HomeKit dramatically improved the user-friendliness of both configuring and controlling smart homes, by allowing everything to be done though a single app.
But while the Home app was a fantastic breakthrough for its time, technology has moved on, and I think Apple needs to respond. Here are three advanced features I’d like to see in the AI age …
Natural-language programming
Even with HomeKit, setting up scenes and automations is still a relatively techy activity. You need to have the kind of brain that happily thinks in terms of logic units and flow-charts.
But as we noted earlier in the week, Samsung has just taken the next step to making smart home configuration something that anyone can do. That step is to let you use natural language to let you simply tell your smart home what it is you want it to do. An AI assistant figures out what that means in terms of your devices, and does the configuration for you.
We’ll have to see whether Samsung’s implementation is any good – we live in an age when a lot of companies say the magic phrase “AI” and do a lot of hand-waving about how wonderful it’s going to be. The reality often falls rather short of all the promises.
But regardless of how well Samsung does with this, I think the idea of it is spot-on. This is exactly how smart homes need to work if we expect normals to buy into them. For example:
At 9am weekdays, I want the lights in my office to switch on ready for me to work.
The Home app would interpret this to mean that all the lights in the room should be set to maximum brightness and a daylight color temperature of 6500K.
Ideally, there should be sufficient smarts in the system for even vaguer language:
I start work in the office at 9am weekdays.
Copy this
Personally, I’d be happy without any switches in my home – just using automations and voice commands. But while most non-techies can appreciate automations (ironically, sensors switching on lights impresses them most, something that could be done with dumb home tech) they much prefer physical switches to voice commands. This is the reason my home has Philips Hue switches throughout.
What I have managed to sell is the idea of one button-press doing multiple things. For example, there’s one button to activate a Living Room Relax scene. This switches off the overhead light and sets floor and table lamps to a medium brightness, warm light setting.
It struck me that if non-techies prefer pressing buttons, it should be possible to program scenes in the same way.
Touch a ‘Copy this’ button in the Home app, go around pressing all the physical switches and dimmers they like to configure things the way they want it, and then tap the iPhone button (which changes to Done) when they’re finished. The phone then asks them to choose a name for the scene and invites them to press a physical button which is then assigned to that scene.
Watch and learn
Additionally, the Home app should notice if people habitually press the same sequence of buttons. It should then proactively offer the option of automating this.
For example, someone may unlock the front door and walk in, immediately switching on the entrance lights. They then walk into the living room, switch off the entrance lights and switch on several lights in the living room.
The Home app should spot this pattern and pop up a notification. “I noticed a pattern – would you like to see it?” If they tap yes, it shows them the sequence:
- The front door unlocked
- You switched on the entrance lights
- When you reached the end of the hallway, you switched off the entrance lights
- You switched on the living room floor lamp, and adjusted the dimmer to 60%
- You then switched on both table lamps, adjusting each dimmer to 50%
It then asks them whether it should automate all this in future, triggered by the door unlocking.
Top comment by Dominik Hoffmann
I am one of those people thinking in terms of computer programs. I am missing much more fundamental automation constructs.
An automation that would allow me to keep my hallway lights on for 30 min after opening the front door and then turning them off.
Turn on lights in certain rooms 15 min before or after sunrise or sunset. The sunrise and sunset triggers are cool already. I use them for turning on the outdoor Christmas lights, when the sun sets.
Not quite related but relevant to proper home automation configuration: For purposes of cybersecurity, I’d like to see an official Apple specification (that’s frequently updated) with instructions on how to segregate home automation devices on a home network via VLANs. This would also include the firewall configuration for permeability and blocking between the home automation network and the Mac/iPhone/iPad/Apple TV network.
Point 3 would duplicate or even improve of earlier efforts to incorporate certain compatible home network routers into a HomeKit setup. It looks like either Apple or networking equipment makers have abandoned that effort. It’s better that way; it should not be a black box.
Ideally the system would be sophisticated enough to spot variations in patterns. For example, it notices they sometimes also close the living room blinds, and realizes they do so when it’s dark outside.
Where security cameras are fitted, it should also recognize individual household members and suggest personalized automations for each.
What’s your view?
Would you like to see HomeKit get these kinds of capabilities? Are there other new features you’d like to see? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
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