SMART LIVING ARE TAKING
SMART LIVING ARE TAKING OVER HE HUMANS Smart home technology is creating not just a more connected living space, but a more connected humanity. And the individual is being handed control like never before WORDS: Nathaniel Handy PHOTOGRAPHY: GETTY/ CHRIS RYAN 44 THE JAGUAR
Home, they say, is where the heart is. It is also fast becoming a place of intuitive, intelligent technology that blends seamlessly with our everyday lives. In the smart homes of tomorrow, the machines have come to stay. “Our newest devices are able to talk with us in a way that is akin to the way we talk to each other,” says robotics engineer David H Wilson. A New York Times bestselling author on robotics and society, he understands better than most just what this means. For smart tech to thrive in our most intimate spaces, he says, it has to feel “natural.” “Instead of tailoring our behavior for the machines the way we used to in the past – by twiddling knobs, tapping keys, or flipping switches – the next generation of home technology will integrate organically into natural human modes of living and communicating.” The key to this are products that are designed from the bottom up to make our lives easier. Take the TV, that most classic of 20th-century interfaces and perhaps the most central device of all in our homes today. “Our ambition is that the TV is not just a passive object but an interactive one,” says Benedict Doepfer, a smart home specialist at Japanese electronics company Panasonic. “You’ll use it for steering and monitoring your home and even connecting with others on other media platforms,” Doepfer says. And it will be done by talking straight to – or perhaps better – with the screen. Not by flicking THE JAGUAR 45