A look inside the high-tech home of 2016

Mosaiqq CEO Anders Nancke-Krogh demonstrates
his company's video panel in the kitchen
of CEDIA's Future Technology Pavilion

As I remember it, the Home of the Future at the 1964 World's Fair had a fast-cooking oven, a shiny refrigerator and interior design by Star Trek. The future home I saw earlier this month was a lot more interesting - and more likely to become a reality.This home knew your favorite music and TV shows, responded to voice commands, and tracked both the food in the refrigerator and grandma's medication.

The home was part of the Future Tech pavilion at the CEDIA Expo, the annual trade show for home theater and home control technology. Its builders drew on products that are currently available or about to emerge from company labs to design a home as it might function in the very near future of 2016.

The heartbeat of the house was a computer system that knows who lives in the house and what their routines and preferences are. "The house in intuitive," said Dave Pedigo, CEDIA's senior director of technology. "It understands what the occupants are like."

An example is the home gym. When one of the residents walks in the room for a morning workout, the home network personalizes the lighting, the treadmill and the TV for that particular person. It might queue up a Jillian Michaels video for Mom or turn on a news channel for Dad. Sensors in the entertainment room will make similar adjustments the video and audio systems, depending on who is sitting in the primary control spot.

 

Home sensors included an array of microphones tuned to respond to voice commands. Residents could adjust lighting, temperature levels or music simply by asking. Other sensors were built into a bedroom designed to demonstrate tools for assisting someone in the later stages of life. When they get out of bed late at night, the movement triggers a sensor that turns on the room light at a low level. If the person doesn't return to bed in, say, a half an hour the system can send an alert to a caregiver.

The bedroom also was equipped with a programmable lock to prevent wandering and a medicine storage box can be wired to log an entry each time that it's opened. The wireless sensors connect to a touch-screen computer from GrandCare Systems that can be set up to monitor wellness data and provide communication links to family and friends.

The focal point of the home's kitchen was a touchscreen video panel embedded into the backsplash of the kitchen counter. Built by Mosaiqq and 3M, the video screen delivered news and entertainment plus recipes with video instructions.

Pedigo said most of the products in the demonstration home are currently available through home technology installers.

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Written by Ric Manning

Follow me on Twitter @ricmanning and read my technology columns at My Well Being.