5 smart-home technology concepts you need to know

A home automation is a predetermined action with three parts:

• The trigger — This determines when the action will take place.
  Example: This action only happens when you get out of bed.
• The condition — This determines if the action will take place.
  Example: This action only happens when you get out of bed if it’s after 9 a.m.
• The action — This determines which action will take place.
  Example: Your bedroom blinds opening is the action which takes place.

It should be noted that not all smart-home tech “talks” to every other smart tech on the market. Some tech only integrates with other tech made by the same company, while other technology is universally compatible. Keep this concept in mind when amassing tech for a unified, streamlined home-automation experience.

When most people think smart home, they think about innovations that allow them to enjoy creature comforts without lifting a finger. But some of the most important smart-home tech is safety-oriented.

A smart-home smoke and carbon monoxide detector will not only warn you about dangerous conditions in your home by talking to you, it will also send an alert to your phone. If a fire or other unsafe condition occurs when you’re not home, these text alerts give you the ability to act quickly, which could prevent property damage and even save a life.

Forgot to lock your doors before you left the house? Smart locks allow you to remotely check the locks and lock them.

Smart cameras and integrated motion sensors constantly monitor the perimeter of your home, whether you’re safe inside or out and about.

The convenience of a smart home can start the moment you get out of bed. A pressure sensor under your mattress recognizes you’ve arisen and communicates this information to smart blinds that open to let in sunlight, a smart thermostat that raises the temperature and even a smart coffeemaker that starts brewing.

After breakfast, you head into your home office, where a motion sensor recognizes your arrival, switching on the lights, turning on the ceiling fan, and booting up your computer.

In the evening, you plop down on your couch and hit play on a streaming series. Your lights automatically dim to give the room a theater-like feel. When someone rings your doorbell, the TV show pauses, and the lights return to full brightness so you can see who’s at the door without missing a moment of the action—or comedy or drama or romance.

Heading up to bed, you give the voice command “Night night,” and the house goes into sleep mode, shutting out the lights, lowering the thermostat, switching on some LED lights in the upstairs hallway, and turning on the white noise machine in your bedroom.

With each passing year, automation finds its way into more facets of our daily lives.

You can take cooking to the next level with a smart cutting board that uses UVC light to kill germs, has a built-in timer and scale, and will show you recipes and tutorial videos.

Digital showers allow you to control the temperature, duration and pressure of your shower, play soothing music, and activate aromatherapy.

Eco-smart sprinkler systems and wireless soil sensors use weather forecasts and historical data to optimize watering schedules and conserve water.

If any of these automations interest you, do your homework and you’ll find a variety of out-of-the-box or DIY systems that can handle what you’re hoping to achieve. You can have the home of the future that you’ve always dreamed of — right now.