
