purpose for the setting up of a smart home

Smart homes entail the integration of home devices to enable independent living in the home. The concept has long been in the milling among futurist technologists as it offers one a way to manage his/ her home despite any apparent disability or any other outstanding factors.  The setup is especially beneficial to the elderly who may have difficulties doing simple tasks around the house and may need assistance either in human form or, in this case, technology. The technologies offered automatically did the tasks they were assigned and, therefore, went a long way in assisting those lacking time or those not able to do them. For a home to get considered a smart home, it needs an internal network, whether wired, wirelesses, or cable, a gateway whose purpose is to manage the available devices, and mostly home automation for the devices available. The specifics of a certain smart home vary from another, and what suits one user may not be what is needed by another. The set up of a smart home is, therefore, user-defined, with the devices being picked out being wholly dependent on the choice of the home owner.

The setting up of a smart home is based on three guide-principles which act as its foundation. Top most is the comfort of the home owner (Alam, n.d). This can be achieved through Activity identification and event automation. The devices may be given means of identifying the specific tasks which they are expected to do. A specific algorithm is input into the device prompting it to either carry out a fixed task or one specified by its user. Depending on this algorithm, the system can either get a one-off instruction where it always carries out the same task, or carry out different tasks that may vary from time to time. The technology used, therefore, usually is adaptive and is able to shift its boundaries of ability to better suit the user needs. Remote access, too, is pivotal as it allows the user to monitor the performance of the system and to change its assigned tasks or maximize its performance (Alam, n.d).

The second purpose for the setting up of a smart home would be for healthcare reasons.  As mentioned earlier, smart homes would be especially beneficial to the elderly due to the various health complications they encounter. Smart homes, therefore, play a major part in monitoring people’s health and alerting the relevant health practitioners on any divergence from the peak body conditions. Local monitoring entails keeps track of the body’s conditions and the ailments affecting the body and finds means of generating warnings and alerts to health-specialists locally (Alam, n.d). The data is usually collected over a long period and communicated through secure channels to the relevant professionals, or to the home owner to keep track of his/her health habits. Remote monitoring, on the other hand, is often for emergency situations (Alam, n.d). Such a system seeks the easiest and most effective ways of contacting health professionals in the event of an emergency. The system therefore has the capability of not only monitoring one’s health to determine extremes when they occur but also can help seek services faster, like ordering an ambulance in critical situations.

The third factor to consider when setting up a home system is the security of the devices and the sensitive data that they hold. The most important aspects of security for these home systems are user and device authentication (Alam, n.d). User authentication ensures that only authorized users are able to control the devices in the smart home and access data collected on them. Device authentication, on the other hand, ensures only those devices registered onto the system record and output data on the user, as well as carrying out commands in the house. This is a measure aimed mainly at preventing hacking into the home system by devices that aren’t recognized by it.

As said earlier, the device specifications for a smart home depend largely on the preference of the owner. They are usually narrowed down to those relevant for the specific task that they are supposed to complete. Microphones, for instance, can be used in inputting commands, headsets for announcing or receiving information, and screens for displaying visual information (Alam, n.d). A pulse meter, too, may be used in monitoring the heart rate of a person, and stores the data for later reviewing by the user or a health professional. Smart home systems also depend on the transmission of information through various communication networks, therefore, necessitating the implementation of all communication protocols that apply in the area which they operate in (Alam, n.d). The algorithms used also determine the way a device will behave to create an interactive environment with the user. A good algorithm and the user will seamlessly be able to carry out tasks through the system, but a badly thought out one will only work to frustrate the user and eventually reduce the user’s liking to the home system (Alam, n.d).

To monitor the activities of the tenants of a house, sensors are needed. The purpose of the sensors is to collect large streams of data that are required to determine the performance of the aspect being tracked. The most commonly used type of sensors is the video camera. It is the most reliable means as it captures elaborate details of the happenings in a household, which are easily interpreted by both a human observer and the computer (Ding, 2011). The use of media however has its downfall in that it requires large storage space for it to function seamlessly and record data at all times.

Another form of sensors commonly used in smart homes is the simple binary sensors. These are the sensors that represent two states of an activity of action as either a “1” or “0” (Alam, n.d). The sensors therefore restrict input to only two possibilities. Take, for instance, a simple binary sensor used to keep a record of the books in stock in a home library. Once the user takes a book out of the shelf the sensor records this as a “0” to represent the absence of a book. The presence of a book in its designated position in the shelf is represented as a “1”, to show the book is still available and hasn’t been taken out. This simple method would help the home owner keep track of the number of books that he/she has been reading of late, or the number that should be in shelf at the time. It is a simple yet effective way to keep track of stock of items in the house, this chief amongst the many potential applications it has. It, however, has the disadvantage of only showcasing limited aspect of the activity being tracked and, therefore, overlooks other principle aspects that may prove just as important in the management of the home.

Radio frequency identification tags are also useful as sensors (Alam, n.d). They consist of readers and tags. The tag transmits information in form of radio waves to the reader, which then interprets it and displays it to the user. It can be used, for instance, for tracking the whereabouts of certain items in the home. A domestic dog can be tracked using this technology, as the tag placed on it can send radio waves to the reader which interprets them in the incorporated microchip, and can then interpret the information to determine the location of the dog. This will especially come in handy when a pet gets lost, which is a common occurrence, and will increase convenience by assuring the safety of pets at all times.

The smart home is usually viewed in three dimensions when seeking to underline their importance to those who opt for them. The most basic of them all is the functional view, where the smart home is viewed in terms of the basic tasks it accomplishes in the home (Charlie, 2014). These include maintaining security, easing management, maintaining health among others that have been outlined above. The main aim of a smart home is normally considered, not to introduce new functionalities that didn’t exist in the home before, but to improve on the functionalities that already exist. Creators of smart home technologies therefore put this in mind in their development of new technologies. An example is the introduction of Wi-Fi as an improvement from previous prepaid, mobile networks.

The essence of smart homes can also be looked at from an instrumental point of view, that is, how they affect the other common utilities within the home (Charlie, 2014). Smart homes have been proven to go a long way in saving energy in households, mainly electricity. A motion sensing light system, for instance, saves on electricity by only making light available when someone is in the room. This prevents waste of electricity normally experienced when one leaves a room without turning off the lights. The motion sensing lights, therefore, apart from providing convenience by enabling turning on of lights without having to walk to the switch, also save on another utility, which is electricity.

The social technical view is the most recent development of the previous two. The social-technical view looks at smart technologies in terms of their impact on society, or simply, the relationship between the two (Wilson, 2014). This view looks at smart homes as the next step in the evolution of how society works. This is especially true when the fact that advanced technology such as the ones we are accustomed to today did not exist many years ago. A home, at some time did not have electricity, or the luxury of having a home telephone with which you could communicate with anybody across the world. In the present times, however, the smart homes have been refined to the point that a single household may serve several functions, such as being an office, a library, among other things, due to technology developments. This evolution more than supports the social-technical view of smart homes.

For the implementation of smart homes, a lot of measures have to be in place. To achieve energy efficiency, for instance, the automatic light system mentioned above would need one to consider the concept of “demand response” (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). The concept basically ensures that in a home, the supply of energy matches the demand for the energy. Instead of varying the supply, however, like in usual cases, the demand is the one that is tweaked to maintain a balance between the two (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). Back to the idea of automatic lighting, when a person is in a room, this is seen as a rise in demand for light and therefore electricity in that room. Therefore, the system automatically turns on the electric appliance, the bulb, increasing the demand for the electricity, instead of just controlling the electric grid directly to control the amount of electricity being made available to the household. The smart lighting has taken up a common mode of implementation among many specialists. The software for the smart homes that is connected to the lighting devices is programmed with an algorithm that, initially, varies the brightness of the light, which is kept track of using sensors and then adjusted using the light controller, based on the preference of the user, while still ensuring energy efficiency.

The use of speech interaction is a new dimension that has been added to smart homes to increase accessibility to the home devices and maximize convenience in operating them (Brush A. , n.d). Google assistant was one of the earliest forms of this technology. It enabled a user to speak a query directly into his/her phone instead of typing it and the search engine, upon recognizing the voice of the user would show the results of the query, just like it would in normal circumstances. The speech input may also be used by people with limb, specifically hand, disabilities. The disabled person may be able to make a search query just as any person would, without much of a fuss. The speech interaction may have other countless applications if utilized properly. The owner of a home may, for instance, use speech to up the security of the home by using it as it as bio data required for access to various features in the home. To access the smart lighting system, for example, to adjust the brightness or the response time to a command to either go on/off, the owner may opt to use voice recognition. The system will have a set of voices already stored in its database during setup, according to the differences in pitch, depth, among other aspects. These voices will be compared to the voice speaking into the system to input commands, and a match will grant access to the system, allowing the user to tweak its settings to his/her liking. The idea of several administrators for the smart home has become feasible due to creation of apps like Ecobee which allow for the setting up of family groups. The family groups may contain as many as 15 people, all whom have the access and control of various devices in the home, hence allows family members and close friends to enjoy the smart home experience (Priest, 2020). The family group can also restrict certain functions, such as adding and removing of devices, to a main administrator to avoid giving friends more freedom to tweak the smart home than they need.

When it comes to home assistants, Google and Amazon have been at the forefront for some time, with the Google-assistant and Alexa respectively (Priest, 2020). Alexa was invented without any knowledge of the enormous potential it possessed, carrying out only simple tasks like setting alarms and reminders that helped the owner with the organization of his/her day. With recent developments, though, the device is able to configure with hundreds of other device brands which has led to its emergence as the center of smart-home living. The assistant has taken on much more complex tasks such as the security of the home. The device can be used to set times at which the doors of the house will be locked, or what should happen when the garage door is open. The basic activities in the house such as opening and closing of curtains and making of phone calls can also be achieved through the assistant (Priest, 2020).

Other devices that work just as well as assistant, most of which are compatible with Alexa and Google assistant, include the following. Apple Home Pod is a smart speaker that enables listening to music and other media at the best quality, and with ultimate control from the convenience of your phone or any other gadget that is compatible with it (Priest, 2020). Smart plugs are also essential in connecting devices in a home. A smart plug connected to a socket at a strategic position in the home enables several home devices, including Wi-Fi to be connected to it. The owner can then control the devices from the convenience of the phone or any other administrator device, which achieves the purpose of comfort in the home.

The implementation of smart homes, though, hasn’t gone without its set of challenges. From technical problems faced in its implementation to the issues of adapting to the new living conditions for the tenants, smart homes face issues like any other new technologies seeking ground in the market. First of all, people new to the concept of smart homes usually cite the fear of losing control of their usual lives as the main reason for their reservations about it (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). This as smart homes bring about a life of comfort that the people aren’t much accustomed to. The comfortable life has gotten viewed by people as being an excuse for being lazy and unfit. The concept of smart homes has been considered a luxury by many to the point that its essence is seeing to be of no importance, hence many have doubts in taking it up. The prospect, also, of living in what they deemed a virtual world as a result of dependence on the technology, was not so appealing to them. It is this control, the ability to carry out tasks in the house without much help, that they hoped to cling on to by refusing technology in their lives at home

The reliability of the system also came into question among most families (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). This was based on fears most had based on their lack of knowledge of the system in the first place. The fears revolved around the sudden failures of the smart home system, and their inability to control such catastrophes due to the fact that control of the home had been taken away from them and was in the hands of technology. For instance, one family might fear the failure of the network at a certain point of its working. The network, it was feared, might fail while other important events are taking place, such as cooking in the oven or the lockdown of the house by the security system. In the case of the oven, if it was still on at the time of the network failure, it would continue to produce heat since the elements controlling it have suddenly being rendered useless (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). The lockdown of the house, at the time of the system failure may also mean that the family would be locked within the confines of the house, provided the network is not fixed fast enough. The only way to stop the above, and other subsequent catastrophes would be to relinquish control of the system over the said devices by changing the setting through the administrator which might take time. While these case scenarios may be plausible, most people ignore the fact that the companies presiding over the setting up of these home systems elaborately go through all the possible risks. The risks, therefore, have suitable solutions in place to handle them, and won’t have the extremely adverse effects that may be fathomed by the customers.

The cost is also a major concern in the implementation of the smart homes (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). The smart homes require the setting up of an elaborate network, which includes several essential devices to set up. The devices within the networks, that is, those available within the homes are also expensive, yet needed to ensure the effective working of the system. For input of information, for example, microphones are needed, as mentioned above, while for the output of information, screens are required, or speakers, depending on the type of output.

Most persons also do not trust the incentives of the stakeholders of the smart home sector (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013). Though promising great energy savings among other benefits, the prospect of those at the top getting overtaken by greed and increasing prices to the point of rendering the savings irrelevant has caused some apprehension among home owners. The conflict of interest displayed by some institutions has been all too evident. For instance, the fact that smart homes save energy has been emphasized enough, even by energy generating companies, but the use of energy in its excesses has a direct benefit to the energy companies in terms of profits, which raises questions on the reasons for its backing (NazmiyeBalta-Ozkan, 2013).

As seen above, opting for a smart home system means large volumes of personal data will be collected by the various devices in the home. The collection of data exposes one’s home system to hackers who may access this information and use it to compromise the system by either changing how the devices work, or by introducing malware into the system, or carry out other cyber crimes such as theft. The hacking of the home system is not necessarily done through the usual devices such as laptops, but even simple devices such as smart bulbs (Burns, 2020). The smart lighting system is a major victim of hackers. The hacker may, for example, gain access to the smart hub that controls most of the devices, and cause the bulb to appear to malfunction, such as making it glitch. The owner will obviously take the bulb out to determine its issue, and eventually, will opt to take the bulb out of the system to try and fix it. On reintroducing the bulb to the system, however, the hacker takes advantage and gains access to bridges in the network, pumping large volumes of information into the system which may include malware (Burns, 2020). Hence, this manages to compromise the system through the simplest device in the house, the bulb.

To prevent hacking into the home system, some measures have to be put in place. First of all, it is the duty of the home owner to conduct conducive research on the type of devices that he/she purchases for her home. As said earlier, the devices in smart homes collect a lot of personal data on the tenants, hence it is imperative that the potential buyer looks into exactly what data the devices collects and thereafter determine its suitability for the home.

Devices, once bought come with their own default setting specified by the manufacturer. The settings may include passwords and the ways in which the system will work once incorporated into the smart home system. It is recommended that the user should first change the default manufacturer settings to his/her user-defined settings, including the password (Expertpanel, 2020). This because the default settings tend to be common across all similar devices, hence expose the devices to a greater risk of being accessed by hackers, siphoning information out of them.

The home owner should also take effective security measures on his/her own (Expertpanel, 2020). The first go-to measure should be the strengthening of passwords that are used in the system. The passwords should be changed in such a way as to make it as hard as possible to figure out by hackers, possibly by not using simple statements or easily identifiable details about you such as birthdays. This will go a long way in ensuring safety of data.

The data also should be stored in external storages as opposed to the provided cloud storages (Expertpanel, 2020). This because cloud storages are part of the vast internet where hackers thrive more than ever, and storing sensitive data there makes it easier to get the information. The storage of passwords on separate storages also makes it harder for hackers to get the passwords therefore making it extremely hard to gain access to the smart home network.

Another recommended measure would be to separate the home and guest networks (Expertpanel, 2020). This can be applied especially for Wi-Fi networks. The purpose of this is to grant access to the home network for guests without necessarily indulging them in information that is confidential and is of no use to them. This achieves in allowing enough freedom to tweak the home conditions to suit his/her tastes while also protecting information from unwarranted access.

Carrying out an audit on your home system is usually the most resorted to measure in ensuring security (Expertpanel, 2020). This entails hiring of professionals in the field of smart home networks to look into and assure the suitability of the security measures put in place. The conducting of an audit dispels any doubt on the security of one’s data, and prompts suggestions on improvements from a professional in the field.

The idea of smart homes, though still in its conception, already seems a breath of fresh air from early home concepts. It allows freedom in determining how one’s home will look like, aesthetically and function-wise, while satisfying its primary goal of ensuring comfort and convenience to the home owner. It, therefore, is a feasible idea that should be taken up in more households.

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