- Keyboard
Think about how far physical keyboards have come. From clunky planks that you could hear clacking from a mile away, keyboards have become much more svelte and minimal. The keyboards on our touchscreen devices have no keys at all. This could be the future for the keyboards attached to our laptops. It’s likely that future keyboards will hardly be keyboards at all; keys will be replaced by touchscreen or virtual icons, gesture control technology, or speech recognition technology that is available throughout the home. The Amazon Echo is already starting to take us there. Talk about hands free computing!
- Sense
Waking up in the morning is probably one of the most universally undesirable activities. What’s more frustrating than have to wake up early in general is oversleeping because your body clock knows that the time on your alarm is not the best time to disturb your sleep cycle. Sense will help you wake up at the optimal time based on your body’s circadian rhythm, or your internal body clock. Sense is a small spherical device you keep in your bedroom to help improve your quality of sleep. It provides ambient noise to encourage sleep, and monitors your sleep cycle to wake you up at the best point during your cycle. If it’s earlier than the time your alarm is set for, just go back to sleep. Doesn’t that make sense?
- Speech Recognition Appliances
Anytime that you’ve been to a new friend’s house and have tried to use their microwave, you struggle to find where the “add one minute” button is, right? Once appliances capable of speech recognition become commonplace, finding that pesky button will no longer be a problem. This form of appliance is user friendly because it will allow you to multitask easily. Go ahead and begin preparing your meal while you tell your dishwasher what type of cycle to run.
- Zcan+
Bulky scanners of a thing of past with Zcan+. This product doubles as both a computer mouse and a portable, wireless, handheld scanner. Swipe Zcan+ over your text and have it immediately available to edit in your document. Use the device to scan over a table and have it organized into an Excel spreadsheet right before your eyes. Zcan+ allows you to search for images with Google, share your scans through social media platform, and to use the technology in close to 200 languages.
- Parrot’s Flower Power
Some of us have a green thumb, and some us have a black thumb no matter how hard we try to keep house plants alive. The technology behind Parrot’s Flower Power will get rid of any excuse to let your plants die. This inconspicuous device sits in the same environment as your plant and assesses and reports on the needs of your plants. Alerts sent via an app to your smartphone will let you know how your plants are faring, what they need, and when they need it. Do you consistently forget to water your plants until it’s too late? Now, all you have to do is place Flower Power into your plant’s pot and have your smart phone nearby!
- Self-Operating Appliances
If there’s one thing most of us hate to, it’s chores. What we hate more than doing chores is to be nearly done, but then forget to do something important like turn on the dishwasher or add the detergent to the washing machine, for example. In the future, self-operating appliances will make sure that those silly mistakes are a thing of the past. Imagine: the microwave knowing what food you put inside of it and heating it to perfection on its own, or the dryer automatically adjusting the heat of the cycle to the type of clothes inside.
- Mint
I hope that no readers here have had to use a breathalyzer. If you constantly wonder if your morning breath turns into all-day breath, then this breathometer called Mint will help put those worries at ease. Essentially, this device will analyze and report on the quality of your breath. After using the device, Mint will use all of it futuristic sensor technology to report the amount and quality of bacteria in your mouth to an app on your smartphone. Mint is a sure fire way to know whether you should pick up that pack of gum or not.
One business that will certainly grow with the home technology business is the home warranty business. As appliances get more expensive and harder to replace, people will be more willing to pay for and insure their appliances. It will also be harder to go even a short amount of time with items not working around your home, making home warranties even more important.
Where are those houses that are in the first picture ?
Rotterdam