Smart Homes: Innovating the Way We Live

This article explores the concept of smart homes, their history, present features, benefits, and drawbacks. It also discusses the impact of smart homes on society and provides insights into the future of smart home technology.

Smart House (Home)

Table of Contents
1 INTRODUCTION........................................................................................................................3
2 MAIN BODY...............................................................................................................................3
2.1 History of Smart Homes............................................................................................................3
2.2 Present Smart Homes.................................................................................................................4
2.2.1 Features of Present Smart Homes.......................................................................................4
2.2.2 Benefits and Drawbacks of Present Smart Homes.............................................................5
2.2.3 Effect on the Society...........................................................................................................6
2.3 Future of Smart Homes..............................................................................................................7
3 CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

1 INTRODUCTION
With the immense innovations, growth and change in the technological industries in the
digital age, new, exciting and innovative technologies have been created which have the
potential to drastically change the way human beings have lived for their entire existence. One
such technological innovation that has become popular recently is of Smart Homes. Smart homes
integrate together various advanced automated systems and IoT devices for all electrical
equipment and machines in the house such as temperature control, lighting, heater, TV, fridge,
radio etc. with the intention to automating their use for their owners even if they are not present
inside the house (Stojkoska and Trivodaliev, 2017). This makes the homes ‘smart’ as it can
effectively be run by systems and devices that are fully automated which can be also be manually
controlled by the owners based on their preferences and requirements. In addition, smart homes
also provide its owners and residents with significantly increased security as the smart home is
capable of recognising the authorised individuals who are allowed to enter the home and is able
to record information about external forces that try to break into the smart house for nefarious
purposes through webcams, CCTV cameras and microphones.
2 MAIN BODY
2.1 History of Smart Homes
Though the application of smart homes is only seen nowadays, through its increasingly
popular use amongst consumers, it has been in development for quite a long period of time. The
concept and idea for smart homes began with the creation of remote controlled devices by the
great inventor Nikola Tesla in 1898. Then throughout the industrial revolution of the 1900s
increasing technological innovations paved the way for the kind of smart homes that we see
today (Fernandes, Jung and Prakash, 2016). Between 1901 and 1930, as most home appliances
that we see today were developed and increasingly adopted by the urban populations such as the
refrigerators, TV, radios, vacuum cleaners etc. innovators looked for ways that would make these
devices automated and remotely controlled as had been shown by Tesla. Throughout the decades

as more and more home appliances were created and adopted such as washing machines,
toasters, innovators looked for ways to make these machines smart. From the 1930’s onwards
innovators looked for technologies that would allow for these devices to be automated and
remotely controlled but the first actual concept didn’t materialise until 1966, when the iconic and
innovative Echo IV was created with the intention to make home appliances smart. The Echo IV
was an autonomous smart system, which was capable of controlling the home’s temperatures,
compute digital shopping lists and turn the home appliances on and off remotely (Dorri and
et.al., 2017). Then came the Kitchen Computer system which further innovated smart homes and
was capable of which was also able to digitally store cooking recipes, but was a commercial
failure in the consumer markets.
In the 1990’s as the prices of microcontrollers became cheap enough for the commercial
homes, various new technological systems were created to further develop smart homes. One of
the most iconic systems was the ‘Gerontechnology’ which combined the medical field of
gerontology with technological innovations of the time with the intention to service the medical
needs and requirements of old people, which ended by birthing an entire field later for smart
homes.
2.2 Present Smart Homes
The smart homes currently present are highly innovative and advanced when compared to
their historical counterparts, having capabilities that old innovators deem impossible due to the
rapid advancement in technology and machine learning algorithms. These smart home
autonomous systems are marketed effectively thus making the industry a rapidly grow and
expand in terms of productivity, profitability and customer base.
2.2.1 Features of Present Smart Homes
There are various features that all current smart homes possess with the intention of
effectively and efficiently service their owners and residents such as:
Automation: Automation is the feature of the current smart homes that allows for its carious
appliances and equipment such as lighting, heating and cooling systems, lighting etc., to be
completely automated through the use of various IoT sensors and controlling systems that

monitor these appliances functions in order to provide the most seamless and efficient use to
residents of the smart homes (Wilson, Hargreaves and Hauxwell-Baldwin, 2017). The aim
behind automation in smart homes is to provide its residents with a comfortable, hassle-free, safe
and economic environment that takes into account the needs and requirement of the residents.
Remote Access: Another defining feature of present smart homes is their ability to allows its
residents to control and change all operational setting of their home appliances and equipment
remotely, even if they are not present in the geographical vicinity of the house. Residents can
make use of various remote controls, IoT Devices, smartphone applications etc. to remotely
access their home equipment as per their needs and requirements.
Energy Management: Smarty homes have become immensely smart in the digital age through
the use if IoT sensors with the intention to make optimum and efficient use of energy without
putting any onus of efficient energy management on the users. Smart homes are able to
effectively manage the energy requirements of the home’s apparels so that wastage of energy due
to misuse is effectively mitigated by sensors and monitoring devices.
Safety: Smart homes are also equipped with CCTV cameras and safety mechanisms which allow
the home to restrict the entry of unauthorised people into the house, without the explicit
command of the owner (Zhou and et.al., 2016). This effectively increases the safety and security
of the residents in addition to keeping track of all the people who visited the house premises for
routine purposes such as mailman, delivery man etc.
2.2.2 Benefits and Drawbacks of Present Smart Homes
Smart homes provide their owners and residents with a plethora of advantages that far
outweigh the drawbacks they impose through their application. Some of these advantages are as
follows:
Elder Care: One of the most significant benefit that smart homes provide is through their ability
to effectively and efficiently take care of the needs and requirements of the elder people of
families when they have to live alone for various purposes (Hargreaves, Wilson and Hauxwell-
Baldwin, 2018). Smart homes are capable of integrating various emergency systems, timers,
sensors which can monitor and record the health requirements of elder people so that they can

effectively be met, even if the older people become forgetful or negligent towards their
healthcare needs.
Child and Pets: Smart homes also allow their owners or residents to dynamically monitor the
lives and safety of their kids and pets alone in the house through remotely accessible CCTV
cameras in the house, which is of immense use to parents and owners who have to leave their
kids, pets alone in house due to various chores.
Economic: As smart homes are capable of functioning autonomously with the intention to make
efficient use of energy, they significantly decrease the energy consumption of family homes as
they are able to sense when an appliance or equipment is no longer needed by users and turns it
off, constantly saving avoidable expenses such as temperature control, lighting etc.
Though the smart homes do not have many significant drawbacks that hamper their
usability, the security of the automation systems from external forces such as hackers is a major
drawback to these innovations. As the number and complexity of cyber-attacks increases, so too
does the threat they impose on the widespread use of smart homes (Alaa and et.al., 2017). If the
smart home system gets compromised, the hackers would effectively gain control over the entire
house, its appliances, cameras, functions, data, everything. This would be a major breach of
privacy of the residents and could have immensely negative effects on their life, safety and
security.
2.2.3 Effect on the Society
The smart homes have had an immense impact on the society at large not just in terms of
what a traditional home meant to human beings for our entire existence, but also in terms of what
a home is capable of accomplishing with the effective use of technology. Smart homes have
completely redefined the definition of what a home is and what it is capable of performing with
the intention to easing the lives of the residents and owners of the smart homes while providing
them with increased safety and security in increasingly troubled times. As Smart homes are
capable of integrating together various burglar alarms, CCTV cameras and protection
mechanisms, they have increased the life expectancy of residents by providing them with
increased security against robbers and criminals who have nefarious intentions to harm the
residents for personal and financial gains (Kang, Moon and Park, 2017). This is a major impact

of smart homes on the overall society as this level of safety and security was not able for the
public homes in any previous period of human existence.
Smart homes have also had an immense impact on the energy consumption of the human
society in an age where the public has grown immensely concerned about the harmful effects
that overuse of energy has on the global environment and climate. As smart homes are capable of
dynamically monitoring and sensing the best time to turn home appliances and equipment off,
when they are no longer used by the residents such as temperature controlling systems, lights,
geysers, TV etc., they significantly decrease the amount of avoidable energy that is traditionally
used by homes, helping both the residents with lower energy costs and the external environment
and climate with reduced energy used.
Smart homes have also had immensely positive effect on human society, through its
ability to perform minor health check-ups, record medical data, remind timers for medication etc.
all of which have transformed the lives of the aging sections of the society, further increasing
their life expectancy (Raj, 2018). Smart homes are also capable of informing healthcare and
emergency authorities, in cases where the older resident has had a medical emergency and is
incapable of communicating.
2.3 Future of Smart Homes
The future of smart home industries is even brighter than its present counterpart. As the
implementation and adoption of smart homes increases with its growing popularity, it will
effectively address the primary drawbacks that the current smart homes provide to its users and
residents mainly in the form of digital safety and security of the autonomous systems present in
all smart homes. As the adoption rate of smart homes increases, so too will the protection
methods and capabilities of safety algorithms designed to safeguard the digital system from
external cyber-attacks from nefarious forces (Chua, Foo and Juboor, 2020). This will provide the
smart homes with robust and innovative ways to protect themselves against hackers and
criminals, thus further increasing the popularity and adoption rate of smart homes in the
consumer markets. Future improvement in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and context based
reasoning also have immense potential to further innovate the operations of the current smart

homes, allowing them to serve their residents through unique ways which are impossible through
the current technology such as AI virtual assistants and automated home robots.
3 CONCLUSION
Based on the finding of this report, it can be concluded that smart homes have effectively
innovated the definition and functions of a traditional home to better service the growing needs
and requirements of human beings in the digital age. Smart homes have continuously innovated
their technology in the past decades and the current technology available in the consumer
markets has finally allowed smart home systems to just revolutionise the capabilities of
traditional homes while making it economically efficient for the consumers to switch towards
these innovative home solutions because of the numerous benefits they provide and the ease with
which operate and integrate together the various home appliances, equipment and systems
together to improve their usability, provide consumers with additional safety and security while
decreasing and managing their energy requirement to meet the optimal levels of productivity.
Though the current smart homes already provide consumers with numerous advantages, the
future of the smart home industries is even brighter as it would effectively address the current
drawbacks that the technology imposes on the functions and capabilities of present era smart
homes through innovation of better technologies and safety algorithms.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alaa, M. and et.al., 2017. A review of smart home applications based on Internet of Things.
Journal of Network and Computer Applications. 97. pp.48-65.
Chua, S.L., Foo, L.K. and Juboor, S.S.D.S., 2020. Towards real-time recognition of activities in
smart homes. International Journal of Advanced Intelligence Paradigms. 15(2). pp.146-
164.
Dorri, A. and et.al., 2017, March. Blockchain for IoT security and privacy: The case study of a
smart home. In 2017 IEEE international conference on pervasive computing and
communications workshops (PerCom workshops) (pp. 618-623). IEEE.
Fernandes, E., Jung, J. and Prakash, A., 2016, May. Security analysis of emerging smart home
applications. In 2016 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (SP) (pp. 636-654).
IEEE.
Hargreaves, T., Wilson, C. and Hauxwell-Baldwin, R., 2018. Learning to live in a smart home.
Building Research & Information. 46(1). pp.127-139.
Kang, W.M., Moon, S.Y. and Park, J.H., 2017. An enhanced security framework for home
appliances in smart home. Human-centric Computing and Information Sciences. 7(1).
p.6.
Raj, K.B., 2018, October. Smart Grid Technology for Smart Homes—Risks and Benefits. In
ICRTEMMS Conference Proceedings (Vol. 634, No. 640, pp. 634-640). Swarna
Bharathi lnstitute of Science and Technology.
Stojkoska, B.L.R. and Trivodaliev, K.V., 2017. A review of Internet of Things for smart home:
Challenges and solutions. Journal of Cleaner Production. 140. pp.1454-1464.
Wilson, C., Hargreaves, T. and Hauxwell-Baldwin, R., 2017. Benefits and risks of smart home
technologies. Energy Policy. 103. pp.72-83.
Zhou, B. and et.al., 2016. Smart home energy management systems: Concept, configurations,
and scheduling strategies. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 61. pp.30-40.