In previous discussions, I’ve contended that Apple Intelligence might be the primary motivator for investing in an Apple smart home camera. Looking ahead, I believe it holds the promise to usher in a completely new era of genuinely smart homes.
The timeline for when we can rely on Apple Intelligence to manage our homes is a separate conversation! It’s undeniable that there’s still a significant journey ahead before this AI technology evolves beyond its current public beta phase. Nevertheless, the potential for the long term genuinely excites me…
Automation is essential for smart homes
Some may argue that without automation, you really don’t have a smart home – just a collection of convenient light switches activated by voice.
I don’t completely subscribe to that notion. In my view, even scenes that require manual activation qualify as smart home features. For instance, when my workday wraps up, I issue the voice command “Living room relax.” This command turns off three lights in my home office and adjusts four lamps in the living room to my preferred brightness and color temperature for a cozy ambiance. It’s hard to dismiss the smartness of such a capability.
However, I do concur that automation forms the core of smart home technology, and anything that can be automated ought to be.
HomeKit offers numerous automation features. For example, each morning, my bedroom blinds open partially to allow just enough light to wake me gently, fully opening when it’s time to get out of bed. When the last person departs my apartment, all lights turn off automatically; when someone returns, the entrance lights illuminate on their own.
Overall, I have eight automations in daily operation, not counting motion sensors that activate kitchen and bathroom lights upon entry and deactivate them after two minutes of no movement.
Advanced automation
All my current automations share a common trait: I had to explicitly program each one. I configured the Home app to specify which devices to control, the actions to perform, and the triggers for each scene—be it the time of day, sunset, or the state of another device.
What would be incredibly exciting is if my smart home could independently determine my desired actions.
I have already highlighted a few scenarios that a smart camera enhanced with Apple Intelligence might manage.
It could notice that your calendar indicates you’re going to the gym but sees you’re leaving home without your gym bag, triggering a voice alert.
It might recognize that your cleaner or gardener usually visits on Fridays but has unexpectedly entered on a Tuesday, prompting a recording.
It could detect you walking from your bedroom to the kitchen at night and automatically turn on the lights needed to guide your way.
Beyond this, your entire smart home system could monitor behavioral patterns and anticipate what could be automated for you and your family.
For example, it might notice you tune the kitchen Apple TV to a specific news channel when you activate the coffee machine each morning and do it for you. It could learn that picking up your TV remote in the living room means it’s time to set the movie scene, closing window shades and dimming lights. Perhaps it could understand that entering your garage around 8 a.m. on a weekday signifies that you’re heading to work, automating the opening and closing of the garage door, ensuring all doors are locked, and activating the home security system.
Advancing to understanding intent
The next frontier for a truly smart home is the ability to discern your intent. Developer Mate Marschalko has given us a glimpse of this by replacing Siri with GPT-3.
For example, he instructed the assistant that he wanted to take a nap, and it deduced that this meant closing the window blinds in that room. While this isn’t much more than just telling it what to do, it serves as an illustration of a preliminary step in this direction.
The ultimate aim is for our smart homes to recognize our activities, determine what actions should occur to accommodate our needs, and execute them automatically.
Smart homes for everyone, not just tech enthusiasts
I’ve been utilizing smart home technology for over a decade, transitioning to HomeKit in 2017. For me, it’s now an integral part of daily life, and it’s still astonishing when someone new comments on it.
Each time that happens, it reminds me that while this technology may be commonplace for DMN readers, it’s still somewhat of a science-fiction concept for many. Despite how user-friendly the Home app may seem, creating a scene or automation can feel daunting to the average user. Numerous non-tech-savvy individuals who own smart home devices only use their iPhone as a remote control.
However, when technology evolves to autonomously configure itself, detect patterns, comprehend intent, and establish automations independently, we will have truly accessible smart homes for everyone.
Optimistically, one might envision this becoming a reality in two to three years; skeptics might argue it will take a decade. Nevertheless, that future is inevitable, and I believe Apple will play a significant role in this evolution.
Those are my thoughts; I’d love to hear yours in the comments.
Photo by Stephan Bechert on Unsplash
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