Domestic Appliances Go Wireless

By: Ben King: REALTOR® Magazine Online
Innovators have long sought areas in the home in which technology could make big improvements. With advances in microprocessors and connectivity, companies such as Control4 are making those visions a reality.

Control4 and the South Korean telecom outfit SK Telecom have been using ZigBee technology to facilitate wireless control of automated household items, such as a television or an iron.

Ember CEO Jeff Gramer says lower prices and ZigBee's "mesh radio" system's flexibility, which automatically reconfigures the network when a device is added or removed, has boosted its popularity. "The reason that it is really starting to take off in the home is that the cost of a ZigBee solution is under $5," he says.

However, competition has come from abroad, as the Danish company Zensys has developed a rival technology called Z-Wave, which the company offers for roughly half of ZigBee's price. Each company plans to ship 1 million units this year.

Aside from internal competition in the market, promoters of household automation will have to demonstrate the relevance of their technology. Analysts have identified security, health care, and energy conservation as the three most likely avenues to mainstream wireless household automation.

Non-invasive monitoring of the elderly and infirmed could enable them to live independently for longer, and alerts of wasted energy would clearly save consumers money on their utility bills.

Despite lingering concerns over the ease with which the automated household could be managed and whether existing nodes are strong enough for certain complex security applications, developers are aiming for the sky.

"If every household did have 100 or so of these devices, then you get up to the billions very quickly," says Gartner's Nick Jones.