Will home automation ever happen? Sharp was saying yesterday at its Innovation Forum in Munich that Zigbeee-enabled sensors are the means by which this could happen.
Zigbee is just the latest in a raft of media proposed as the route to the connected home and then the automation of home functions: co-ax, powerline, WiFi, Wimax, UWB etc.
There are no shortage of candidates for the connections. That's the easy part. The tough part is how you get the plugs and sockets of maybe 100 different home appliances and electrical appliances, gadgets and machines to have compatible connectivity interfaces.
It's just not going to happen.
Can it be done retrospectively? It would take a genius to come up with say, a Zigbee device, or a UWB device, which could be fitted to a PC or a TV or a light socket and all the rest of the electrical gubbins one has, to provide interactive connectivity to the PC, TV, light socket and the rest.
Will all the manufacturers start putting in all the connections? History shows they prefer proprietary connections.
Echelon set up years ago topromote home automation, producing chips which could be added to light sockets, PCs, TVs etc to provide wired connectivity, but it never seems to have caught on.
Will the day ever come when you run your bath, cook your breakfast, and see who's outside the front door, while lying in bed?
OK. One day. But not anytime soon.
"run your bath, cook your breakfast, and see who's outside the front door" - Control4 might not be able to cook your breakfast but it can certainly do the other two things for you. Oh and by the way, Control4 wireless devices also use Zigbee technology.