Turn your new Nashville home into a new Nashville smarthome
If the CIOs, CTOs and other executives of Forbes’ Technology Council are to be believed, that Jetsons life isn’t too far away.
In a recent piece stocked with “Predictions On The Next Smart Home Innovation,” those tech pros offered insight into what our Nashville homes might look like in the years to come.
There was no concrete timeframe outlined for these super-smart innovations — and admittedly, a few of them feel out of the sci-fi realm. But then, 15 years ago if you told me I’d be carrying the totality of human knowledge in my pocket at all times, I might have scoffed too.
Below, a few snippets of what they see coming, and the early versions you can integrate into your Nashville home right now.
The smart-home future and smart-home present
Smart-home prediction:
Voice-activated assistants will start tackling macro as well as micro tasks — not just “tell me the weather” for a quick readout, but “I want to chill” for soft music, dimmed lights and a poured drink.
Today’s version:
Voice assistants are pretty common already — even people who aren’t tech-y are trying them out. We like Amazon’s Echo Dot for a few reasons — it’s a really inexpensive way to dip your toes in the smart-home waters, and if you already have Amazon Prime, it’s kind of pre-primed to do some helpful stuff, like play streaming Amazon Music and re-order puppy food. If you want to get more in-depth, it works with lots of other gadgets too, like Nest thermostats. Your digital assistant Alexa may not work macro just yet, but you can easily give her a string of commands and get close to the prediction. Just no poured drink.
Smart-home prediction:
Your art/photos will change based on who’s in the room, controlled by your phone. Perfect for couples/roommates who have widely divergent taste in aesthetics and/or football teams.
Today’s version:
Digital frames are almost old news, but the tech keeps getting better and more nimble. A particularly good one: The Sungale Cloud Frame’s screen is really crisp, and it connects to the cloud, so your whole family can regularly feed into your scrolling photo gallery, from anywhere. Could be particularly cool if you have kids away at school, or friends in far-flung places that you want regular visual updates from.
Smart-home prediction:
Artificial Intelligence will move smart-home tech beyond maximizing the comfort of occupants, toward sensing health/well-being.
Today’s version:
Definitely seems like it’ll be a minute before our living room alerts us to an impending heart attack, but it’s interesting to think about. For now, we have wearable trackers that can help keep us moving and aware of heart rate, blood pressure and the like. We all know about these at this point — Fitbits are super popular. But most of them, unfortunately, are a little wanting in the looks department. A slightly lesser-known brand with better aesthetics: Jawbone. The UP2 does all the health-awareness stuff you need but by and large doesn’t make you look like you forgot to take your hospital band off.
Smart-home prediction:
GPS tech will alert the home to your impending arrival, so it can adjust to your liking, from temperature to sounds to scents.
Today’s version:
At least on the lighting front, we’re kinda there already: With the BeON Smart Security Lighting, you can use your phone to light up your house from the driveway, or your lights can turn on automatically by hearing your doorbell/alarm. The system learns your preferred lighting patterns, too, so even when you’re not there, the house’ll light up like you are.
Smart-home prediction:
a device for your home that will provide heat, and micro-generate electricity.
Today’s version:
It’s not that we don’t already have in-home options for energy generation; solar panels have been around for a good while. They’re just still not an option, cost-wise, for too many homes. Small gadgets that’ll give you a little boost are becoming more and more prevalent, though, like the Solartab, a portable solar power station with a 5.5W Solar Panel. It’s small enough to stick in your backpack, and you can use it to charge all your technology must-haves, like smartphones and laptops… it’ll get an iPhone powered up in 90 minutes. These might not be anywhere close to a smart-home electricity micro-generator, but they’re a step.
What are your thoughts on these predictions? Are you expecting to live in a super-smart home in the next decade, or are you perfectly happy with your switches and buttons? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
And if you’re looking to buy a home in Nashville — whether it’s high-tech or old-school — we’d love to work with you. Give Radius Residential Partners a call if we can help you with your Nashville house hunt.
Published on 2017-03-24 17:02:29
