The mind of the chamber.
Soon we will start communicating with the toilet via the Internet. The refrigerator will order fresh food for you, the microwave will select the cooking mode, and the toilet will take tests and, if necessary, send the results to your doctor… Or maybe even write a prescription itself.
Such “technology with brains” already exists and in a few years, as experts predict, it will be included in the service package that every 800th Muscovite has already gone broke on — the so-called smart home.
Today, “intelligence” for a home costs an average of 300 thousand rubles, but it will become cheaper and acquire new gadgets. MK found out what a “smart home” is today and how it will “strain your brain” in the future.
One button is enough
The first “smart home” was a hut on chicken legs, jokes Alexander Khvorostin, an employee of a company engaged in home automation. However, modern “smart buildings” have gone further than the fairy-tale hut, although they are still far from the level of a house capable of making decisions from the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury.
The “gentleman’s set” of a house with “brains” necessarily includes “smart light”, which turns on and off depending on the level of illumination outside the window. The lighting level changes automatically based on the readings of the dimmers.
The light can also be made to work according to a pre-set scenario — for example, “party”, “romantic dinner”, “watching a movie”. All you need to do is press one button.
“Smart Light” also allows you to save electricity: for this purpose, motion sensors are installed in the rooms: the light will flash where you are and go out behind you.
Another common function is climate control. Before arriving, you can send a signal from your mobile phone to the system about switching from economy mode to normal, set the required temperature and humidity level. If the owners leave their country house in winter, it will set an economy mode with a temperature of 12 degrees.
The husband returns from a business trip
Almost everything can be programmed, and it is possible to control your home using the Internet from almost anywhere in the world, says housing “brain scientist” Khvorostin. For example, by pressing a button you can start a bedtime program: the curtains will close, the TV and phone will turn off, the lights will go out… If a strong wind blows at night, the window will close automatically using an electric drive.
By the time the owner arrives home, the system will create the right atmosphere: it will turn on music, suitable lighting, household appliances and even select the microclimate. In summer, the “smart home” will water the lawn and take care of the winter garden on its own or on command. If the owner is about to return from a vacation or business trip, the house will switch the heating from economy mode to normal.
And a “smart home” can already scare away thieves. You can program the system so that, starting from a certain time, it turns on and off the lights in different rooms in a pseudo-random order, simulating the presence of the owner. According to a given schedule, the lights, music, and curtains will be automatically turned on. Experts say that such methods reduce the risk of robbery by 50%.
«What expenses will this require?» the picky reader will ask. Isn't it easier to turn off the lights and flush the toilet yourself? «An intelligent building», as the «brain scientists» assure, significantly saves resources. According to experts, climate control reduces energy consumption by an average of 10% for lighting, and by 3-5% for electricity. The cost of operating utility systems falls by three and a half times, and the building can last one and a half times longer without major repairs. The risk of fire, flooding and other troubles is significantly lower than for its neighbors, so insurance payments are also reduced. After all, a «smart home» can prevent accidents: when leaks are detected, the necessary pipelines are shut off, in the event of a gas leak, ventilation is turned on and all other electricity is turned off. And if a fire occurs, the fire extinguishing system will immediately start working, the ventilation and electricity will be cut off.
The price of the issue
So, according to calculations, a “smart home” pays for its intelligence in about three years. An intelligent office complex — even faster. Statistics show that operating costs and electricity bills fall by a third, and payments for water and heat — by almost half. Experts advise: in order for “intelligence” to really pay for itself rather quickly, it makes sense to automate an apartment whose area is at least 800 square meters. In smaller areas, the payback period will be significantly extended.
For Russians, the idea of saving money is not very effective. After all, if you calculate how much work you have to do for such pleasure, it comes to mind that it is better to reach for the switch and feed the fish yourself. The lower limit of the cost of such services fluctuates around 100-300 dollars per 1 sq. m. For example, the “brains” for a three-story cottage cost at least 10 thousand dollars. There is no upper limit of expenses: in particular, the most famous “smart home” belonging to Bill Gates cost about 100 million dollars.
According to experts, putting the “brains” into a house usually takes a day or two. But developing a sketch can take two or three weeks. After agreeing on the key points, a working project is created with the involvement of an architect and designer. Then comes the turn of the next stage — programming.
By the way, “intelligence” is much more promising in apartment buildings than in individual buildings. Experts paint a rosy picture of the future of “smart homes.” It has already been calculated that with the mass introduction of such systems in multi-story buildings, the cost of “intelligence” will drop to a ridiculous 40 cents per meter. This is exactly the result of an experiment to automate three buildings in Mytishchi with a total area of 50 thousand square meters. Researchers connected heating and lighting, as well as elevators and intercoms, to a single control system. “In the future, the system will be improved and become cheaper. With a high degree of probability, the three-dimensional displays currently being developed will find application,” predicts one of the developers, Igor Mironov. “And the equipment can be controlled using voice commands.”
Wall screens will also migrate en masse from science fiction novels and will find wide application — both as photo wallpaper and as computer displays and TV screens. Thus, the existing “multiroom” service — a system for distributing audio and video from a single server throughout the entire room — will be improved. In simple terms, this “gadget” allows you to move around the house without interrupting your movie watching.
In the next 10-20 years, designers expect to go even further: a “smart home” will no longer need external sources of energy and water. In the west of the capital, in the Nikulino-2 microdistrict, such technologies are already being tested today: the experimental house is supplied with hot water by the heat of the earth — pipes go into wells in the ground.
Another possible scenario is the emergence of modular housing, the rooms of which can be arbitrarily combined and connected to each other. For example, if family members want to take a break from each other, the house can be “disassembled” into modular cubes. An experimental model has already been developed in Denmark.
In Russia, by the way, another “skill” that can be implemented in a “smart home” in the near future will probably be in great demand — the ability to help the owner find a lost item, for example, keys or glasses. You can find anything in the house using special electronic tags on objects. Before leaving, your home computer will check your bag for tagged items and remind you if you forgot something.
Smart things
“Smart things” developed today will also find widespread use.
Next month, a concept bed will hit the Russian market: this bed is capable of analyzing the sleeper's breathing and measuring the pulse — all in order to better «orientate» itself to create the most comfortable conditions. It changes its temperature and softness level itself, and also sends data to the climate control and lighting systems.
The Japanese recently offered a microwave oven that itself determines how to properly cook a semi-finished product by scanning the barcode on the package.
The “self-assembling” refrigerator has already become the “calling card” of “smart homes” in the West. It can detect a shortage of products, which it notifies the owner about (for example, via the Internet) — now it is enough to send this signal to the store's delivery service.
A smart toilet can quickly do a urine test and send the “suspicious” result to a doctor via the Internet.
“Smart windows” have glass inserted that can instantly change its shade and let in the amount of light needed at the moment. The most advanced windows can convert excessively bright rays into electricity.
The lock in a “smart home” is also no slouch: it scans fingerprints or the iris of the eye.
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However, “smart” systems, like any automation, can fail. The companies that service such homes recall situations that seem to have migrated from the movie “Home Alone.” “In the cold, windows would suddenly swing open, garage doors would suddenly open, the watering machine would not be bothered even by the rain, the underfloor heating system would almost fry cats and dogs, and the ventilation would almost blow away heavy objects,” says one of the specialists. The system fails extremely rarely, but accurately — and one failure drags another along with it. It is difficult to imagine what will happen if “smart objects” (toilets, beds, etc.) that, according to specialists, will inhabit our homes in the future, “go crazy.”
In the end, we are not against communicating with our toilet via the Internet. The main thing is that it doesn’t turn out like in the joke about Vasily Ivanovich, to whom Petka sent a “smart toilet” from America. And he let it in only after Ivanovich turned on the light, and let it out after flushing the water. In short, the psyche couldn’t take it, because “we either have no light, or no water.”
How is a “smart home” different from a regular one?
It combines heating, air conditioning, video surveillance, lighting, and security systems. Various sensors collect information about temperature, lighting level, and the presence of people in the room. The systems of such a home can be controlled using a computer, special panels (built into the wall or portable), or a mobile phone.
A “smart home” can take care of routine tasks (like closing doors, lowering curtains, and watering houseplants), security, entertaining the owner, and even saving resources.
Facts about household appliances
According to the Russian Association of Trading Companies and Manufacturers of Household Electrical and Computer Equipment, the replacement of large household appliances (washing machines, refrigerators, etc.) occurs in waves. For example, the first wave of purchases of washing machines was in 1994-1998, the second — in 2004-2005. The next one is predicted for 2012. The waves will shorten due to the rapid emergence of new technologies.
80% of large household appliances (refrigerators, washing machines, gas stoves) are assembled in Russia. As for televisions, about 70% of them are assembled here. But the production of digital equipment, mobile phones, etc. practically at zero.
Over the last 10 years, as much new technology has appeared in the household appliances industry as in the previous 40 years.