Smart Homes are on their way, as we become to rely on a digital world and look for the most convenient ways to run our lives – or at least our homes. Most of our appliances have become digital, door locks are getting keypads, thermostats have long been digital with LED readouts and programmable in their own right.
LG Electronics announced that they would team up with Amazon to work towards smart-home services. Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistance will be paired with LG’s SmartThinkQ Hub – a device that allows you to control LG’s appliances via voice control. Amazon’s Dash feature will be added to LG’s SmartThinkQ Sensors – a device that allows users to order everyday household items. This partnership with Amazon is just one of many businesses LG will work with to expand their smart-home services.
Smart Homes are definitely on every business’s minds – Samsung is heavily into smart appliances and already has a side-by-side refrigerator that has cameras inside so you can view its contents using your smartphone. When at the grocery store you can ‘look’ into your fridge and see if you need to pick up butter or eggs – a necessity…certainly not, but a great convenience and that is what a smart home is all about. Being able to lock doors, adjust the thermostat, look into your refrigerator and change its temperature, turn on your alarm, and turn lights on and off are all for convenience – things we should have done before we went on that trip. However, a thing like monitoring your home via cameras is an excellent feature for a smart home, especially if you left the kids home for this vacation.
The right way to build a smart home is from the beginning when you can hide wiring in the new walls and ceilings, but current homes have a wide selection of smart home gadgets from companies like Nest or Phillips that can easily be installed in your not-so-smart home. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is putting together his own smart home that he wants to show publicly next month. Everybody is getting into the act while the industry continues to grow – it could reach $44 billion dollars by 2017. It is not a wonder that LG is teaming up with Amazon – with both giants in their industries, we may see some exciting products along the way.