Alexandra Binder
What about the IQ of your fridge? Is he already writing your shopping list, looking for missing products, making you aware of the expired yoghurt and providing you with recipes for existing ingredients at the push of a button? No? If I were a brand manufacturer, I would now assure you that in the future you will definitely not be able to do without such a "family manager". In fact, he is already at the forefront of smart home and Internet of Things: the smart refrigerator. But what can such a miracle in 2017 really? Synchronize the calendar of the whole family with individual user profiles, for example, exchange ToDo lists or send messages. Get the weather forecast, notes or shopping lists by voice instruction on the screen and send images of the - sometimes bleak - inside via app to your mobile phone. At present, the willing buyers are mainly Samsung and LG. The South Koreans are sending Amazon's cloud-based voice service Alexa into the refrigeratory race. This is the personal assistant who, like Apple's Siri, knows and knows everything. In this case search recipes, play music, put items on the shopping list, order taxis.
Smart home: networking is the key
"Alexa and Siri's children, that is, voice-controlled assistants, become a matter of course," says Christoph Kucklick, who owns suction robots, is a sociologist and author of the book "Die granulare Gesellschaft". "Non-networked home appliances, refrigerators and cleaning robots will only be found in the museum in ten years' time." The Swiss Think Tank GDI looks a lot like that: "More things than people are already connected to the Internet - with each other and with us. They become sensual and independent, capable of learning and maybe a bit scary, "says researcher Karin Frick.
In numbers, 2020 will already be networking over fifty billion items worldwide - six times more than there are people in the world. "Cars (and their components), eyewear, clothes, refrigerators, bras, heating systems, and parking lots then think along and organize themselves." The crucial, the new element in the Internet of Things is not the thing in itself, not even what and how things can feel, hear or speak. "The important thing is that they are networked; with us, with other things. Isolated products become networked services, "says Frick. So far, one is not quite up to date with regard to the budget. According to web designer and front-end developer Andreas Dantz, smart home technology is still in its infancy. There are a few mature island solutions, but the networking of different systems is still in its infancy. "Anyone who invests in this technology needs to be aware that we are still facing some upheavals that may require hardware to be replaced." By the way, the islands have names as well: there's Nest, Google's heating controller , the German counterpart Tado, or Hue, the cross-linked lamps from Philips. A future scenario? "Currently, my home is heated only when I'm at home, or approaching the apartment," explains Dantz, "In the future, all systems can work together. Thanks to shutters, automatic ventilation, smarter treatment of hot water, etc., the energy consumption of our homes will be optimized - while at the same time gaining comfort. "
Smart home: robots are ahead
Researcher Frick is sure, however, that before our homes turn into smart homes, robots will first move in. "Their deployment is easier and cheaper than upgrading the whole house with smart technology and new equipment, so it's going to be faster."
In addition, robots have the advantage that they can be used in any home, regardless of how networked or smart this is. "They will be as normal in the households of tomorrow as today's washing machines and PCs. The universally applicable robot does household chores similar to a human, he cleans, washes and cooks with the devices that are available. "On the question of whether she will buy one herself, she does not think long:" As soon as they are ready for the market, I will buy one myself ". And in fact, that could soon be ready with the market. Moley from London, a robot chef, or, to put it in a practical way, a cooker with two moving arms, is set to hit the market this year. He cuts tomatoes, fries meat and chops onions. He works alone or assisted as needed. 15.000 US Dollar is to cost Moley, 2.000 prescriptions and be able to learn.
The Moley Robotic Kitchen - Mission & Goals
"My goal is to make people's lives better, healthier, and happier," Moley founder and CEO Mark Oleynik. Visit http://www.moley.com/ to find out more about our project. Subscribe to the channel and follow us on social media: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/moleyrobotics/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MoleyRobotics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ moley-robotics newsletter: http://eepurl.com/b2BXiH Are you ready to own the robotic kitchen?
Its inventor Mark Oleynik is in good spirits: "I believe that at some point he can automatically order the right ingredients on the Internet or make recipe suggestions based on the contents of the refrigerator". Sociologist Kucklick also has a clear yes to robots. "Vacuum robots have already proven themselves in many living rooms, in my case, more machines move to: to cook, to mow the lawn, to clean gutters and windows to empty litter boxes. And we will gladly accept the further discharge of duties. "
Smart home and the dangers?
"The fear of cyber invaders will overshadow the fear of thieves," predicts Kucklick. Security vulnerabilities were being discovered on a daily basis, from Wi-Fi to lights, making the new technologies look suspicious. "The manufacturers would do well to work more carefully, their own home is perceived as particularly vulnerable, as an extension of the self."
Privacy, so the respect for privacy, can install that? In principle, and with a corresponding effort already, so Kucklick: "By anonymization, privacy by design and other technologies." Here, however, it was important to meet very different user requirements: "Some have little difficulty sharing their data for applications, others are very picky , Enabling and managing this diversity is a big challenge. "
Smart Home 2030
The Swiss Think Tank GDI looks into the future of our households and makes six theses:
1. Instead of hardware, software will determine - in 2030 computer programs will define how we control, monitor and organize apartments. Instead of complex retrofits, all that is needed for digital plug-and-play devices is an Internet connection.
2. Tradition meets convenience - digital living will be more comfortable - our apartment will function like a smartphone, but it will not be a science fiction household. Because the more digital the world, the stronger the longing for the "authentic". Technological innovation runs unobtrusively in the background.
3. More transparency brings security - and new dependencies - digital living generates enormous amounts of data. Residents become transparent and make themselves more vulnerable. At the same time there is more security: the home can be checked at any time. And it notices when something is wrong with the residents.
4. Living is becoming more sustainable and cheaper - infrastructure, devices and resource consumption can be controlled more efficiently in the smart home of tomorrow.
5. All-round convenience is becoming more important than real estate - the more house-related services that are processed over the network, the more attractive the intelligent home becomes. Purchasing is automated and simplified; intelligent coffee machines, for example, replace the capsules themselves if necessary.
6. Networking is the key to success - Different industries network with each other and with software players. The end user doesn't want countless apps, just one central all-rounder platform. But it has not yet caught on.
Robo-Butler
The market for personal service robots is developing rapidly. According to IFR (International Federation of Robotics) sales of robots for domestic tasks of all kinds in the near future, an estimated value of about 11 billion US dollars (2018-2020). Already 2018 36 million household robots are to be sold - especially vacuum cleaner, floor mops, lawn mower and window cleaner. Around 290 of 700 registered providers come from Europe.
The next logical step is the use of Robo-Butlers. Already 2010 presented the Korean researcher You Bum Jae the 1,30 meter large Mahru-Z. He was already able to clean, wash clothes, put food in the microwave, serve a toaster, serve food and clear cups. However, the original mother of the Robo-Butler was extremely slow and fine motor skills bad. The fine motor skills are now working, opening doors and emptying the fridge is no longer a problem for the Robo-Butler. The focus is therefore currently the versatility. The European research project CloPeMa, for example, taught a robot to combine laundry and sort it by T-shirt, sweater or jeans. Mark Oleynik introduced Robo-Chef Moley (pictured above) to market. And then there's the Baxter (pictured below), the robotic butler of US robotics researcher Rodney Brooks, who could shake up the market. It eliminates the time-consuming programming of new tasks. Baxter or his software simply looks at the movements from the user and adapts them more and more with time.
Butler systems with voice control for the smart home
Amazon Echo
The leader with a high market share (about 70 percent) is currently catching up with many third-party vendors who provide skills for Echo and language assistant Alexa, including Spotify and Uber. Echo can already be paired with other systems and used to control them, such as Samsung's "Smart Things" or Philips "Hue lamps. Language Assistant Alexa is positioned as a "virtual family member".
Google Home
The search engine giant was not first in the field, but with some advantages: in understanding the natural human language, Google's Assistant is better than Amazon Alexa, he can distinguish two voices and assign a user. Chromecast and Chromecast Audio can be paired; mainly own offers are integrated: eg. Maps, Translate or the calendar.
Microsoft Ivoke
Microsoft's Ivoke for is manufactured by Harman / Kardon, which is reflected in the sound quality (three tweeters and an 360 ° sound). The voice-controlled butler behind Ivoke is called Cortana, the integration of third-party providers succeed Microsoft but currently no more than Google, also because you prefer to couple their own services, such as Skype or Office365.
Apple Home Pod
Apple sets as Microsoft on the audio quality and wants to "reinvent the music at home." The language assistant Siri is subject to Google's assistant as well as Amazon Alexa. So far, it works neither with the recognition of natural language, nor with the logical combination of various search queries. Siri is used in HomePod currently mainly for comfortable voice control, such as Apple Music.
Photo / Video: Shutterstock.
