If you are 50 years or older, you remember a time when communicating with someone in a distant place meant getting a paper, pen, postal stamps, an envelope and when you were done writing your letter, you had to proceed to the post office. You also had to get to the post office before it closed, else you had to wait until the following day. All that stress and hassle has been eliminated simply by the invention of the android technology or smartphones as its popularly called.

So, with a smartphone all you have to do now to communicate with someone in a distant place is to put on your mobile data, log into Facebook, WhatsApp, WeChat, yahoo mail or Gmail or any online messaging platform.

It is easy to forget that the switch from post office to online messaging platforms is barely 20years old, this change has been made possible by the invention of the INTERNET. Trust me the INTERNET is no longer a fad. It has influenced every aspect of the global economy from banking to construction etc, and most recently it has permeated the real-estate sector in the form of smart home technology.



What is a smart home?

A SMARTHOME simply put is a modern house equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by a smartphone or computer. It may also include home security, such as access control and alarm systems. When connected with the internet home devices are important constituents of the internet of things (IoT).

A smarthome system connects controlled devices to a central Hub. The user interface (UI) for control of the system uses either wall mounted terminals, tablets or desktops computers, a mobile phone application or a web interface, that may also be accessible offsite through the internet.

While they are many competing vendors, they are very few worldwide accepted industry standards and the smarthome space is heavily fragmented. The leading names/vendors in the smart home space in no particular order are

1. Google

2. Amazon

3. Apple

4. Microsoft

5. IBM

Other outside contenders include:

· Ecobee

· Samsung

· Philips



PRACTICAL USES

Heating, ventilation and air conditioning. It’s possible to have remote control of all home energy monitors over the internet, incorporating a simple and friendly user interface.

Light control system is a smart network that incorporates communication between various lighting systems inputs and outputs using one or more central computing devices

Occupancy-aware control system. Its possible to save the energy of a home using smart meters and environmental sensors like CO2 sensors, which can be integrated into the building automation system to trigger automatic responses for energy efficiency.

Home robots and security, a household security system integrated with a home automation system can provide additional servers such as remote surveillance of security cameras over the internet or access control and central locking of all perimeter doors and windows.

Smart kitchen and connected cooking, this has been made possible using voice control devices like Amazon Alexa and Google home to kitchen





Conclusively, Zion market research predicts that the smarthome market will reach $53.45 billion by 2022. This projected increase in market value in the smarthome space is as a result of the wonderful products innovation being introduced into the market by google home, alexa and Amazon Echo.

All this has been made possible because ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is becoming more common place and personally I think the market value that is been predicted is very conservative considering that real estate developers in developing economies like Nigeria and south Africa are already incorporating the smart home technology into their buildings. An example is the Trinity luxury Apartment being developed by 3ceesprojectslimited in Lekki Lagos. The list of smart homes in Europe, Asia and North America is endless, making home automation the next big thing since bitcoin and the blockchain in 2009.



….as I close, I want you to remember that gmail and yahoomail made post office obsolete.