Practical Home Technology News brings you practical tips for both home owners and renters. It’s a new year and this January 2016 edition brings you Consumer Electronics Show highlights, plus a new company focused on specific needs of renters.
Practical Home Automation Tip
Motion sensors are extremely versatile in home automation. An obvious use is a trigger security system trigger.
Consider using a motion sensor to light your path in a dark room or hall at night.
Turning on lights at night, simple inexpensive, and old school…
How about triggering a loudspeaker to playback a nice recording of your voice… Get out of here! Followed by turning up several house lights!
First CES 2016
The annual Consumer Electronics Show may not be practical, but it is of course the leading indicator of the possible.
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is now mainstream and no longer news. One of the hot topics this year is virtual reality. I won’t spend time on VR here, but the excitement is huge and extends well beyond gaming.
Early, and not so early adopters in Marketing and Customer Experience are giddy about future advertising and customer engagement models.
I believe some Hollywood actors are nervous they’ll one day be replaced with software.
We see to be in an evolutionary period, I’m not certain there were any huge breakthroughs in mainstream electronics this year.
Don’t get me wrong! There are incredible new products in all areas, but I believe we’re seeing most bell and whistles added to existing ideas this year. Great products got better.
Great new products
Gamer’s laptop: Razer Blade Stealth
Business laptop: HP EliteBook Folio G1
Special mention laptop: Lenovo Yoga 900S
Fitness Wearable: Fitbit Blaze
Samsung continues their relentless charge to connect all their appliances with the Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator.
Looks this one up! 21.5 inch HD touch screen for notes, calendars, photos and artwork. Cameras inside display the contents on your phone while you’re grocery shopping.
How can we live without this?
But, I do love the combination of technologies here, and I’m waiting for automated suggestions on what I should be shopping for based on past usage, and when I’m about to run out of milk.
I’ve said this here before, the mature inventory control technology in manufacturing and warehousing will make it into our homes. Our refrigerators our prime use cases.
In TVs. Samsung and LG are my favorites.
See the LG Signature OLED TV and the LG Rollable OLED Display. Frankly, display technology promises deep innovations for years more.
Robotics
Robotic vision has been maturing rapidly in the past few years in manufacturing and control. We now have first generation home robots dedicated to folding our clothes.
Smart Home Electronics
Where would I even begin here? I’ll continue dedicated posts on this topic.
Renters
Home ownership is at all time lows, and rentals are growing. Millennials moving to major cities and renting smaller spaces are leading the charge, and are likely driving the trend. Many of these young adults desire smarter homes extending their already broadly connected lives.
There are 100 million renters living in the United States.
Renters have unique needs in home automation, especially in Smart Home automation.
Requirements include:
Easy to install
Easy un-installs
Limited (or no) holes in walls, cables, mounting brackets…
Ability to stand alone, and provide all desired capabilities
Just to name a few.
Many products, especially leading edge products like smart home automation toys get designed to appease early adopters.
Many reasons for that, including with crowd-funding today these folks are paying for the first round products.
All products (and systems), attempting to sell to the masses must surpass the 15-18 percent adoption rate, where the system tips.
The first 0-10% are early adopters. Approach 20% and the system tips.
The next 60-70% of consumers will purchase, eventually.
The final 10% will buy only when the existing solution no longer exists.
Some Smart Home companies are now targeting beyond the early adopters, and factoring in future trends.
One forward looking company is Astroautomation. I have no affiliation, and these guys are an early startup. But I love the implications.
Follow Astro on Twitter or Tumblr.
Please comment, let me know what areas of home automation you’d like to explore in the future.
Home automation doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. Be brave and try some Practical Home Automation.
Practical Home Automation Tip
Motion sensors are extremely versatile in home automation. An obvious use is a trigger security system trigger.
Consider using a motion sensor to light your path in a dark room or hall at night.
Turning on lights at night, simple inexpensive, and old school…
How about triggering a loudspeaker to playback a nice recording of your voice… Get out of here! Followed by turning up several house lights!
The annual Consumer Electronics Show may not be practical, but it is of course the leading indicator of the possible.
The Internet-of-Things (IoT) is now mainstream and no longer news. One of the hot topics this year is virtual reality. I won’t spend time on VR here, but the excitement is huge and extends well beyond gaming.
Early, and not so early adopters in Marketing and Customer Experience are giddy about future advertising and customer engagement models.
I believe some Hollywood actors are nervous they’ll one day be replaced with software.
We see to be in an evolutionary period, I’m not certain there were any huge breakthroughs in mainstream electronics this year.
Don’t get me wrong! There are incredible new products in all areas, but I believe we’re seeing most bell and whistles added to existing ideas this year. Great products got better.
Great new products
Gamer’s laptop: Razer Blade Stealth
Business laptop: HP EliteBook Folio G1
Special mention laptop: Lenovo Yoga 900S
Fitness Wearable: Fitbit Blaze
Samsung continues their relentless charge to connect all their appliances with the Samsung Family Hub Refrigerator.
Looks this one up! 21.5 inch HD touch screen for notes, calendars, photos and artwork. Cameras inside display the contents on your phone while you’re grocery shopping.
How can we live without this?
But, I do love the combination of technologies here, and I’m waiting for automated suggestions on what I should be shopping for based on past usage, and when I’m about to run out of milk.
I’ve said this here before, the mature inventory control technology in manufacturing and warehousing will make it into our homes. Our refrigerators our prime use cases.
In TVs. Samsung and LG are my favorites.
See the LG Signature OLED TV and the LG Rollable OLED Display. Frankly, display technology promises deep innovations for years more.
Robotics
Robotic vision has been maturing rapidly in the past few years in manufacturing and control. We now have first generation home robots dedicated to folding our clothes.
Smart Home Electronics
Where would I even begin here? I’ll continue dedicated posts on this topic.
Renters
Home ownership is at all time lows, and rentals are growing. Millennials moving to major cities and renting smaller spaces are leading the charge, and are likely driving the trend. Many of these young adults desire smarter homes extending their already broadly connected lives.
There are 100 million renters living in the United States.
Renters have unique needs in home automation, especially in Smart Home automation.
Requirements include:
Easy to install
Easy un-installs
Limited (or no) holes in walls, cables, mounting brackets…
Ability to stand alone, and provide all desired capabilities
Just to name a few.
Many products, especially leading edge products like smart home automation toys get designed to appease early adopters.
Many reasons for that, including with crowd-funding today these folks are paying for the first round products.
All products (and systems), attempting to sell to the masses must surpass the 15-18 percent adoption rate, where the system tips.
The first 0-10% are early adopters. Approach 20% and the system tips.
The next 60-70% of consumers will purchase, eventually.
The final 10% will buy only when the existing solution no longer exists.
Some Smart Home companies are now targeting beyond the early adopters, and factoring in future trends.
One forward looking company is Astroautomation. I have no affiliation, and these guys are an early startup. But I love the implications.
Follow Astro on Twitter or Tumblr.
Please comment, let me know what areas of home automation you’d like to explore in the future.
Home automation doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. Be brave and try some Practical Home Automation.
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