Smart home hubs and connected devices change the way in which you interact with your home’s security. 2019 will see the emergence of home automation and security trends that look more like science fiction than reality. Ready or not, next gen homes are here.
The future is now, and you better be ready for autonomous drones, security patrol robots, artificial intelligence, and so much more. This article is your list of the 10 upcoming next gen home automation and security trends for 2019.
What Is a “Next Gen” Home? – IoT, Automation, and Security
A next gen home uses of the Internet of Things (IoT) to automate your home’s energy conservation and security measures. In other words, next gen homes are “smart” homes.
The Internet of Things lets your personal electronics, home appliances, entertainment systems, and security hardware communicate with each other remotely.
Top 10 Trends for 2019 – Home Automation & Security
Upcoming next gen home trends in 2019 will see the emergence of mainstream artificial intelligence (AI) machine learning features. Get ready for the top 10 trends for home automation and security in 2019.
1. Smart Home Hubs
Amazon and Google’s smart home hubs open up new avenues of innovation in next gen home automation and security. Smart hubs reshape home automation into a tangible reality for the masses. And, in 2019, home security systems are about to get a whole lot smarter.
2. Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things is the physical hardware and products with which you interface using internet connectivity. A smart home Alexa enabled nightstand clock is as much a part of IoT as your smartphone.
IoT enables different elements of your home to seamlessly communicate, as well as provides the necessary tools to monitor and control your IoT remotely.
3. Smart Sensors
IoT and smart sensors complement and extend each other’s functionality. Your next gen homes IoT and security system use smart sensors to monitor, analyze, and take action on a wide variety of occurrences.
Everything, from checking the temperature to alerting you to a break in utilizes smart sensor technology.
An example of the benefits IoT provides is a security alarm. A standard security measure for your front door features a sensor that triggers an alarm. When the door is locked, the sensor is active, and the alarm acts to deter the intruder and alert those in the house.
With IoT, the sensor triggers the alarm and sends an alert to your smartphone and computer. IoT lets you monitor and manage your home’s security even if you are away.
4. Smart Home Automation
Automation is at the heart of next gen homes for 2019. Automation is the process of scheduling events and actions for your home’s connected IoT. Instead of manual commands, like switching on the lights, the lights come on automatically.
You can automate smart IoT on a time-event basis or a non-scheduled event basis. If you want your lights to turn on and off at a set time each day, that is a time-event. A non-scheduled event would be lights that come on when the door to the room is opened and go off when it closes, for example.
When it comes to appliances, you can automate your home’s heat, air conditioning, blinds, oven, and more. Why waste energy on climate control in the middle of the afternoon when no one is home? You can even connect light sensors to your smart blinds.
Did you know that your television draws energy every second that it is plugged into an active outlet, even when the power is off? Plug your TV into a smart outlet and stop it from drawing useless energy. By automating your climate control, lights, and entertainment systems, you save money and energy.
There are no limitations to how far you can automate your next gen home. With some know-how on building a circuit, you can convert your home’s electrics to comply with your smart-home hub.
5. Next Gen Home Security
Next gen home security is rooted in smart home automation and IoT. Imagine going away for vacation and never having to worry if your home is in danger. No matter how far from home you go, your smartphone, tablet, and computer give you access to real-time monitoring of your home.
Next gen home design includes smart door locks, doorbells, window locks, surveillance, and more. The next generation home will enable you to control your home’s security and access privileges from your phone.
Real-time monitoring and alerts give you the ability to contact emergency services as soon as a problem arises. You are able to seamlessly contact police, firefighters, or other rescue services from your smart security systems app.
With smart doorbell cameras and smart locks, you can deny or grant access to your home remotely. And you get notified when members of your family come and go.
6. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine Learning
Artificial intelligence might sound like it’s science-fiction, but the future is now. AI is being used by the biggest organizations on earth for data analysis. Machine learning has been developed to the point that it is ready for full-scale rollout in 2019.
In a next gen home, AI machine learning technology takes automation to a new level. AI gives your home security system the capability to actively learn about your home and family to better keep you safe.
A doorbell camera gives you the ability to see who is at your front door when you are away. But what if you are in a meeting and can’t look at your phone to grant or deny access? AI machine learning gives your security system the intelligence to delineate trusted individuals from strangers.
These AI programs use facial recognition technology to identify and catalog individuals that come and go from your home. Your home security system can autonomously determine who is at the door. It knows when you are coming home, what you look like, what your kids look like, and what your family’s patterns are.
Through a diverse network of sensors and monitoring tools, your AI responds to and alerts you of any abnormal occurrences like smoke, intrusion, carbon monoxide, and loud noises.
It recognizes abnormalities and alerts you to suspicious activity. It locks your doors for strangers and opens the door for family. Get ready for your new artificially intelligent next gen home.
7. Smart Home Video Surveillance
A surveillance camera is a great tool for security and remote monitoring. But a camera that can tell you what it sees is even better. Home video surveillance gets a whole lot smarter in 2019.
Commercial entities, governments, and militaries have used AI detection for many years. But in 2019, the consumer market gets their hands on the technology.
Your home security cameras can do so much more than see what happens. They can tell you what just happened.
Your AI smart home video surveillance can tell the difference between a package, a person you trust, a person you don’t trust, animals, or natural occurrence.
It alerts you if it sees a person take a nasty spill outside your home, or if it observes vandalism. It tells the difference between breathing and inanimate objects.
Cameras have more spectral versatility than the human eye. Your smart surveillance detects heat signatures with infrared mode and hears subtle whispers with sound enhancing microphones. Your cameras become the eyes and ears of your home.
8. Smart Video Searching
The AI technology in your cameras gives rise to a new kind of database analysis: video searching.
The AI machine learning tech in your security cameras enables smart video searches. Search for people, things, activities, text, and more. With smart video searching, your security cameras can delineate between your friend, their hat, swinging a baseball bat, and the text on their hat which reads “Cubs”.
As the system gains more information on you and your needs, it determines the difference between useful and extraneous information.
9. Neighborhood Watch 2.0
Your home security system cameras monitor and report on activity around your house. They also see what happens across the street. Some companies, like Vivint and Ring, provide a centralized surveillance service.
In the event of a break in or theft, your surveillance system becomes every camera on the block. The more cameras that are connected to a joint service provider, the more surveillance that can be leveraged when needed.
10. Home Cloud Storage
In 2019, home cloud storage products will be more affordable and available than ever before. Remember the days when a 16GB flash drive was a lot of storage? Imagine having your own cloud storage with a few terabytes of capacity.
Instead of paying for a monthly cloud storage service, like OneDrive or Dropbox, just get your own storage. Home cloud storage servers are no larger than an internet router. Store your media content, important documents, and IoT sensor data securely on your private server.
Final Thoughts: Next Gen Home Trends
2019 is going to see a wide range of smart home upgrades. The next gen homes of 2019 provide peace of mind through technological advances in security automation and machine learning capabilities. It might not be long until you have a Jetsons-like robot.
If you enjoyed reading about next gen home trends, share this article with a friend on social media. And check out our blog for more on the physics and technology of smart homes. Thanks for reading!