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Application/Adaptation

The application of technology to our homes has many repercussions. These repercussions impact how we think of technology, the role it plays in society, it's significance to our needs, and the way we live. While the many articles and catalogues that support this technology make promises of a house that will be ready to serve your every whim, they fail to mention the myriad of complications that it will add to the home owners' lives. In his book, ``The Design of Everyday Things", Donald Norman [6] summarizes the use of this technology as a mass of appliances all trying to communicate with eachother and the user. The end result he sees as chaotic and costly. The majority of Norman's book criticizes the lack of good design in everything objects that we interact with and, therefore, I would expect him to view the future of smart technology with dread, but there is some truth to his foreboding.

Oftentimes, technology is developed to perform different tasks in a ``easy and better" way. One of the crucial parts of integrating this technology, namely the way we interact or use it is often underrated or not addressed at all. This leads to products that are confusing and frustrating to use. While one would think that, since this is a society based in commercialism, if a product does not work it won't sell, this is not true, for there are scores of tools and services that people rely on that do not work. For instance, VCR clocks blinked, unset, in homes everywhere for years before the first designs dealing with this interface problem were developed. If smart house technology is to last into the future, I think that it will have to be very thoughtfully designed.

Despite all this, however, I think that this technology will persist. While these changes are in the use of appliances and the conjunction of those with the timings of our everyday lives, I think that the future changes will affect the structure of the house itself. As I said earlier, houses are adaptable and people take advantage of this to customize them to the priorities of their lives. Houses in the far future may be more adaptable than they are now. Truly smart houses should be made from materials that are likewise adaptable. Walls should be made of materials that can easily go from solidity to opacity so that a window or door can easily be added or deleted to a room. In addition, switches and outlets could also be configurable so that a light switch could be moved to be located in a position most convenient to the user. Perhaps the nature of a house would be different. Instead of buying a whole house, a person could buy individual rooms and piece them together in a configuration you want. As unlikely as this seems, it would surely invite alot a bad design. This also affects the permanence of a home, the quality of materials and the quality of changes.

Realistically, the changes that this technology will have on society and the way people live also depend on the affordability of the technology. Networks are becoming more accessible to homes, but internal home networks are a product for the far future. A home system with communicating appliances would also require an central intelligence system that could not only follow directions well, but that can also chart the inhabitants' activities and make predictions based on prior actions. For instance, a home could make decisions on how a change in the weather will affect it's inhabitants needs - more heat, less heat, drier air conditions, etc. The house could also chart your budget and make sure that the owner maintains usage of resources that are affordable. To say all homes would behave one way is an unfair assessment of how technology changes lives. Numerous people barely trust their work to a simple PC and, therefore, computer control of their entire homes would be blatantly out of the question. Many people are reluctant to adopt technological changes, some embrace them, and some take what they need.

The more socially responsible side of this technology addresses how such homes may be able to help people with disabilities. Such issues would validate the expenditure towards this technology and make it more than an exercise in excess. The flexibility that technology promises would seem to benefit the disabled in that homes could be more easily customized to accommodate special needs - lower light switches, doors that could be widened easily, communication systems that do not require the use of a handset or phone hardware. While I am not an expert in these needs and how to accommodate them, it would seem that adaptable technology could be harnessed in this way. The concern should be to study how to design for an environment that is most useful to the human.

To summarize, I think that this technology will keep moving forward, although, consumer demand is not high at this time. Applications of this type of environmental enhancement benefit office buildings, research laboratories and other public buildings where some control of resources might be prudent. Currently, the people adding this technology to their homes are individuals interested in experimenting with it. The homes built or augmented by specialty companies are for those who are affluent. It will take many years before the average home owner buys this type of home or even can afford one.


next up previous
Next: Future of the House Up: Future Directions Previous: Future Directions

Christina Vasilakis
Fri Nov 22 22:27:49 CST 1996