Life in a Smart Home

You’re driving home from work after a long day. You decide to listen to some music, so you tell your car’s stereo system to play some soft jazz. You turn on cruise control and you begin to relax.

Before long you’re near your home. Using your smartphone, you use voice controls to turn off your home security system and open your garage door, and the door to your home. You also turn on the living room lights and check the temperature on your home thermostat. You decide to lower the temperature by a couple of degrees.

You enter your home and you’re greeted by your dog, who is happy to see you. Earlier today, you had used your remote dog treat dispenser and camera to check on him and give him a treat.

You again use your phone to check on the slow cooker you set this morning with tonight’s meal. It isn’t ready just yet. You wonder if you should listen to some music or see what’s on TV. You decide to use your voice remote, and you instruct it to find something to watch. Your smart TV has learned your preferences and presents you with an on-screen menu. You’re glad that you have fiber internet service and subscriptions to a few streaming services. You decide to catch some news before your dinner is finally ready.

After a while, you get a message on your phone that your slow cooker has completed your dinner. You head out to the kitchen. You decide that you want to heat up some vegetables to go with your main course. You take them out of your smart refrigerator and place them in on a plate in your voice enabled microwave. You instruct it to reheat the veggies. You then notice that the refrigerator is reminding you that you are low on milk. The refrigerator will order more for you if you so desire. You decline that option.

After dinner you decide to listen to some Broadway tunes, so you instruct your stereo system to select and play something from your music library. You sit down in your favorite chair. You then use your phone to change the color of your lights and to turn them down just a bit.

You get a video call on your smartphone, so you use voice controls to pause the stereo music. You finish your call, and you resume playing the Broadway tunes. You think to yourself that you’re glad that you have fiber internet with enough speed to be able to use all the smart devices that you’ve come to enjoy.

Later, you decide to call it a night. You use voice controls to turn on your security system. You also set your smart coffee maker to make coffee tomorrow morning. You set an alarm on your smartphone and you head off to bed.

All the smart devices mentioned in this article are available today, with almost a third of homes in the United States being smart home equipped. If you’re not part of that group, perhaps you might consider starting with one device such as a smart TV or a video doorbell.