Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
One in four homeowners are already future proofing their homes by investing in the latest technology and gadgets, and three-quarters believe all of Britain’s homes will be ‘smart’ within the next 20 years, according to a new survey.
The research was commissioned to mark the launch of Smart Home Week on May 29: a new initiative supported by Yale, Samsung SmartThings and Phillips Hue.
The study shows that 85% of people have heard of a smart home (compared with 57% in 2015) and almost one in four already have some smart capabilities in their home.
A list of the top 30 smart home inventions we hope will be developed to make our lives easier include self-cleaning toilets, a robot that delivers breakfast in bed and a wardrobe that irons clothes while they are hanging up.
Shower heads with in-built Bluetooth to enable us to answer calls while washing, along with a bath that fills up instantly, are also features that people hope to see in the home of the future.
The wish list also featured self-locking doors which lock at the same time each night and a carpet that retracts so you can have hardwood floors if you fancy a change.
Others want life made simpler with self-loading washing machines, a self-sorting laundry basket and a bed that gradually wakes you up in the morning.
In order to keep control of all these systems, a third of people expect a smart hub will be used to connect the devices together and controlled via a smartphone.
Nigel Fisher, a spokesman for Smart Home Week said: “It’s clear from the smart home wish list that more people are looking for new ways to make their lives easier and more convenient.
TOP 30 WISH LIST OF SMART HOME INVENTIONS
- Self-cleaning toilets
- A system that cleans the house for you
- Windows that tint automatically in the sunshine
- Fingerprint scanning door locks
- A wardrobe that irons clothes while they are hanging up
- Bathroom scales which test your BMI
- Garages that charge your electric car just by parking on a giant pad
- Fridge that tells you which foods are reaching their use-by date
- ‘Fitbit’ style beds which record how good your night’s sleep is
- Teleportation device
- A bath that fills up in a split second
- A self-loading washing machine
- A detector that knows if someone has been in your room
- Self-locking doors that lock at the same time each night
- A bed that gradually wakes you up in the morning
- A robot which delivers breakfast in bed
- Carpet that retracts so you can have hardwood floors if you fancy a change
- A self-sorting laundry basket
- A counter which calculates how much exercise you need to do depending on what you eat
- Mechanical arms that come out of the wall and change your bedding
- Fridge/store cupboards that automatically re-order your regular shopping items for you
- A device which lets you know when you are running out of essentials such as bread or milk
- A coffee ready as soon as the alarm goes off
- A toilet that analyses your diet
- Big Brother style security cameras
- A TV which chooses the programmes for you
- A fridge which knows when the shelves are full of meat
- Shower heads with in-built Bluetooth to allow phone calls while washing
- A TV which recognises who is watching and shows the relevant programmes
- Something that brings you any food you want just by thinking about it
