SMART TECHNOLOGY
Eyes and ears of the home The advent of ‘ambient sensing’ in the smart home by Mark Lippett, CEO, XMOS
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or the everyday consumer, when you talk about the smart home, the image of a suburban HAL 9000 still lingers — speak to any appliance and it’ll do your bidding. The reality in the present day is that smart homes just aren’t… well, smart. Deloitte cites four main categories of connected device in
30 | Summer 2021 | SMART AUTOMATION
the everyday home: computers, entertainment, health, and home utility. Useful, familiar, and interconnected — but intelligent? Well, not exactly. For starters, these devices have been around a long time. The first iPad launched in 2010; Philips first-gen Hue lightbulbs went on sale in 2012, with the first Echo following a year later. As
convenient as these devices can be, there is a risk of mistaking ease of use and novel interaction with genuine intelligence. What’s more, nowadays consumer smart home products don’t extend too far beyond Alexa or Google Home — and if they do, it’s within an enclosed ‘family’ of products. Manufacturers are
