Internet of Things to change the way homes and valuables will be managed

Imagine converting your home into a tiny smart living ecosystem where everything is automated and connected to the internet and controlled from your smartphone.

From wall clocks, lights, fridges, cookers, hot water heaters, iron boxes, televisions, sub-woofers, cameras, windows, doors, chandeliers, beds to your car and entry gate, all these can be managed from a mobile app.

It is not science fiction but all these devices can be programmed to communicate to each other and send you information about what is happening to each of them, and follow your commands, only your commands. Biometrics is gradually reshaping device security.

This home automation is soon becoming a reality, as humans get more innovative to save time, enhance home security, live healthier and create a virtual social order in their homes.

Cases of misplacing items in the house, devices malfunctioning without prior warning or disease causing organisms entering your living room without your knowledge will soon be history, especially with the deployment of 5G network in Kenya by 2025.

We have had cases in Kenya, for example, of house helps maltreating babies by battering them, teaching them sex or denying them food. They have also been accused of selling food stuffs whenever the home owners are away.

But with the Internet of Things (IoT), this will be a thing of the past as surveillance cameras placed at certain corners of the house record everything and sending the data to your phone in real time.

It will therefore be easier for you to take proactive measures to stop vices that happen in your absence. “Hello X police station. My name is Ms Y. Please go to XX estate house number 111 and stop my maid from beating up my child.” Such reporting will soon be on the rise.

“With the updated Google Assistant, Google is bringing its AI efforts closer to common people and small businesses as it continues to give its products a human touch. In future, we will see smarter IoT devices, just what Google Home has become. Google Assistant is emerging from a Google product to an entire device-independent platform that will power conversational IoT devices in the future,” says Ubaid Pisuwala, co-founder of Peerbits and Entrepreneurship.

He adds that the time is not far when we would have Google Assistant enabled air conditioners, thermostats, refrigerators and other IoT devices.

“Together, all our Google Assistant-enabled devices would work in unison and could be controlled from one another. Like I can ask the Assistant on my Pixel to turn on the air conditioner in the living room. Likewise, I can ask the Google Assistant on my air conditioner to ring my Pixel,” says Mr Pisuwala.

You have heard of thieves who mysteriously climb into houses and make away with valuables. IoT will enable you to see such pilferers and stop them before they even reach your ceiling.

This will be made possible by a camera with features like a powerful 1080p image sensor, motion and sound detection, night vision, mechanical pan and tilt, time-lapse and event-triggered video recording, and a motion-tracking feature that allows the camera to follow a person around the room.

Give it cloud storage, an SD card slot for local storage, and support for mobile and desktop integration, and you've got a valuable and reliable indoor security.

It has been over reported that over 30 percent of world food goes to waste. Imagine a fridge configured to send you an alert when certain foods are about to go bad. Measuring family food requirements will help you avoid preparing excess food and drinks.

“We have the latest in smart devices on television that can be mirrored to mobile devices to share pictures of loved ones watch movies while at the same time be able to send instructions to your washing machine from your mobile to start the process while in the office.

“We also have refrigerators that can be able to check online for the contents that you need to have through your phone,” said Mr Charles Kimari, Samsung Electronics East Africa’s head of mobile division when he spoke exclusively to Digital Business.

Here in Kenya, we have witnessed Smart TVs interconnection to smart phones or tablets. “This is also available through washing machines though at a very low scale in Kenya. The prices for smart TVs range from Sh30,000 to Sh350,000 depending on size and specification while our smartphones are priced at between Sh7,000 and Sh110,000,” said Mr Kimari.

Availability of real time data that tells you when you need to go shopping, where items will be delivered by drones after online payment, and what to top up to balance your diet will come handy in living a healthy life. Undercooked or overcooked food notifications will help you prevent diseases and save energy respectively.

A door app that monitors entry and exit of family members will provide key information when some items disappear from the house. “Hello Mr K, there’s a new person in your house. He’s entered at 10.11 am. He’s left at 12.04pm.” Such alerts will be the new normal in monitoring who enters your house with your spouse’s permission.

Mattresses will be automated to send notifications when another person apart from your spouse lies on it. This is already happening, with smart devices taking the height and physical countenance of the visitor and sending it to house’s owner. No more cheating? You can say that confidently.

A unique wall switch that uses internet to connect to your phone and let you play music via sub-woofer, switch TV channels, control lighting, set thermostat temperatures, and see who is at your door and window will replace remote control gadgets.

You can remotely control the water temperature in your shower from phone, tablet, or desktop.

Smart bulbs can now let you control not only the intensity of the light in your room but also the color. You can also listen to soothing music from your mobile connected chandelier that also offers video playback.

A light switch that connects to your Wi-Fi and controlled using a mobile app allows avails to you breaking news, weather predictions and sports scores.

A new baking device takes out the guesswork and risk for new cooks. It's a baking scale connected to an app to help novices get everything right when it comes to kitchen chemistry.

You only need to follow the app as the scale measures everything you add. As long as you can tell salt from sugar, you're probably going to be the best pastry chef in your hood.

If you are tired of cleaning your house every now and then, especially during school holidays, a robot vacuum cleaner will help you. You only control it via an app on your phone. And you can clean your house while still at work.

But vacuum cleaning is not enough. A small, quiet, and perfect device for you will spray a jet of water to clean deep, and can even do damp sweeping.

For those who love tracking their body fat, Body Mass Index (BMI), water, muscle mass, bone composition, and even pregnancy, the QardioBase 2 device. It shares the date it reads with a smartphone app for your easy access.

A number of ways to track your sleep patterns exist these days, from fitness trackers to smartwatches, but nothing feels better than your mattress itself.

A smart bed incorporates biometric sensors to help you snooze better. You use an app on your smartphone to view your sleep trends and health metrics, and to gain insight on how you can sleep better.

“This seamless connectivity is what coins up IoT. With the coming up of 5G, the speed of connectivity shall be improved almost 20 times and bolster internet stability,” says Mr Kimari.