A smart place to call home

The future of domestic life is here – amazing, convenient but also a little scary, writes Colleen Hawkes.

In the nottoo-distant future, homes will purr to the soft hum of robotic vacuum cleaners, while an autonomous mower with built-in sensors trims the lawns.

Apartments will be clad in a solar skin of receptors to power not just the heating and hot water, but electric cars too.

Every surface will have the potential to be interactive: recipes appear on your kitchen bench via a voice-activated control, fridges will be responsible for ordering the household shopping, and the house will be protected by a protective forcefield.

If that’s all sounding a little Jetsonesque, it’s because technology is fast catching up with science fiction.

A small glimpse into what the future looks like – minus the robotic maids and flying jetpacks – can be seen at Brenda Kelly’s new home.

Set in bush at Parau, West Auckland, the 45sqm home is selfsufficient in power, recycles grey water and has a sewage tank with worms.

The multi-functional furniture means it can comfortably sleep seven people.

Kelly, the chief executive of IQ Container Homes, says of futuristic living: ‘‘It frees up time and resources to do the things I love rather than furnishing a large home and keeping up with the Joneses.’’

‘‘My power bill is zero, water bill $1-$2 a month. There’s no wastewater. The home is so insulated and small, it takes very little to heat and cool.’’

Grand Designs UK guru Kevin McCloud is currently filming such a house being built with curved, diamond-shaped solar panels. ‘‘The house looks as though it’s covered in snakeskin,’’ he says.

Benchtops that require just a touch to bring up the internet within the surface, so you can read your recipes and surf the web right there at the bench, have already arrived, says Auckland kitchen designer Mal Corboy.

And that’s not all. Induction cooktops will be fitted into and concealed within benchtops.

‘‘A simple swipe will turn them on, and you will put pots directly onto the benchtop, but when the cooktops are not in use, you won’t even know they are there.’’

Gas cooktops are likely to be dotted all around the kitchen, right where you want them.

As for fan extraction, Corboy says it’s possible the entire ceiling will be a giant extraction unit, not that you will notice. It will subtly remove steam and cooking odours without being asked.

Your appliances won’t need instructions either, although you could manage them from your smartphone or tablet if you wish – a service that is now available on several models.

Whirlpool’s latest dishwasher automatically orders detergent from Amazon.

A new range of wi-fi-enabled appliances notify you when your meal is ready – you can even send cooking instructions to your appliance via a food barcode scanning app.

Corboy believes dishwashers will get faster. ‘‘I imagine we could be looking at a two-minute wash,’’ he says.

‘‘No-one wants a dishwasher going for hours in a room where people want to relax.’’

All of this connectivity within our homes is not without risk. In October last year, hackers used inter-connected home devices to bring down popular websites Twitter, Reddit and Spotify.

According to the BBC, security analysts believe the attack used the ‘‘internet of things’’ – web-connected home devices – to launch the assault.

New Zealand futurist Dave Wild says artificial intelligence needs further careful study.

With a programmed house, you control the programming, but artificial intelligence means your home starts to learn and ‘‘react’’ accordingly.

‘‘For example, if your fridge is learning your habits, it will know you like to go and get chocolate biscuits at 3 o’clock every day.

‘‘But what if, one day you go to the fridge for your usual fix and the door is locked, because the fridge has ‘learned’ that chocolate biscuits aren’t healthy for you? The technology to do this is already here.’’

Wild says the best way to gauge what effect these home improvements will have on our lives is to look at past developments, like television.

‘‘The introduction of television may have created some couch potatoes, but gathering to watch TV has also created social occasions, and it has brought learning and news into the home to make us more connected with the world. We often say the future has already arrived – it’s just not in My power bill is zero, water bill $1-$2 a month. There’s no wastewater. The home is so insulated and small, it takes very little to heat and cool. Brenda Kelly the form you were expecting so you don’t realise it is already here.’’

Refrigerators, also, have been getting more intelligent by the day. Sensors will automatically indicate

when food is low and the fridge will put through its own order to restock. In future, it is possible the refrigerator will be just a cupboard that can be programmed to chill or freeze food as desired. Kitchens are likely to feature a separate beverage fridge.

Corboy predicts there will be a growing trend towards coolrooms. ‘‘There has been a huge upswing in the desire for fresh produce. People like shopping at the markets, and will be requiring more cool storage.

Rachel Louie, managing director of the Jones Family Business, which owns Kitchen Things, says people are becoming more and more ‘‘time poor’’.

‘‘They don’t want to be coming home from work and having to start a meal from scratch. The big appliance manufacturers are constantly coming up with solutions to help this.’’

Louie predicts new high-end appliances, such as sous-vide vacuum-sealing drawers and blast freezers will be more affordable and commonplace in households in 10 years’ time.

‘‘People want to be able to cook restaurant-quality food quickly, and these appliances make that a whole lot easier.’’

Louie says energy efficiency and sustainability will also be paramount.

‘‘We are seeing a huge move towards kitchen gardens and people growing edible plants right where they need them.’’

Yes, we will still have ovens, but they will be a lot more

sophisticated and they will do all the thinking for you, weighing food and automatically working out the best cooking time and temperature.

Large, 60cm steam ovens will be a must-have, in keeping with the move towards fresh produce and healthy eating. The experts predict there will be a return to homecooked favourites, such as scones, biscuits and slices.

Appliances likely to vanish include the microwave and the built-in coffee machine.

And when it comes to lighting, never mind searching for a switch. Companies are now developing conductive paint for residential use – touch a paint surface on the wall, and your room lights up.

Instead of installing a light switch, you can just paint one on the wall.

But Pierre-Yves Panis, head of design for Philips Lighting, believes we have hardly ‘‘touched the surface’’ with lighting technology.

‘‘There are 60 billion lights installed in the world, and this provides endless possibilities,’’ he says.

‘‘Any light point could host a number of sensors that could collect data to make lighting much more productive and efficient so we get the best light we need at any particular moment.’’

Panis says lighting can be designed to observe and respond to circadian rhythms, so it soothes us, wakes us up and makes us more focused as required. It can gather data so it becomes more predictive and intuitive.

‘‘We are looking at creating lighting recipes that may be used to keep cheese fresh for longer in the fridge, or to help grass grow in stadiums.’’

It’s not all serious, however. Panis also says we’ll be seeing a lot

more playful lighting applications that integrate lighting and music, and mood lighting will be big.

‘‘This will go beyond a gimmick. Lighting will be an experience, maybe a little bit whimsical and poetic – whatever we want.’’

Not surprisingly, home technology will require minimal effort. Already research suggests Siri-style voice-activated systems will control all technology outputs, from audiovisual equipment to smart home systems.

Tell it what to do, and it will do it. This will include making the windows opaque electronically, for privacy.

For security, your home will be geo-fenced with sensors that will detect the first sign of an intruder and send alerts. And we can be sure facial recognition will be everywhere – letting us into our homes, accessing our computers, and, yes, possibly even raising the toilet lid.

Already we are seeing changes in the smallest room in the house. Toilets can sense whether you are approaching front or back on, and ‘‘ready themselves’’ for your preferred position and seat temperature.

There will be automated flushing and yes, the seat and lid will close themselves.

It is likely the shower of the future will wash you using water from your past as recycling water systems give you cleaner water than the town supply.

You can be sure your health will also be monitored, by day and night. Your new Jawbone (health bracelet) will automatically tell your Nest Learning Thermostat that you are waking earlier than normal, so your home heating will come on earlier.

And your bracelet may also trigger relaxing aromatherapy oils when it detects stress.

And as soon as all those gadgets become affordable, they’ll be welcomed by the masses, Kelly believes.

‘‘That technology’s already all out there. It’s just a case of it becoming affordable.’’