You may not be able to fly a rocket to San Fransisco, hose down the inside of the house, or cook a meal in 57 seconds, but you can control and monitor your property with one device.
Disney’s Epcot Center was predicting the future in 1999 through Innoventions, and they too believed that one day one device would hold all the answers. And they were right, sort of. The smartphone is hailed as the one gadget that has transformed the way we all interact with technology.
Although smartphones have been on the market since 1992, it wasn’t until 2002 when RIM first released the BlackBerry, with a wireless service, that consumers could really see what a phone could offer. In 2007 the Smartphone market exploded, the iPhone came out and Android software was released. With such a range of products the way to ensure one product was better than the other was to offer more than the competition.
In 2008, a Lightspeed survey found that mobile users wanted their phones to be able to locate friends, family, and children in real time (37 percent); a substitute "electronic key" for home or vehicle (27 percent); a platform for monitoring home security systems in real time (27 percent); and a passport or identity document when traveling (21 percent).
Described as fanciful at the time, many of these features are now seen on every smartphone. But it isn’t just features that have improved, technology has stepped up too. You can now buy products to place in your home that automatically link to your smartphone and let you control everything, without downloading an app.
Home automation was the dream of the 50’s. In the UK, Halo’s new Connect and Protect system offers the home owner the ability to monitor their house through sensors and video cameras. If the house is broken into, the power goes off, the broadband goes down, there is too much carbon monoxide, or there is a flood or fire the home owner and their chosen list of friends will be informed via their smartphones and the web.
Whether young or old, there is no doubt that home security is paramount. Our belongings are precious to us, especially the TV. According to NPD’s survey, watching TV is still the world’s favourite past time, but what if you forget to set the timer to record your favourite show? No problem if you have Sky in the UK or AT&T in the US, you can register and press record from wherever you are.
Other devices, such as Slingbox and Apple TV, will let you record your favourite TV series and then stream the shows to your smartphone. Some people do prefer music or simply want to flick through photos, and they too are catered for with software from iTunes that lets users keep music in a cloud to access any time they want.
Nearly everything from your home is available at your fingertips via your smartphone. But to truly achieve the 1950's future the Smartphone’s will not just control the environment but actually learn and interact with it.
It won’t be long until monitoring tags will come on your food products to observe the inside of the fridge and inform you what you need at the supermarket. The Smartphone will then be able to find a recipe based on what is left, or check if you have the resources for the recipe you want.
Lee Booth, Founder and Chief Executive of IMT, believes that this monitoring and transference of information is already here. “Smartphones will enhance our lives not just in the home but in every environment. The Android and iPhone software allows us to connect to cities and spaces like never before. They are using augmented reality to interact with the environment, for example a user can check the train timetable by hovering over the train station or check a restaurant’s ratings without logging on to the internet.”
Smartphones can enhance user experience, and quench our thirst for information. Booth believes that the difference between the internet and the smartphone is that “the smartphone can get the relevant information which is tailored to a users’ need and in a format that they want.”
According to Neilsen, there are over 6.2 million smartphone users in the UK making up 15 percent of the total UK mobile market, and the numbers are growing. In the US, the number is even higher, with smartphones owning 25% of the market It won’t be long until smartphones will be integral to every aspect of our lives. The only thing that is missing from our 1950’s future is the cute outfits.
Alex Iszatt
Writer, Creative Jar