Smart home

The phrase smart home refers to a hodge-podge of technical automation involving voice recognition, lighting, keyless door entry, security cameras, sensors (for temperature, motion, water, etc.), on/off switches, thermostats, TV's and streaming devices, smoke detectors, robotic vacuum cleaners, lawn watering systems, and many more. What makes such devices "smart" in this case means there is wireless control and monitoring, whether the device is powered by the electrical grid or by battery. Smart devices contain tiny microprocessors and some kind of radio for wireless communications. Collectively, all the smart devices in one home make up what is called the Internet of Things (IoT) for a given consumer. Today, homes may contain dozens or even hundreds of such small devices, and consumers may enjoy their benefits while knowing little about how these devices work, or even realizing that they are present.

Requires Wi-Fi and a smartphone or tablet

Home Wi-Fi and a smartphone or tablet capable of making a Bluetooth connection to smart devices are required for use of smart home technology. At present, consumers must make sure that the smart device they wish to use is specified to be compatible whichever phone/tablet operating system they use (Apple vs. Android).

A jungle of incompatible and competing products

Since there were no standards originally, by 2015 a jungle of competing methods for networking, control and monitoring had grown up. Consumers often had to buy special hubs specific to one vendor to use that vendor's products, and products were not often interoperable. Most vendors did make sure there products could be reached by smart speakers by Amazon, Google, Apple or Samsung, but consumers usually also need to open a different app on their smart phone or tablet in order to control devices by each manufacturer. This meant that a consumer would become "locked in" to one company, making it expensive and awkward to add similar devices from another company.

Serious security concerns have arisen

Even worse, security was very uneven and sometimes non-existent. Smart thermostats which can monitor whether a home's occupants are present or not, locks which open front or back doors, garage door openers, and many other smart home devices can present very real dangers if hackers can access them.

Matter, emerging standard as of 2023: Secure, reliable, and interoperable

About ten years ago, industry consortiums formed to work on standards for smart home device communications, and their underlying wireless communications, which would make it possible for products from all vendors to work together seamlessly and provide fast performance, privacy, and security and would work even if there is not connection to the outside internet (i.e., no connection to "the cloud" or to servers). This resulted in a new standard, called Matter whose first version was finalized in Sept. 2022 and emerging in the marketplace during 2023. Most major vendors have committed to adhering to the basics of the emerging standard within a few years. Another important, emerging standard for smart home devices is Thread, which specifies how the wireless communications among smart home devices will work when using the Matter standard.

Examples

• Hue smart lights (Hue hub required)
• Sense whole-house energy monitor
• Kasa smart plugs - on/off control for dehumidifier, fan, lights, camera, etc.
• Kasa smart switch - for built-in light fixtures
• iRobot Roomba i7+ robotic vacuum cleaner
• Google smoke alarms
• Nest Learning Thermostat + remote room sensors
• smart speakers:
  • Google mini (small, round)
  • Google Hub Gen2
  • Google Hub Max
  • Amazon Echo
  • Amazon Echo Spot
  • Amazon Alexa
  • Amazon Echo
  • Amazon Echo clock
  • Amazon Echo Glow
• Samsung Smart TV
• Chromecast
• wireless doorbell
• wildlife camera
• Nest security camera