Jason s Rant on Smart Homes and not so

Jason’s Rant on Smart Homes (and not so smart) Jason I. Hong jasonh at cs cmu edu

When Smart Homes Go Bad • “Remove a quart of milk. There’s a Chernobyl-like chain reaction. The fridge scans the bar code as the carton leaves. It e-mails the grocery dot-com and a delivery service. The broken coffee maker, misinterpreting a burst of e-mail, jumps into action with a vague burning stench. ” - Bruce Sterling

My Position on Smart Homes • Research community should focus less on gizmos, more on existing activities – Child care: getting kids to school, caring for babies – Home maintenance: lights, termites, bills – Family coordination: kids, grandparents, friends • Research community should also remember that houses are part of a bigger picture – Part of the local environment – Part of the local community – Part of larger activities (work, play, health, family) • Smart homes aren’t just about the house!

Rant Overview • What are smart homes good for? – (Other than making Bill Gates richer…) – “Useful” scenarios and ideas • How to make it happen? – What are the research issues? – What about the economics? – And social resistance?

What are Smart Homes Good For? • • • “Green” Houses Connection with friends, family, and neighbors Personal Health Entertainment Home Security The Truly Boring that Should Stay Boring

What are Smart Homes Good For? “Green” Houses • • Value proposition: save energy and money “Are my windows leaking warm air in winter? ” “Did you know you can save water if…” “Opening up the windows could increase sunlight. ”

What are Smart Homes Good For? Connection with friends, family, and neighbors • • • Value proposition: stay in touch, know your neighbors Carpooling Always on connection with close friends “How much is our community recycling? ” Wi. Fi Neighbor. Node I’m leaving now

What are Smart Homes Good For? Personal Health • • Value proposition: stay in better health “Great weather outside, how about walking today? ” “Pickup ultimate game going on in Schenley, how about it? ” Smart toilets

What are Smart Homes Good For? Entertainment • • Value proposition: cool gadgets and great fun Smart toys Home theaters Video games – How about make it easier to find neighbors and compete? – Games where you learn something “useful”?

What are Smart Homes Good For? Home Security • • Value proposition: safety for you and your family “Is the gas leaking? ” “What’s in the water? ” “Is the oven off? ”

What are Smart Homes Good For? The Truly Boring that Should Stay Boring • • Value proposition: We’ll warn you before it’s too late “Are (ants / termites / roaches) invading? ” “Are my sewer pipes okay? ” (Yuk!) “Your plants need water…”

What are Smart Homes Good For? And some not so good ideas… • “Everything from opening curtains to turning on lights or the air conditioner can be controlled from the plasma-display television in the living room using a single remote control. ” • “The house never runs out of beer. When there are only three cans of beer left in the refrigerator, an email order for more will be sent to a store. ” • “Get off the lawn, you’re drunk again!”

Research Issues with Smart Homes • • Unified Interaction Experience Sensing errors Personalization Deployability

Research Issues with Smart Homes Unified Interaction Experience • Problem: – Doesn’t seem to be a winner-take-all market – Interoperability? Emergent properties? Mental models? – “Why did my house do that? ” • Some ideas: – Design patterns for the home (ex. , power cycle) – What kinds of mental models work better? – Are certain aspects winner-take-all? • Home photos, home videos, etc? • Prognostication: – De facto standards (a la Microsoft or Sony or Krupps) – Will remain very messy for a long time

Research Issues with Smart Homes Sensing Errors • Problem: – “If one family member often goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night, the system is able to adapt to this habit. When the person gets up from bed, the house automatically warms up the toilet seat and lights up the way to the bathroom. The house will also turn the toilet-seat heater and lights off as the person is going back to the bedroom. ” – Women stuck in “smart” toilet stall • Some ideas: – Better error handling techniques – Decision theory / Economics, ie very low cost or high benefit – Keep sensing but defer action to people • Prognostication: – More horror stories to come, stay tuned

Research Issues with Smart Homes Personalization • Problem: – How to get personalized services? • Ex. HVAC, mobile phones, music • Some ideas: – Programming must seem like it’s not “programming” • Thermostat • Tivo thumbs-up and thumbs-down – Research emphasizes flexibility, need to focus on simplicity • Prognostication: – Going to hear lots of horror stories within 10 years – Going to hear lots of cool innovation here too

Research Issues with Smart Homes Deployability • Problem: – How to move from research concept to real homes? • Some ideas: – – • Incremental deployment, Home Depot approach Managing power, can’t replace hundreds of batteries a day Maintenance, needs to just work Marketing • People don’t want to be green, they want to save money Prognostication: – Insurance companies will advocate (like The Club) – Bundled with entertainment (XBox) and media (Apple) – Will start in office buildings, slowly move to homes

Other Half-baked Thoughts • “The interior of your own walls is less known to you than the far side of the moon – because you could summon up a detailed picture of the Jules Verne Crater on a Web site, pronto. ” -- Bruce Sterling • Every appliance will have Wi. Fi in it in 10 years – Implications? Network security? New interactions? • All data will come in via IP – Implications of Voice over IP? TV over IP? – New services? Programmability? End-user innovation?

Closing Thoughts • Smart homes shouldn’t (just) be about the gadgets Smart homes shouldn’t (just) be about the house • Smart homes will be very messy for a long time • – But lots of opportunities • Think about merging liberal democratic goals with good marketing and good tech – Environmentally “green” houses – Strong vibrant communities – Stronger family interactions