Personalized Spaces with Novel Interactive Experiences

Adaptive home environments that understand your needs

Today, we expect more from our homes than ever before. Homes should be more than just a place to live: They should also offer superb experiences. The homes of the future will intuitively understand all of our needs. The moment we arrive home after a long exhausting day, the lights, sound systems, air filters, and television will switch on automatically. When we walk into the kitchen, the refrigerator will push healthy meal suggestions adapted to our personalized dietary needs. In the bedroom, air conditioners will check air quality and automatically adjust temperature and humidity based on what we are doing. From the comfort of the sofa or bed, we will be able to share incredible photos and videos with our loved ones, or finish some mundane paperwork anytime we want. In the event of an emergency, like a fall, where someone is unable to call for help, the home system will come to help by notifying family members, doctors, or security guards.

There are perceptible and imperceptible factors that determine how comfortable our home is. Perceptible factors are those we can instinctively feel, such as temperature, humidity, lighting, ease of access to household items, and ease of information sharing. Imperceptible factors usually include indoor air quality and safety. Intelligent automated systems can enable real-time control of both types of factors.

Snapshot from the future: Whole-house intelligence that understands usage and creates intuitive experiences

Smart home systems collect data from a wide range of smart appliances and sensors, over highly-reliable, high-speed networks that reach every corner of your home. These systems synchronize data on cloud and local storage to make smooth data flow possible. They also use AI engines to determine what is happening in your home and run appropriate applications. The AI engines, in turn, need distributed processing and computing to understand your behavior, indoor environment, and hardware systems, and then make smart decisions to configure your home appliances. These steps could be taken independently or in collaboration with other systems, to meet your needs. When implemented properly, smart home systems deliver immersive, personalized, and intelligent experiences that evolve as your usage needs change.

The variety of smart home appliances we will see in the coming years is expected to explode. They will work together to intelligently anticipate and meet your needs in different situations. Everything, from smart beds and pillows to lights and audio devices, will be able to collaborate. A sleep support solution could easily be created for the bedroom by designing a system that automatically adjusts the softness of your mattress and pillow to suit your body and sleeping habits, and changes your bedroom lighting to stimulate the production of melatonin – the hormone that helps you fall asleep. Bedroom speakers could play music to relax you, and air conditioners could keep track of temperature, humidity, and oxygen levels. Such a system could even identify snoring and curb it by rapidly adjusting the softness of your mattress and pillow. Temperature and humidity regulation could also be achieved to stop you from tossing and turning in bed . In the future, the way we interact with home appliances will also change through touch panels, apps, voice commands, and gestures. Sometimes interactions will be so subtle that we won't even be aware of them.

All members of the family will be able to store videos and photos together in a cloud-connected storage system, and access the system on any device from anywhere. 35% of homes will use cloud storage. Traditional computers at some homes will become cloud computers and work seamlessly with gadgets and home appliances with screens, delivering a consistent experience across all these devices. Cloud computers will be in use in 17% of homes.

AI-powered home cameras and optical sensing devices will be able to recognize people's movements, and identify if someone takes a fall or is in danger so that help can be quickly notified. Cameras with 3D radar optical sensors will be adopted in 8% of homes to support home nursing while ensuring privacy. These systems could also identify intruders and send alerts to police or security guards. In China, 24% of homes will be equipped with surveillance cameras; globally, the percentage is 15%.