Article written in French by Gérard Blanc (invited Funio collaborator). English translation by Funio.
“Domotics”, from the contraction of the words “house” in latin (domus) and “automatic”, is commonly named home automation, and is a trending concept that’s making a buzz. However, home automation is not really a new concept, with its first appearances dating back 1985. Even though its first words were stammered by media, it was more an appealing concept than an effective realization. A pompous name, dreamy theoretical applications and a predominantly technophile social cluster, in a time where microcomputing was king, were sufficient for important media outlets to promote and describe the technology of the future, far from being accomplished, but enough to stimulate dreams and then disappoint technophile amateurs. Since then, things have evolved quite a bit.
Wireless: A Breath Of Fresh Air
The democratizing of the internet led the development and proliferation of the “Wireless”. Whether we speak of WiFi or a specific protocol such as ZWave, they were surely the breath of fresh air that the moribund home automation needed to start anew, like the phoenix reborn from its ashes. Everything became possible again, and the concept of the smart house took a whole new signification. For the modern house owner (or even the apartment dweller), domotics is bringing forth concrete solutions to the automation of present-day needs and comforts, security, energy management and communications. Home automation subscribes as a leader in new global concepts, and has affectionately been baptized “internet of things”, whose goal is to connect everything surrounding the human, from his refrigerator to his car, passing by locks, the thermostat, the garage door, pool cleaning, intelligent rationalization of lighting and heating, perimeter surveillance and security alarms.
A Tool As Timely As Miraculous
Although domotics is part of the internet of things, it needs to be able to communicate with its human users, like all technologies. Therefore, it requires a user interface that would ideally be graphical (GUI), intuitive, available, cheap and efficient. This ensemble might seem a very impressive list of necessary qualities. However, there is no doubt about it, such a technological object can be nothing else than expensive, at the risk of slowing down the integration of home automation.
But chance smiles upon the technophile amateurs. Indeed, many of them already have a smartphone, this miraculous communication device that contains every quality desired for the domotic interface. Certain technophile and pioneer businesses, with evocative and really not ambiguous names like “SolutionDomotique” and others, surf the “iPhone-Mania” that provides the salutary push to a new genre of home automation. The “iPod” and “iPad” and sibling devices tag along to accompany home automation on the path to success, using even television as a visual console.
An Undefined Future
Domotics, in order to satisfy the needs of the smart home owner, must ideally be “chrono-eventful”. In other words, that it must react to date and time specifics, as well as puntual events, notified by indication sensors. For example, the last person to leave the house (or the first one to come in), would provoke a decrease or increase in heating based on external temperature and/or set preferences.
For home automation to concretely become the smart home requires a brain, such as a central processing unit for interfacing programming and communications. Also, a centralized box, containing some sort of tiny computer, would be installed. However, computer science advancements continuously come up with new potential solutions. Why not a hosted home automation, with a website to configure and execute commands, therefore allowing a decentralized “brain” (without floating in the depths of the unknown cloud, but on a solid, secure hosting platform.)?
In conclusion, if home automation is already at our doorsteps, it still requires some technological refinement, solution polishing and acquiring protocols, ideally open, that would allow the interoperability of multi-provider equipment.
