Q: What new advances in smart appliances and smart home technology will have the biggest impact for consumers moving forward?
By Tally Kaplan Porat, director, Corporate Marketing, Orbotech
Unquestionably, the next advance, or more aptly—“revolution”—for smart appliances and smart home technology will be the introduction of 5G communications. WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity have already made a noticeable impact on smart homes today, enabling the introduction of video doorbells, fully-connected entertainment systems, communicating thermostats, and countless other devices. Consumers have quickly become accustomed to some level of electronic intelligence.
5G, with predictions of speeds at up to 10 Gbps, which is a hundred times faster than the current 4G technology, will advance capacity and connectivity far beyond current levels, with some customers experiencing exponential performance increases. An example from the Consumer Technology Association suggests a two-hour movie could be downloaded in just three and a half seconds on 5G, versus six minutes on 4G or 26 hours on 3G. Not to mention, 5G’s projected ability to support higher amounts of traffic (100x more devices versus 4G) may expand augmented reality and virtual reality applications in the home. Existing 5G-enhanced appliances will have faster response times and lower latency, which could enable life-saving security system capabilities and a vastly improved entertainment experience for video, music and other media. Eventually, the new performance will trickle down to every digitally-enabled device in the home, improving everything from utility meters to pet tracking technologies. Traditional home appliances will grow in capability, and new, not-yet-envisioned technologies will also be developed.
The question is when this new high-speed digital reality will appear in home appliances, and the answer is nuanced. Full 5G technology implementation in the home requires 5G enablement across the network, including a build-out from the wireless operators’ infrastructure to in-home modems and then on to the appliances themselves. Large telecom carriers such as Verizon and AT&T are projecting 5G networks in 2020, but this is just the beginning. It isn’t clear when 5G communications will finally reach the threshold of individual homes, but when it does, it will trigger a whirlwind of updates to existing appliances and new 5G-driven technology additions. As with all revolutions, the old, lesser performing devices will likely be phased out.
A true benefit of 5G implementation will be the delivery of fixed wireless broadband services that may bring capabilities equal to fiber or cable connectivity currently unavailable to a large population around the world. These new end-users will reap all the benefits of the full network experience, including smart home appliances.
By Hussein Osman, product marketing manager, Lattice Semiconductor
The widespread use of voice to interact with smartphones, tablets, and personal assistance systems has jump-started the use of voice as the Human-Machine Interface (HMI) of choice across other technologies. In today’s smart homes, for example, users can ask Alexa to turn on or off lights, lock doors, and adjust thermostats. As this technology becomes more commonplace, demand is building for technical solutions that increase the interaction between humans and machines using highly accurate, compact, and power-efficient Neural Network-based key phrase detection solutions. Unlike cloud-connected Neural Network (NN) key phrase detection implementations that require network connectivity, edge-based solutions perform all computing at the edge and do not record or transmit data to the cloud.
The industry is making this shift for reasons of cost, service assurance, and security. For instance, solutions that run a key phrase detection algorithm on a server in the cloud must pay for usage by the minute every time they access resources in the cloud. And designers that plug their design into a pre-existing infrastructure will see their costs rise as they move to a WiFi model that requires a more powerful processor to acquire the data, analyze it, send it over to the edge device, and listen to the command over WiFi.
Moreover, relying on an internet connection brings additional risks. Using an internet connection to transmit data to the cloud can lead to interruptions in service if the connection goes down. Transmitting data over the internet also poses a potential hacking risk. And from the user’s perspective, internet connectivity opens the door to privacy violations and security concerns. Edge solutions that rely on computational resources located directly on the device avoid these potential problems.
Such a solution is found in a new generation of very low power field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). Designers can now build key phrase detection solutions that perform all computing at the edge and thereby eliminate the connectivity, security, and privacy concerns associated with cloud-connected NN key phrase detection implementations.
By Jay Johnson, senior marketing manager, Home Appliance Solutions, Renesas Electronics America, Inc.
The kitchen is the heart of the home. It’s a gathering place for family and friends. A place for children to do their homework, enjoy milk and cookies, and smell freshly baked bread. And a place to laugh and cry. What if we could make it even more personal, while making meal preparation fast and fun. That’s the idea behind the Smart Kitchen.
To paraphrase one of the major white goods manufacturers: “With all the advances in machine learning and AI, the value of smart home appliances should be to help make you more productive and comfortable, not replace you with a robot.”
Enter a new breed of home appliances that help make the kitchen a fun gathering place for cooking and family time together. Here are some of the Smart Home technologies Renesas is bringing into the home with embedded-AI (e-AI):
- Wave: 3D gesture with capacitive touchless microcontroller technology
- Voice: Endpoint voice recognition for hands-free cooking commands
- Visual: Image and object detection to let you know what’s in the fridge and what’s good/bad for perfect looking food just like the recipe picture
We all know what smart speakers have done: “Turn on XX,” “Start timer,” “What’s this?,” “Play music,” etc. But, what if that technology didn’t require a cloud connection?
Do we really need the internet to cook a bag of popcorn? We are already seeing this form of machine learning with an affordable embedded MPU built right into the appliance. For example, with gesture control, a simple wave of the hand can turn on a vent hood fan or stove light. Do you want your dinner to turn out just like the picture in the recipe? Image recognition can do that by assisting while the food is cooking in the oven, letting you know you are on track.
These are just some of the technologies coming into their own as we bring the power of the data center into the kitchen in the form of a microwave, fridge, oven, stove, or dishwasher.
By Erik Peters, product marketing manager, BLE at Dialog Semiconductor
The low power consumption footprint and hardware costs of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) make it the ideal communications standard for connecting smart home devices, ranging from door bells, security sensors, and lights to thermostats, remote controls, and smart wall outlets. The ubiquitous presence of Bluetooth in phones makes it even easier for users to have seamless, scalable control of their smart home devices.
We expect to see three major BLE developments shape the future of smart appliances and smart home technologies for consumers:
- Mesh Networking—BLE supports mesh networking, which enables “many-to-many” communication between multiple Bluetooth devices. This extends the range of Bluetooth to every corner of the house and property, so that all smart home devices can be overseen by a single point of control (e.g. the homeowner’s phone).
- Security and Data Encryption—As smart devices around the house continue to collect data about our lives and daily routines, from detecting when we’re home to tracking health metrics, the demands for data protection and privacy are going to rapidly increase. BLE enables secure connections on smart home devices via end-to-end encryption. Secure key storage and authentication enables applications like mobile payment (e.g. “tap to order”) and access control (e.g. smart door locks) while also safeguarding data privacy.
- Location Services with Bluetooth 5.1 ‘Direction Finding’—Bluetooth 5.1 brings location positioning method like Angle of Arrival and Angle of Departure to BLE systems, allowing smart home devices to detect when they’re in proximity to each other. This opens several possibilities for the smart home, particularly for “follow me” applications. For instance: when a user is detected to enter a certain room, smart home devices could automatically play music, adjust the lights, and turn on the heat, according to that user’s preferred settings.