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Make your smart home smarter

Cast your mind back to the winter of 2014. The UK was at a complete standstill because of unexpected snow. Thousands of cars were left on the side of roads as the public was forced to trudge home in the freezing cold, the thought of being back in their home with the central heating on full blast the only thought encouraging them to keep on walking, writes Martin Woolley, the Bluetooth SIG technical programme manager. Alas! Nearly half way home they realised that they forgot to set the timer for the heating. If only they could set the timer remotely.

This kind of remote access for the home was simply a dream several years ago, however this is no longer the case. The revolution brought about by The Internet of Things has come into full effect, and consumers are starting to enjoy the benefits of the smart home, but there is still more to come.

Meet low energy needs
The Internet of Things is redefining what it means to be connected. It presents unmissable, undreamt-of possibilities for businesses all over the world. Gartner predicts that the typical family home could contain as many as 500 smart devices by 2022. Most of these devices will have the ability to communicate wirelessly using the low power technology of Bluetooth.

While consumers are used to using their smart phones as their main connected device on a daily basis, sensors are becoming increasingly important, and are enabling new and exciting ways in which people and their smart homes can interact. For sensors, energy usage is of paramount importance to the future of the smart home. Sensors fitted within walls and floors, for example, must be designed with low energy in mind, as they are difficult to gain access to once fitted. The low energy feature of Bluetooth provides developers with the ability to work on mobile and IoT solutions that can wirelessly connect devices efficiently. The ultra-low power requirements of Bluetooth mean some devices can exploit energy harvesting techniques and operate with no battery at all.

Bluetooth recognises that energy efficiency must be a prime goal in the smart home, and to meet this need, Bluetooth introduced its low energy feature with the launch of the Bluetooth 4.0 specification in 2010. Bluetooth intelligently divides responsibilities between two connected devices and makes decisions about which work is sent to which device. By recognising that in many scenarios one device will be more powerful than the other, Bluetooth’s low energy feature creates a master/slave relationship, in which the master (scanner) device is given more responsibilities than the slave (advertiser), which typically has a very small battery.

The responsibility of the master is to manage timing and other complex procedures, while energy is further saved for both devices because the advertiser devices only use a maximum of three radio channels. In addition, the low energy feature addresses the challenge of radio chips heating up over time by efficiently encoding short packets of data so that the radio is only used in short bursts. Those short packets and the use of a single, general purpose protocol – the Attribute Protocol – for data exchange also mean that the memory requirements for devices are kept relatively small. Memory consumes energy through refresh cycles, so smaller memory capacity consumes less energy. Reducing the energy consumption of smart home sensors and devices is a key goal for developers, and something that Bluetooth enables by remaining cost effective. With the price of chips low and continuing to fall, this ensures that manufacturers can offer competitive pricing.

A truly smart home
Now that consumers have the ability to control devices in their home from a wide variety of Bluetooth-enabled smart devices, steps can now be taken to further revolutionise the notion of the smart home. With the use of Bluetooth’s standardised mesh networking, planned for introduction into the specification in 2016, developers will be able to ensure wireless technology can cover the entire home, even in the most hard to reach areas. This development will make it possible for devices to talk to each other across a significantly larger range, allowing IoT to reach its full potential.

However, mesh networking isn’t just about coverage and range, it can also act as a vehicle for data capture. It can handle so many aspects of home control, from the temperature, right through to security. Mesh networking enables improved data collection across a wider range, and from all kinds of devices in and around the home, through the support of a network of sensors. This generates a truly comprehensive data description of many elements of the home, including energy efficiency, security, occupancy and more. As developers continue to build intelligent software on top of these devices, consumers can start to enjoy a more self-aware home, and one that can act on the vast volume of information it receives to automate a huge variety of things.

All of this data floating around the smart home may ring alarm bells for consumers who are concerned with potential security issues. Bluetooth offers a secure pairing procedure and 128-bit AES encryption, and actively promotes the proper implementation of this among member companies within devices where such security measures are necessary.

While we can see the benefits of the smart home – according to research from Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), almost half (46%) of consumers believe smart home devices will become mainstream within five years – we can see that pickup will be slow. This could be down to security concerns or feeling as though they’re not in control, but with Bluetooth’s mesh networking the consumer is in control, reducing any potential security and privacy concerns, while living in an environment that is truly tailored to their needs.