OK, I'll say it. All is not right in the wonderful, all dreamy-like amazeballs land of the Internet of Things (IoT, in case you're still living agoraphobically).
I know, smack me naked and hide my clothes. Ancient colloquialisms aside, it feels like we have just as ancient—and simple—a problem in IoT wonderland. Put down your node.js handbooks, this one requires no code.
Automation is not control.
Controlling a device remotely from your smartphone/tablet from the cabin in Tahiti is fine well and good. Fun even. AT&T's ad is pretty nice on this count. It's beneficial too. You can make sure that your carbon footprint is under control, your doors and windows are locked, your TV and music is off...you know, the works.
(AT&T promises the sun and moon in there. I want to believe, I really do. And while I am truly wanting it to be that easy, and that reliable, trust me it is simply not easy! Call a couple dozen CEDIA/CEA system integrators in your area, and they will give you details.)
The dad's closing remark: "Sure you did." Love it, right?
Let's illustrate this a tad more.
"Shoot--I've got to board my train to Shanghai in 2 minutes...lemme check to see if my porch light in San Francisco is off."
"I wonder if anyone is walking by my front yard right now?"
"I wonder if grandma was able to turn off her bedside light. Hey wait, I can do that for her from the club!"
"Time for homework. Let me turn off the kid's TV from work. That'll learn 'em who's in charge."
These, my friends, are lovely examples of control, not automation. (Yes, AT&T, I'm throwing you into this bucket o' rusty nails.)
Control by itself isn't bad, it's really good and important. What if you did forget to lock down the house? What if you were in a hurry to catch the bus, and weren't sure if you locked your door? Without context, without knowledge of the whole situation you can quickly create real problems. What if grandma got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of you having your martini. You just shut off her safe route back to bed.
Automation is autonomous—doing the right thing automatically. As in, without human intervention. To get to real automation, you of course need the ability to control the device in question. But the reverse is not true. A smart automation system knows (senses) things, and acts (controls) to do them for you (automatically). In the examples above, you are the smarts...the technology is just connecting it to you! You had to go into your phone, check on the door's status, and lock it. You had to turn off the kid's TV. You had to check on the front door camera.
Sure, you need to be able to do these manually. But its not actually improving lifestyles, is it. The good: you gave them another way to check on things, and make changes if they want. The bad: You just gave someone another thing to check on on their already anti-social phones.
Here's the difference exemplified:
Automation is autonomous—doing the right thing automatically. As in, without human intervention. To get to real automation, you of course need the ability to control the device in question. But the reverse is not true. A smart automation system knows (senses) things, and acts (controls) to do them for you (automatically). In the examples above, you are the smarts...the technology is just connecting it to you! You had to go into your phone, check on the door's status, and lock it. You had to turn off the kid's TV. You had to check on the front door camera.
Sure, you need to be able to do these manually. But its not actually improving lifestyles, is it. The good: you gave them another way to check on things, and make changes if they want. The bad: You just gave someone another thing to check on on their already anti-social phones.
Here's the difference exemplified:
"I noticed that no one is home, and there is nothing in the oven, yet it is somehow on or chewing up gas/electricity. I turned it off (or shut down the gas flow)."Great. Thanks for letting me know you did it...text=good, k. I didn't need to look!
"The hockey game is on live now, and you appear headed home. I’ve gone ahead and recorded it. Should I have it start when you arrive?”
"It looks like there's someone in the back yard, and it isn't anyone we are expecting. Here's the live feed. Should I alert the authorities or ignore?"No, that's Fred our contractor. I asked him for a quote on that broken window.
You can see where this can get complicated. How long before the system alerts the authorities? What if you are in a meeting, or accidentally lost your phone? Or everyone in you family is on vacation? Should I "learn" who Fred is, and if so for how long should he be allowed to visit? During what hours? Sometimes it truly is better for the customer to control things only, with no attempt at smart automation. But rather than assume, you need to frame the questions so that a good, informed decision can be made.
By CES 2014, we should know better. After all, the promise of the connected home has been around quite awhile (Disney: 1957, 2008). Yet as I watched CNET's Connected Home panel of home automation experts from GE, Revolv, Nest, Phillips, Belkin/WeMo, and a couple of CNET's distinguished editors, I nearly ground my teeth to powder!
Let's agree not to equate the two. The sooner we, those of us in the industry, start using them separately, distinctly, and consistently, we'll be in a much better position to actually sell our vision, illustrate the benefits of our products, and set the appropriate expectations with our customers!
More fuel for your mind:
Ask Hackaday: What is "Home Automation"?, by John Marsh, October 9, 2013
Home Automation, Wikipedia
My "Automation vs. Control" Pet Peeve, by Mark Coxon, April 12, 2012
Control VS. Automation, Vitel Communications Blog
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