Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM
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Smart home expert Carley Knoblochtalks about four trends that she expects to gain traction in technologically advanced homes
Perfect Blend Smart Food Scale can help you create the perfect smoothie without having to measure ingredients. Add bananas and the app will tell you when there’s enough. Put ice in, and it tells you when to stop. This kind of smart product can help people have success in the kitchen, which reduces trips for take-out or restaurant food, so it saves time and money. “And with the Heston Cue Smart Cookware,
Induction Burner and app, you learn as you go. It knows how to get the outside of the fish you’re cooking crispy, and then reduces the heat to cook the interior perfectly. People who can’t cook have a better chance of creating nice meals, so it’s a great way to get people in the kitchen. If it gets more people cooking at home, I’m all for it!”
consulted with US TV channel HGTV on the subject for years, and is a regular tech contributor to NBC’s morning news programme ‘The Today Show’. For Carley, a truly smart home is “as beautiful as it
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is intelligent. The gadgets fade into the background, and come forward only to add convenience, safety or assistance - you just feel like life is easier”. There are four trends in smart home innovations that Carley feels are prominent right now:
1: Consumer involvement It was not long ago that the consumer only became involved in a product when it was released onto the market. Once they could buy it, they could rate it, share their experience and offer feedback to the company that created it. Today, with crowdfunding platforms such as
Kickstarter, Indiegogo and GoFundMe, brands engage consumers with the product from the beginning, when concepts and innovations are being formed and prototypes are being experimented with. Carley explains: “More and more consumers want
to be involved in the development of products, and essentially it means that the end-results are precisely targeted to the demographic at which they are aimed. “This requires companies be more nimble and
open to feedback. But the reward is that consumers are invested in your product before it even hits the shelves. Before this, brands had to cross their fingers that they got it right. Now they know what the consumer does and doesn’t want.”
SeptemberOctober 2018
arley Knobloch knows a thing or two about smart homes. The Los Angeles- based digital lifestyle expert has
2: Auto-replenishment More and more companies are creating products that have ‘replenishment options’, Carley says. Essentially, a consumer subscribes to a brand and product, and connected appliances will re-order associated products when the consumer runs out. “From taco shells to frozen yogurt makers, companies have a new revenue source through replenishment along with the sale of their hardware, and now the machine can actually do the re- ordering for you,” Carley says. “Your coffee maker will know when you’ve run out of pods and BOOM! They’ll turn up on your doorstep. Auto-replenishment will soon be common; many big brands will bring this convenience to market soon.” Carley suggests that Amazon is the most equipped company to move quickly on this, as its personal assistant Alexa is tied to its massive e- commerce store (compared with Apple’s HomePod or Google Home). She says it will be interesting to see which brands team up with multiple partners and which ones remain loyal to one brand.
3: A mobile lifestyle Appliance companies are leveraging the power of apps to help us control our appliances, and keep us engaged. “There are many products on the market that are
operated by an app on your phone. An example is a toaster that comes with an app, so that you can operate the toaster from afar. You might think ‘why would I need an app that turns my toaster on and off?’ But if you’re busy with a baby in another room and smell the toast burning, it’s easy to shut it down without getting up,” Carly comments. She cites two further examples: “The Vitamix
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4: Voice control This trend is literally booming, with voice-activated personal assistant-like products taking centre stage in the Smart Home. “What’s happening is incredible,” Carley says. “We can talk to our appliances, and they can learn how we like to prepare dinner and replicate results. Plus, thanks to voice control, anyone in the house can tell the oven what to do, instead of just the one person who had the app installed.” She points out that voice control is already
changing how we source recipes. “Say ‘find me a recipe for chocolate chip cookies’ to Google Home, for example, and a highly-ranked recipe will come up, setting you up for the best chance at success with minimal search and effort. Then you get step by step instructions, without having to open a phone.” Carley concludes: “Soon we may be at the point
that we can ask, ‘Hey Google, do we have all the ingredients we need to make cookies?’ and our kitchens will know. Voice control is bound to change how we do everything in the kitchen. The Jetsons’ lifestyle isn’t too far away.”
talking trends
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