Energy management will drive home networking

Interview with Willem Jonker from Philips Research
                                                                            

The networked home has been on the horizon for more than a decade, but is not yet there. When will the networked home be a widespread reality, and what socio-economic implications will this have? Eurescom mess@ge editor-in-chief Milon Gupta asked someone who should know, as he is at the forefront of bringing innovations to the networked home: Prof. Dr. Willem Jonker, Vice President responsible for the Lifestyle Programme at Philips Research. 

What is your vision of the networked home?

The networked home is emerging, but it is still a mainly a small-hub network. The big question is: will it remain like this, or will the devices in the home be connected? For the latter, there must be a clear need why devices are connected. For many home devices there is no real need to connect them. So it is still open what the need for a multifunctional network will be. We also see that home control networks for controlling, lighting, heating and more home functions have not taken off yet.

One area where customers have an incentive to deploy home networks is energy management. In regard to energy, customers are used to networking, and the rising energy cost will increase their need to manage it.

Customers will also go for more communication in the home. Today, communication is mainly linked to the phone and the PC. In the future networked home other devices will have communication functions as well. You may, for example, have communication via your bathroom mirror. While shaving, you may use the time to talk to your relatives. It is similar to talking on the phone while driving a car.

So my vision is that communication and energy management will clearly drive the evolution of home networking. 

By when will your networked-home vision have become a reality?

It won’t happen at once, but in steps. For energy management in the home the first step will be energy measuring. I expect that energy metering devices will be widely available within five years from now. For complete, integrated energy management solutions it will take more than ten years. The reason is that innovation cycles for houses are much longer than for cars, for example. There is a limit to retro-fitting new systems in the home, so the innovation cycle for networked homes will be determined by the house-building cycle. 

What are the main technological drivers of home networking?

Some people think that the main driver of home networking is the Internet of Things. However, this will take a long time. In the short- to mid-term, the main driver is standardisation.

Standardisation will be crucial for connecting communication devices in the home and achieving seamless handover when you are moving your streamed video, for instance, from a device in one room to a different device in another room. Currently, home networking standards are still rather proprietary. But in the end, there will be open standards.

Another important driver is broadband connectivity. There are still issues for the uplink from the home to the network, and we will see significant improvements in the near future. 

Which technical, economic and social issues do you foresee on the way towards fully networked homes, and how should they be addressed?

From an economic perspective, the challenge will be to offer cheap retro-fitting solutions for existing homes, as innovation cycles for new houses are long. Another important socio-economic issue is sustainability, which will drive energy management solutions in the home.

An important societal issue is individualisation. There is a growing number of on-person households. As they want to stay in touch with friends and relatives, this will drive communication solutions in the home.

The impact of the current crisis is ambivalent. It is a curse and a blessing. A curse because it slows down home networking investments, a blessing because people are looking for alternatives to travelling. The crisis may give a strong push for working from home.

There is, however, also some resistance by users to be expected. The main push backs will be privacy and control. Particularly ambient-assisted living scenarios for the elderly, will raise privacy concerns, as they involve extensive behavioural monitoring in the home. The other issue is controllability of networked home devices. In experiments at Philips Research, users were confronted with built-in devices, like ambient radio which automatically started according to customised preferences. The feedback showed us that users wanted to have some visible device, which allowed them to control the application. 

Who will be the main players in the future home networking market?

There will be a complex ecosystem of ISPs, telcos and device manufacturers. In the home itself, specialised service providers will offer customised solutions to the users. 

How will fully networked homes change our lives?

Networked homes will ease our lives through more functionality. At the same time this increased functionality may also overwhelm users. Thus, user will be forced to choose the functions they really need. In this process, plenty of home networking services will come and go.