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| Rebranding won't save the smart home, trust will |
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| By Stacey Higginbotham |
We need to dump the phrase "smart home" and adopt something new. That was a big takeaway from my panel focused on the smart home in 2020 held this week at CES. Fellow panalist Felicite Moorman, CEO of Stratis IoT, suggested we should return to using the term "automation" to talk about the act of connecting devices in the home and having those devices handle tasks automatically on our behalf.
Colin Angle, the CEO of iRobot, suggested the phrase "MESH home," with MESH being an acronym for "managed, efficient, secure, [and] healthy." He doesn't believe consumers want to be able to turn on their lights using their voice, but rather they want a home that reacts and adapts appropriately to their needs. A MESH home, he argued, would ensure that the people inside are safe, are using their resources wisely, and are breathing clean air. And it would do all of these things automatically, with voice as only an occasional interface.
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| — My CES panel wanted to kill the smart home. Image courtesy of Cezara Windrem. |
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My co-panelists aren't alone. Google, for one, has recently been beating the drum of "the helpful home." But what's in a name? Well, a lot of expectations. After all, for the last decade consumers have been sold the phrase "smart home" on one hand, only to be offered remote control, or voice control, of a connected device on the other. Only the savviest could create homes that were automated, and it took a lot of time and effort. That's not really smart.
A truly smart home requires context, and absent ways for devices to interoperably share information and some kind of framework for trust and security, that context remains still a pipe dream. Thus the smart home is still a pipe dream.
We're getting closer. At CES there was a lot of talk (and even more skepticism) around Connected Home over IP (CHIP), the proposed standards organization created by Google, Amazon, and Apple to allow our devices from different manufacturers to communicate. Moorman expressed cautious optimism about CHIP, noting that she would be crazy to ignore the effort given the companies behind it. Angle said he was willing to work with the standard but wasn't going to spend a lot of time thinking about it until it was fully up and running.
(Right now the parties have only agreed to work together. An actual first run at the standard isn't expected until much later this year.)
But even if devices can communicate easily to help provide the needed context in the home to make it smart, it's not clear how much context consumers actually want to share. For example, my iRobot device has a really good understanding of where everything in my home is at floor level. Do I care if iRobot has that information? What if it shared that information with another company? In many cases, consumers have a default fear reaction to more of their data getting sent to tech firms.
It's not an unfounded reaction; plenty of companies abuse the trust consumers place in them by building insecure products. Or by not thinking about how a consumer might view the use of a human contractor to listen to smart speaker requests.
Angle, however, noted that building trust with the consumer is hard, and that we don't yet know what levels of privacy a consumer wants. When iRobot mentions privacy in its ads or marketing materials, he said, sales actually go down. "Consumers don't want to have to think about it," he said. It's true. When you're buying a vacuum that you can command via your voice, you don't want to be reminded that it could be mapping your home, or that you don't know where, exactly, that information will end up. (Angle clarified that in the case of iRobot's Amazon integration, consumers' mapping data is not shared with the retailer.)
Another panelist, Cezara Windrem, Innovation Catalyst and Head of VR, AARP Innovation Labs, said she thinks the privacy trade-off is simple: If something is useful enough, then consumers don't mind sharing data. Thus, even if a consumer has to give up a lot of sensitive data, they tend to regard the tradeoff less skeptically, especially if a company has plans in place to protect security.
No matter what you call it — smart, automated, or MESH — the home we're talking about won't arrive until it's designed in such a way that people can derive real value from it. And delivering that value will require device interoperability and consumer trust in businesses' data privacy and security policies. Maybe we shouldn't worry as much about the name. |
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| I went to CES and had 4 epiphanies! |
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If you were at CES and not overwhelmed by the array of products in front of you, I'm impressed. Every year I come back feeling like I saw only saw a tenth of the things that were there and that I may have been impressed by all of the wrong ones. Although this year, I was right about the headless kitten robots, which the press got especially excited about but which will always creep me out.
Kevin and I already wrote about some of the things we saw, along with a few trends, but I wanted to focus on some of the bigger realizations I had. These are themes I'll return to again and again in the year ahead because they either changed my thinking or directed my attention to something that I believe is going to be important.
Let's dig in. |
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| — Kevin testing a personal cooling device from Embr. Image courtesy of S. Higginbotham. |
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Technology for seniors doesn't have to be medical-related! Cezara Windrem of the AARP's Innovation Labs kept talking about augmented and virtual reality during her time on the panel mentioned above. She discussed grandparents putting on VR glasses while stuck at home, either in order to interact with their grandkids or to more broadly "see the world."
Using such technology helps counter the isolation that many seniors can feel, especially if they are unable to move about easily. I had assumed she was going to spend her time on the panel talking about medical technology for remote monitoring or diagnostics, or how to help people age in place — even how seniors tended to view technology.
But her stories were all about engaging with seniors, and bringing more of the world to them through partnerships with Microsoft and Magic Leap. Having the elderly use technology to connect — as opposed to being surveilled to prevent them from falling or ensure they get out of bed in the morning — had not occurred to me, and I felt ashamed of my myopia.
We are nowhere near serious enough about climate change: The show floor at the Sands had a company building a re-usable connected box to replace cardboard, a giant box that pulls moisture from the air to turn it into potable water, and even a personal air purifier. In this time of floods, fires, and other disasters brought about by climate change I saw lots of technology that would be useful. (Some of it, such as the Embr personal cooling device, wasn't designed as a response to climate change but would still come in handy).
There were a lot of interesting startups, but it also felt like there should be so many more. When I'd ask companies about e-waste and their strategies for cutting consumption, most didn't have concrete examples. Instead, they cited sustainability as a 2020 corporate goal or talked about investments in clean water. For example, instead of a smart home robot digital assistant or a realistic digital avatar, Samsung should be showcasing its strategies for reducing e-waste and packaging.
At an event designed for consumer technology, consumerism ran rampant and sustainability was simply for show. For example, you could dump your CES name badge in a recycling bin, but water coolers to refill an existing water bottle were hard to find. And the sheer amount of plastic junk on display was astonishing. We need to invest a lot in technology to mitigate climate change and help us live in a changing world, but we also need to be thinking about how to build products designed for recyclability and asking ourselves if the product we're building is something the world really needs.
Tech firms need to grow up and recognize the potential harm of their inventions: One of the news bits that excited me at CES was the launch of Wi-Fi-based motion sensing from Cognitive Systems getting added to Plume's adaptive Wi-Fi system. It means that customers using Plume's and Cognitive's software in their routers can start offering motion detection without additional sensors or cameras. Cognitive uses disruptions in RF waves to figure out if something is moving, and can even figure out who is moving if they are carrying a phone.
Using Wi-Fi for motion sensing is cool because people can use it for things like fall detection or improving home security — all without adding cameras. But this isn't benign technology. Because these RF fields penetrate walls, it's possible to see motion inside a house from the outside. And as the algorithms get better, it's possible to tell what people inside the house are doing. Plume customers, such as ISPs, can use that data to get a fairly detailed sense of user behavior in their homes.
In the case of a subpoena, that motion data might find its way into the hands of law enforcement, giving them an incredibly fuzzy view inside of someone's home. When I asked Cognitive's marketing manager about it, she was willing to engage on the topic but hadn't spent much time thinking about it.
Cognitive isn't the only company at the bleeding edge of technology that is doing something really innovative without having a clear view of how it could be used against consumers. I saw dozens of companies at CES building devices that could capture tons of personal data that couldn't answer my basic questions about data encryption or why they needed the data they were collecting.
Not everything needs to be smart: This realization is tied to the one above. If companies aren't going to respect our privacy and figure out good uses for the data we're handing over, maybe we don't need their products. Or maybe we don't need a product that is connected, period. Several of the devices I saw at the show, especially the health and wellness devices that offer deep insights about my athletic performance or health based on my heart rate, sleep cycles, or even my urine composition, are only going to tell me something I likely already know.
The vast majority of people already know if they're not sleeping well or if they need to eat more greens. Having a device tell them that isn't going to change their underlying behavior. So maybe they don't need such products. The risk of losing that data outweighs the potential reward provided by the medical device. As I looked at a pet fitness tracker (Kevin is planning on buying one) and then at yet another connected smart mirror, I felt a sense of fatigue. I realized it's time for me to be a bit more judicious about the tech I embrace and to truly understand why I'm adding it to my life. And if it doesn't deliver, I should throw it out.
I'm surprised CES made me rethink the role of gadgets in my life, but here we are. |
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| Podcast: Everything that mattered at CES |
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| This week, Kevin and I went to Las Vegas for the annual CES event showcasing thousands of technology products under dozens of roofs. We recorded the show before we had the chance to see everything, but we did pull it together with some of the big themes we saw developing and the news that we felt would matter most to our smart home listeners. |
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| — Kevin and I in front of our official CES podcasting booth! Image courtesy of K. Tofel. |
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We saw several products purporting to adapt to the user and their environment to deliver a product or experience. L'Oreal showed off personalized makeup and skincare that adapted to the environment and the wearer's face on a daily basis, while Nanoleaf promised a lighting system that would learn a user's habits and deliver the appropriate lighting. We also talked about a bunch of new Wi-Fi routers and a new talent that some routers will get. The third big trend revolves around healthcare for people and pets. We'll have more on that next week as well.
We hit on a bunch of news items, including the launch of Bluetooth 5.2, which brings quality audio and sharing to Bluetooth Low Energy. We also saw a variety of new locks, several new light switches or bulbs, and Google Assistant's newly announced talents. And Kevin and I both shared some of the cooler companies we had seen so far, including Binah.ai, Sunflower Labs, and Camect.
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| Haier's zero-waste kitchen concept belongs in a utopia |
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| — At CES, Haier was showing off a beautifully designed kitchen concept with walls of herbs and vegetables grown indoors along with a computer system to manage the planting and growth chores associated with the greens. It also had counters that could identify your foods, offer recipes, and then once you chose the recipe, would project the appropriate amount to cut. The counter has spots for weighing out your food, composting, and an integrated steamer basket and salad spinner. It was soothing, beautiful, and would be expensive as hell to build. Image courtesy of S. Higginbotham. |
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| New year, new IoT job |
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| Looking for a new job in 2020? These companies are currently hiring for IoT-related jobs. If you'd like your company's job featured here, please email andrew (at) stacey on iot .com. |
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3M – Digital Solutions Lead, Maplewood, Minn.
The Digital Solutions Lead will work closely with cross-functional teams to design, develop, and support products that improve the home environment. A successful candidate will work side-by-side with business, manufacturing, and R&D team members and leverage expertise in digital technologies to advance our overall Smart Home IoT portfolio. Learn more. |
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Synapse – Principal IoT Systems Architect, San Francisco
Synapse is looking for a Principal Software Architect with the expertise for building IoT solutions for a wide range of clients in industrial, consumer, medical, and other markets. In collaboration with device and software teams, you will design and realize the best approach to meet customers' needs. Learn more. |
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Temboo – Engineering Manager, Embedded Engineer, Senior Engineer, New York City.
Come and do positive, compelling work on Temboo's Kosmos IoT Platform, and empower people to collect valuable data about the world around them. Learn more. |
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Nyansa – Product Manager, Palo Alto, Calif.
Nyansa is looking for a passionate Product Manager to play a key role in evolving and expanding our latest product offering: IoT Security. You will have the opportunity to take a product still in its infancy, ensure that it is tuned to customer’s needs and market shifts, and fuel growth with your decisions. Learn more. |
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| News of the Week |
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Security firm Armis acquired by a PE firm: Insight Partners, a private equity firm, has spent $1.1 billion to buy IoT security firm Armis. I covered Armis roughly a year ago, and it's one of several IoT security firms I think will be rolled up into larger companies. Which makes sense as many of these startups only focus on part of what can be a very long and complex chain of security that can stretch from chip to cloud or from a company's IT network to their operational technology network. (Haaretz)
Arduino launches an industrial board at CES: Arduino boards are cheap computing boards used for controlling motors, lights, and the things in the IoT. The development boards are part of classrooms and prototypes, and now the open-source organization behind the board is launching the Portenta family of professional-grade products. The newly launched Portenta H7 module relies on a dual-core Arm Cortex-M7 and Cortex-M4 operating at 480MHz and 240MHz, respectively, for processing power and has industrial-grade components that can run in extreme environments. The Portenta H7 runs Arduino code, Python and JavaScript, which broadens the base of potential users considerably. The new Arduino Portenta H7 costs $99 and will ship in February 2020. (Arduino)
Want to see how much your router knows about you? Plume issued a report this week about the market share of smart home devices, how kids are watching video content, and the number of smart home devices in homes — all based on the data it has access to by managing the network traffic on routers. In Plume's case, the data belongs to the ISPs that buy and implement Plume's software. But Eero, Netgear, Linksys, and other companies also can access this type of data, which means that Amazon and several consumer device companies have quite a bit of detail about what goes on in the home. In Plume's case, it has more detailed information because users can create device profiles and family member profiles that show which devices belong to kids and which ones belong to adults. (Plume)
What to know about the threat of Iranian cyberattacks: My former colleague at Fortune, Robert Hackett, has written an excellent overview of the potential threat coming from Iran in retaliation for the assassination of Major General Qassem Soleimani. In it, he explains what such an attack would cost and why it would likely come as part of an attack in the physical world. I hadn't considered most of these points, but I found them convincing. (Fortune)
We may not be under cyberattack now, but it is a big threat: This is a good companion for the article above. In this Twitter thread Beau Woods, a Cyber Safety Innovation Fellow with the Atlantic Council and CEO of Stratigos Security, explains why the Iranians will wait and time their cyberattacks for maximum chaos. He also offers a glimpse of how terrifying that chaos could be, such as if Iran targeted a hospital to shut it down or limit its capabilities during a bombing strike. He also links to others on Twitter who are worth following, including those offering solid advice to strengthen your defenses. (Twitter)
Spectrum is getting out of home security and leaving customers with the gear: Spectrum (formerly Time Warner Cable) is getting out of the home security business and customers don't know what to do with all their gear. The software behind the system will stop working next month, and while Spectrum is offering refunds for it, many customers spent more on the hardware that's now going to stop working as well. A lot of those sensors are Z-wave, so it's possible that enterprising users can unpair the sensors from their Spectrum system and then repair it to SmartThings or another Z-wave supporting hub, but it might take more DIY than they are into. The loss of another smart home provider is not yet a tale as old as time, but it's one smart home aficionados are getting all too used to hearing. (Syracuse.com)
CES Day 1 coverage: Kevin and I shared our thoughts from the first day spent in Vegas before the trade show floor actually opened. There were a lot of locks. (StaceyonIoT)
CES Day 2 coverage: Bluetooth gives audio a low-power codec and we see even more locks. (StaceyonIoT)
My favorite roundup of CES devices: This is an excellent list of interesting finds at CES that doesn't just focus on the few big items everyone is talking about such as the new Segway S-Pod. It also features one of my favorite items from the show, the Lua, which is a sensor-laden pot for your plants that basically is like a Tamagotchi. A screen on the front lets you know if the plant is getting enough water or light. (BBC)
Kohler tried to solve the Alexa shower challenge: I've had a digital assistant in my bathroom since 2015 because I find there's nothing better than listening to morning news or music as I get ready for the day. Shower radios have been "a thing" for a while, so I'm not alone. But getting Alexa in the shower has required some ingenuity. One option is to accept that you'll need power and connectivity and just make it part of a renovation that involves adding electricity behind the shower wall. This was Moen's strategy. Kohler has taken a different tack by creating a showerhead that adds an Alexa-enabled speaker in the middle. The speaker pops out so it can charge. This makes it easy to add, but also more likely that you'll hop in and get wet before realizing your tunes are still stuck on a charger. (The Verge)
Our 2020 Media Kit is now available! Contact andrew (at) staceyoniot.com for a media kit to learn about sponsoring this newsletter and the IoT Podcast.
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