Smart homes have recently been hogging the limelight courtesy the rise of Amazon Echo and Google Home. While these two are fighting for that coveted corner in select households, consumers are actually finding it hard to decode the technological conundrum— concerning the utilitarian nature of these intuitive products. The question is, 'Are Smart Home Assistants functional entities or an unabashed splurge'?
The Concept
Before I answer the concerned question, it is only fitting to understand the concept behind Smart Homes and the central operational hub that might or might not exist in your vicinity. It all starts with the derivative of IoT or Internet of Things— a technological breakthrough that aims at connecting smart products within a restricted domain. IoT therefore brings along an improved cataloge of Alexa Skills and Voice Search for the Echo and Google Home, respectively.
Questions to be Answered
Now when the overview is out of the way, we need to focus on the implementation and limitation of these entities.
To be precise, it all started with the Smartphone assistants like Siri on iPhones and Cortana for Windows. While these were only the basic representations of smart assistants, the greater picture was actually inspired by them. The existence of proactive elements allowed the gadget to synthesize the gathered information, gauge the learning patterns and offer insights accordingly.
Therefore, it was quite intriguing to own a gadget which would— process the information explicitly— keep our appointments in check, process locational data and even work as built-in sensors. Basically, Smart Home assistants were inspired by these Smartphone Utilities and grew into slightly bigger entities— only in terms of real-estate.
My Answer to Smart Home Assistants
Personally, I would like these Smart Home Assistants to persist in real-time as I think they have the potential to grow into better and bigger allies— in near future. However, if we consider the existing scenario, the situation seems to be highly fragmented, in terms of utilities, interconnections and even resources offered.
Most vendors and companies are toiling hard to bring every functionality on-board, mainly for interpreting Smart Home Assistants in the envisioned manner. At present, products like Amazon Echo are the best exponents of this technology, offering an extended gamut for the existing price point.
While the future looks optimistic, the available solutions are way dumber than they actually look. The reason for such a derogatory term would be the way most Smart Home Assistants function. The idea, up till now, is to command devices with codes and execute programs which are tiresome to initiate, manually. However, Smart Home Assistants need to be way more than mere gadgets which can handle jobs for us, in case the nature of task is slightly convoluted.
These Assistants need to take cues from their Smartphone counterparts which are still more proactive as compared to the household entities. The idea would be to congregate the info and present it in a manner which is actually useable to the customer but in a far-fetched manner.
Changes which Need to Come
A Smart Assistant needs to be way more advanced than it actually is. The first step would be to fit in an array of sensors for detecting stuffs and even human presence. This step automatically makes the future entities more interesting and intelligent to work with.
Next, companies should include the aspects of artificial intelligence and machine learning into the scheme of things. This will help gadgets conclude data and learning patterns in a much better way.
Apart from that, Smart Home Assistants need to be better at data gathering and actionable resources— in order to be counted as options worth investing in.
Companies with Brighter Prospects
When it comes to innovation, Amazon leads the chart even if Echo isn't the most complete Smart Home assistant around. The amalgamation of Alexa looks inspiring and we might just witness something better in a few years from now.
Apple is the next big thing when it comes to smart home-based devices. Siri brought a lot of promise to the table and the Cupertino giant actually boasts of the ubiquitous ecosystems which we all might be looking at.
Google is also in contention with better technological endpoints to boast of. While Nest has been a failure of sorts, Google Home has been a pretty standard move from the company which is now expected to go head-on with Amazon, in terms of functionality.
Samsung has recently been involved with SmatThings acquisition, bringing a lot of promise and an option for seamless integration across gadgets and households.
Apart from these, I am also pretty upbeat for the likes of Comcast, Alarm.com and other companies which are trying hard to get noticed. However, they all need to bring AI into the scheme of things, in order to be in reckoning for the next big thing— in the world of Smart Assistants.
Bottom Line
It will be extremely fortuitous if the existing Smart Home assistants can make it big globally. While I would recommend using these innovative entities as a part of an experimental vigil, spending a fortune on the existing options might not be the sanest of ideas.
Our limbs can still suffice as the cost vs. utility ratio is excruciatingly high, when it comes to investing in a Smart Home Assistant, regardless of the company and the current specs sheet.