A day in the life of a smart home owner

A day in the life of a 2010 smart-home owner

(As visualised by Eric and Shane)

Bill Gate¹s Microsoft vision for home technologies is not far from reality.

A typical day in tomorrow¹s home might go like this:

The alarm wakes you with soft, easy listening music. You head to the shower only the house knows your preferences, so the shower is already running at just the right temperature.

While you¹re getting dressed, the coffee-maker sets itself to make your morning cuppa.

It told the toaster to lightly toast the bread, and turns on the plasma screen embedded in the table to catch the news. Not to mention the popped up message window informing you that you have email.

Light switches are a thing of the past; motion and/or voice are your interface to control lighting. While eating breakfast you decide it¹s time to change the picture on the wall.

At the touch of a button, or voice command, the picture is now of your parents, the children, or perhaps your dream car.

The phone rings it¹s Joe at the office. The call came in via the VoIP circuit, but it¹s so seamlessly connected to your plain old telephone service it¹s transparent.

The house automatically receives and sends calls via the cheapest and fastest method.

Meanwhile you can¹t hear because the kids are blasting music upstairs a quick press of a button or voice command and you¹ve overridden their volume control.

The kids love the MP3 and video-on-demand collection in your electronic library. The best part is you can all watch the same movie in different rooms enjoying individual control of functions such as Œpause¹ and Œreview¹ without affecting the viewing experience of others (this is called streaming audio visual media).

As you walk into the garage the door opens automatically and the car is already warming up.

The perimeter gate opens as you exit the garage and the garage closes and locks behind you it¹s all automatic.

Because the family is with you, the house automatically locks and arms the alarm.

The surveillance system goes on standby and, of course, you can monitor the house from work.

The temperature drops during the day, but the house interior has been set to a constant temperature all year round. To boost the heating or cooling you can manually adjust the settings via your cellphone or PDA.

The house monitors your bio-rhythms, body temperature, securely stores your medical records, and when you need to, the doctor will consult with you via your TV/PC interface.

At the end of the day, the kitchen starts to cook dinner. It¹s dark outside, but that¹s no problem the house has already detected you¹re home. The gates open, the house disarms, the door unlocks, and pathway lighting kicks in. You get in the door and the house informs you dinner is almost ready and you have five new voice mails and three video mails.

After dinner, you decide to hold a conference call with distant relatives.

The house dials the number and you can freely roam the house while talking hands-free. There is no phone in your hand it¹s embedded in the house (perhaps in the toaster, fridge, or bedside lamp). The house is so smart it calls service providers automatically and carbon copies you into the call when something needs attention.

Best of all, you can spend more quality time with the family. You enjoy security, flexibility, and technological mobility around the home, and the freedom of choice to set-up your house to suit your lifestyle.

The technology is non-obtrusive, intuitive, easy to use, and affordable.

It¹s modular, open to multi-mode communications, and simple to upgrade.

Your smart home delivers unparalleled levels of comfort and convenience.

(Eric Sagmeister and Shane Walls-Harris are directors of Smarthome Ltd www.smarthome.co.nz)