Today, everything seems to be smart. We see a flood of new smart home devices coming out from global and small tech players.
Software giants Google and Amazon are competitively unveiling advanced voice-activated speakers while hardware behemoths Samsung, LG, GE and Philips are churning out the newest smart appliances and electronics. Small tech players are also showing off various smart gadgets such as bulbs, cameras, locks and lighting.
Despite the companies’ efforts to push out a plethora of smart devices, not many consumers have a clear concept of what constitutes a smart home. They are gradually introduced to some high-tech gadgets rather than a true connected home of multiple smart devices working together.
So, what is a smart home? The Korea Herald broke it down to three elements from the perspectives of construction firms, appliances makers and network providers.
In a nutshell, a smart home needs an automated infrastructure designed by builders. The automated home is then filled with smart appliances produced by electronics makers. Then comes a network connecting all the appliances with each other and allowing them to be remotely controllable.
Smart construction
Smart home construction involves control and automation of lighting, heating and air conditioning. Wi-Fi is used for remote monitoring and control.
A resident can unlock the door by scanning one’s face, iris or fingerprint, as one can experience at Raemian Gallery, designed by Samsung C&T, which exhibits various features smart construction can bring in the future.
Inside the home, temperature, air quality and lighting are controlled with a tablet PC called the home controller.
When one chooses movie mode, a curtain automatically closes while a TV wall moves back for wider viewing. The resident can also check the weather, temperature and news information through a Wi-Fi-connected mirror-like display.
To build such a system, construction companies must apply transparent display and biometric technologies. The transparent display serves as a platform controlling the smart functions and displaying home-related data. Biometric technologies are applied for security, using biological information such as a fingerprint, iris or face to replace passwords.
Recently, local construction firms are partnering with mobile carriers to add connectivity, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies to the process of building such smart homes.
In the latest move, SK Telecom signed a partnership with Hyundai Development Company to apply SKT’s AI and IoT technologies to HDC’s flagship IPark apartments, while KT partnered with Daelim E&C for a similar project.
A transparent display shows information while doubling as a mirror in a dressing room. (Samsung Display)
Smart devices
The smartly constructed home is then filed with appliances and devices that are connected via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, controlled via voice command and provide customized services with deep learning technologies.
Samsung recently unveiled its refrigerator that is equipped with a screen on the front and cameras inside so that one can see the contents without having to open the door. It receives users’ voice commands, orders groceries and offers entertainment features.
LG has introduced the voice-activated Hub Robot that serves as the main platform controlling other devices. The robot can take voice orders and operate devices like the vacuum and air cleaner.
KT and SK Telecom have also joined the smart home fever by introducing platform devices AI-based set-top box GiGa Genie and voice-enabled speaker NUGU, which provide simple voice command services to play music, ordering pizza and control lighting.
These smart appliances also require the latest technologies such as voice commands, Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies.
Voice has become the best way to control smart home system and devices. Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Samsung are developing their own voice assistant platforms.
Samsung is developing its own voice assistant technology Bixby, which will first be applied in its flagship smartphone Galaxy S8 and then into all of its home appliances gradually. LG partnered with Amazon to apply its voice service Alexa into LG’s new smart home devices.
The Internet of Things enables ordinary objects to connect and collect data by planting sensors and chips in devices or buildings. The technology is expected to be widely applied.
Artificial intelligence-related technologies including big data and deep learning are the core of smart appliances. How AI-based home appliances would change life at home is astounding, as they would provide customized services by learning users’ habits and surroundings through collected data.
LG Electronics’ Hub Robots are exhibited at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. (LG Electronics)
Network connecting smart devices
Last but not least comes the next-generation wireless network for the whole thing to work seamlessly -- and fast.
All smart home products require a solid, reliable networking infrastructure to function at their full potential.
The current 4G network is fast enough for all devices to be connected and controlled. However, a true smart home will be realized based on the upcoming 5G network, which will connect smart devices at a speed at least 267 times faster than is currently available and with less than 1-millisecond latency.
The 5G network will enable devices to not only save cumulative data in a cloud platform, but also capture users’ behaviors by analyzing the data and providing smarter and more customized services. For instance, a smart health care device can accumulate a user’s health information and provide meaningful information based on the cumulative data.
“The current LTE network is speedy enough to connect the latest IoT chip-embedded home appliances, but not enough to digest massive amounts of data from an increasing number of connected devices from homes,” said an engineer at SK Telecom.
Challenges facing the smart home
Despite such benefits, companies face challenges in selling their smart home vision to skeptical consumers.
First, there are concerns of enabling greater room for hackers to break into personal information such as health and financial information stored in the devices. Smart home devices, the security solution of which is much less sufficient than smartphones and digital electronics, are vulnerable to security issues.
According to the state-run Korea Internet & Security Agency, the number of weak spots of the Internet of Things, mainly wireless routers and internet protocol cameras, has increased precipitously since 2012. The number of IoT weak spots has risen from two in 2012 to 136 in 2016.
A second challenge is the compatibility of various smart appliances and devices developed by different companies. Devices developed by different manufacturers are not yet compatible.
All parties involved, including electronics makers, mobile carriers and construction companies promote their own overlapping products and smart home services.
With LG’s Hub Robot, you can control LG‘s refrigerator, TV or air conditioner, but not other devices made by Samsung or Whirlpool. In order to truly realize a smart home, the industry needs global standards and open platforms for all devices to be compatible.
Third, price is holding users back from buying smart devices. According to consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, roughly 1 in every 4 US internet user currently owns a smart home product. For the rest, price, not security or privacy, is the No. 1 purchase barrier for smart home devices. In fact, 23 percent of respondents said they wouldn’t consider a smart home device, even down the road, because it was too expensive.
Samsung’s latest fridge -- featuring voice recognition, deep learning, cloud access and connectivity -- unveiled on Tuesday is priced at 10.5 million won ($9,400), more than 30 percent higher than the ordinary Chef Collection refrigerator.
