• Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    I think the “smart” home will become more common.

    I don’t mean that we’ll see smart versions of new things, but more of the basic things, like Light fixtures, smoke alarms, doorbells etc. Consumers will buy less and less of the “dumb” things until EVERYTHING has WiFi built into it.

    • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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      23 days ago

      I’ve worked in the home automation industry for over twenty five years. I’ve been programming “smart lighting” for over ten.

      The “smart home” you see today is largely thanks to how cheaply things are made in china and repackaged by mega-corporations. And the consumers’ desire to do everything from their phone (with 2 day shipping). Automated lighting control has existed for over forty years. It’s been expensive because the parts are built to last for forty plus years and most of the older system were manufactured in the US. Those manufacturers are still mostly making things in the US but a lot of little bits are imported.

      An average 2,500 sq ft home could do a whole automated lighting system for about five grand. That’s a lot for someone to buy (and install) from Amazon but it’s nothing if it’s bundled into your mortgage.

      Nothing beats a wire. For a small apartment with a few lighting circuits, sure, spend $500 on some wireless doodads. Now you’re stuck relying on software updates and firmware updates by your router, your wireless bridge, your smart buttons, your lighting fixtures, your mobile OS, the lighting app, and maybe another app to combine everything, not to mention your “smart speaker” if you want to yelp your commands into the air. On the other hand, if you get everything from one manufacturer, it’s built on an isolated network that grants access to your mobile device and the system is self contained and essentially bulletproof until the power goes out.

      Lighting is a life safety segment. You won’t pass inspection unless you can turn the lights on and off from a physical switch or button that doesn’t rely on your home wifi.

      It’s up to electricians and builders and AV experts (and CEDIA) to convince future home owners that it’s worth getting this stuff installed before the home is built rather than letting them decide to buy something prone to failure on their own.

      I love smart lighting. I wish everyone would invest any amount of money into it. But, if I’m reading you right, a wifi lighting world is not something I would hope to see become more commonplace than the current path of wired automated lighting. I’m in agreement with you though. It’s really sad when I walk into brand new homes that have no lighting control (or distributed audio) at all.

      • grue@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Nothing beats a wire. For a small apartment with a few lighting circuits, sure, spend $500 on some wireless doodads. Now you’re stuck relying on software updates and firmware updates by your router, your wireless bridge, your smart buttons, your lighting fixtures, your mobile OS, the lighting app, and maybe another app to combine everything, not to mention your “smart speaker” if you want to yelp your commands into the air. On the other hand, if you get everything from one manufacturer, it’s built on an isolated network that grants access to your mobile device and the system is self contained and essentially bulletproof until the power goes out.

        Both wireless and proprietary/single-supplier are deal-breakers for me. As such, stuff like what you install (presumably Crestron or similar) is just as worthless to me as the shit from Amazon. Basically, between surveillance capitalism and vendor lock-in, nobody in the industry wants to meet my needs. So I’m either going to have to resign myself to having a “dumb” house forever, or build the whole damn system from scratch myself with blackjack and hookers Arduinos and Home Assistant!

        • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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          22 days ago

          There’s nothing wrong with building it yourself other than you need to acquire all the skills to do so and source all the components yourself and figure it out on your own when it doesn’t work. If that works for you, that’s great.

          Crestron and Lutron stay out of the consumer market, in part, because you need to be a licensed electrician to install components of their systems. I can tell you from experience, even with the right training and certification, it’s very easy to blow something out. And when something doesn’t work, you have them for tech support and you get a great warranty. The stuff is rock solid and works for decades. I rather buy a home with a single supplier system than one that was hobbled together. Because when I then have a problem with something or want to upgrade the system, I know who to call and what the options are.

          • brygphilomena@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            I hate battery items, and when I can I like wired. But retrofitting a 70 year old home with all that won’t be easy or cheap. I’ve already had to redo all my outlets and run new wires.

            Other disadvantages for me are:

            • I have to know what I want at the beginning
            • The vendor has to support or sell a specific solution for whatever device I want
            • I can’t slow roll it as I can afford it
            • Upgrades aren’t going to be easy or cheap.

            But I am an IT director. So I know my way around networking, programming, and system/server admin. I can segment, design, and secure the networking between the devices and run whatever systems I need for automation. I’ve run Ethernet throughout the house and am not afraid of cutting holes.

            I’m trying to tie in some professional systems like Dante audio instead of smart speakers. Even though that means I’ll probably need a dedicated audio server.

            And I’m tying in a lot of legacy protocols too. Like artnet and DMX for a lot of the show control systems I have. It’s really great being able to use so much dissimilar stuff and be able to control it from a single dashboard.

            I can also automate temporary things like holiday lights or my big Halloween displays. I end up wiring most of my cars lights to DMX controlled relays and dimmers. Add fog machines and audio cues that I can sync up together.

            But I do know that I’m a nerdy edge case here.

            • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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              22 days ago

              That’s pretty much what we do (including retrofitting 200+ year old farm houses). Just replace your home server with a Crestron box. For people who want to tinker on a regular basis, we could (I have) easily build them a custom interface but you certainly fit the bill of someone who should do it themselves. You’ve chosen this as a hobby and a life long commitment.

              You know what they say about plumbers… always a leaky pipe in their house. Having been in the industry for decades, the last thing I want to do when I get home from work is futz around with networking and programming. I have wireless Ikea lighting. The battery has been dead on one of my smart buttons for a month and I’m too lazy to take two minutes to swap it.

      • Uncurious3512@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Thanks for sharing your experiences! Are there any brands, guides, platforms, etc that you would recommend?

        I’m getting my feet wet with Home Assistant and would love to “Do it right”!

        • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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          22 days ago

          Lutron is the most common for lighting and shades. They work closely with electricians, architects, and designers. Lutron has some consumer facing products (Caseta) that may be applicable to most people wanting to take a step into real control systems. That’s not to say they have all the capabilities you’re looking for - they stay in their lane.

          Crestron is far more robust as they offer everything from lights, shades, speakers, control systems, AV distribution, etc. They’re huge in commercial too. You would need to contact an AV pro to get Crestron installed and programmed.

          There’s handful of other brands you may come across (Control4, Savant) as you research your local AV installers. I don’t have as much experience with them. Both had questionable beginnings but I would assume they’re much better now.

          Just make sure whoever you deal with is authorized or certified dealers and programmers. It’ll cost a bit more than people working out of their trunks - but you get what you pay for. As with all things ‘internet’, do your own research. I can suggest starting here https://cedia.org/homeowners/

      • A_Union_of_Kobolds@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        Am electrician, 100% with you. Relying on apps and wifi for your home is NOT worth the money you save. It’s straightforward enough for us to do the job properly, and you will be MUCH happier with the results. It will also improve resale value, which your rinky-dink wifi devices won’t. Because they’ll be obsolete.

        This isn’t me saying it to drum up work. We’ve got plenty of work. I ain’t selling nothing here. Invest in an electrician for a few days and it will pay off.

        • oxjox@lemmy.ml
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          22 days ago

          This is a complicated answer just because there’s so many options and variables. We always tell people to run more wire than they think they’ll need.

          Proper speaker wire is fire rated for in-wall use - don’t run lamp cord in your walls. 18 gauge, two pair or four pair is typical. While the walls are open; run at least one Cat6 to TVs, potential wifi access point locations, security camera locations, door bell, light switches, even speaker locations and someplace you think you might want a source component (turntable, etc). If you want controlled shades, they may take special wiring which you’d definitely want to run now. Worse case, 18/4 and Cat6. Everything should start from a central location not far from your electric panel.

          You’ll need to balance how you want to control the system with how the system you want can be controlled. If you want in wall keypads or touch screens, that control system needs to be compatible or made compatible with your source gear. If you want to control everything with an iPhone or iPad, you’ll need to look into a control system that’s compatible with that.

          Consider that a ubiquitous 110v commercial amplifier can likely power all the speakers in your home but it lacks volume control. Most whole home amplifiers lack a volume control you can operate from a mobile device. There are in-wall volume controls that can sit between the amplifier and the speakers. To use those, you could run 18/4 (and maybe Cat6) from the amp to the volume control then 18/2 from the volume control to the speaker. You could also consider a matrix switcher with preamp. This would distribute one or more sources to the amplifier channel (speaker zone) you choose and possibly give you remote volume control.

          Those are just some thoughts. You might want to check out these sites for equipment ideas: monoprice, sweetwater, snapav, russound.

    • AA5B@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      No WiFi please. There are much better technologies for home automation.

      Matter/Thread has the potential to make this happen. Finally a common network across both wired and local low powered mesh-based networks that’s easy to use and can do pretty much whatever anyone would need.

      Lots of hype, but very slow rollout means we’re just not seeing that potential develop. You really need to use older tech as well, which keeps it from being available to non-techies

  • simple@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

    Actually efficient hardware and better batteries. I’m really interested in owning a laptop or mobile some day that can comfortably work for 20+ hours without being charged.

    • sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Batterie technology is fascinating and I expect big strides in the next 10 years (along with consumer generation of electricity)- to the point where people will be able to basically take their home “off grid” relatively easily.

    • residentmarchant@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      I forget where I read this, but someone posited that the goal has always been “all day” battery. Ever since the first smartphones ,we’ve had, largely, the same battery life. It lasts most of the day and that’s good enough for most people. The secret, though, is that actually the batteries have gotten way bigger and more energy dense, it’s just that the processors and mobile radios are also more power intensive.

      I suspect if you put a modern battery in a 5 yr old smartphone it would last 2+ days. But you’d have to deal with 3G radios, bad GPS, and slow performance.

  • Sundial@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

    Server side services. Think of things like office online, Google cloud, etc and just expand on it. We already see some with server side gaming. I think it’ll be more commonplace in our day to day.

    Internet enabled roads, highways. Likely won’t be commonly adopted within 10 years but I could see service providers/car companies rolling it out.

    I think we’re also going to be seeing a lot of robots with new applications. Definitely military. But social and work ones as well.

  • paf0@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    Dirt cheap genetic sequencing and MRNA vaccines will be available to cure various types of cancer.

    • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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      23 days ago

      I wish. Genetic sequencing is already pretty cheap, but cancer is not some all-encompassing disease to be cured by it.

      • paf0@lemmy.world
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        23 days ago

        There will be custom printed MRNA vaccines that target cancers based on sequencing that cancer’s own DNA.

        • baggachipz@sh.itjust.works
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          23 days ago

          Does this mean we would get vaccinated against all forms of cancer? Because these are a lot. What about people who already have a cancer?

          • Preflight_Tomato@lemm.ee
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            23 days ago

            Many kinds yes, idk enough to say all. Docs take a sample of the cancer DNA, turn that into an mRNA vaccine, inject it into you, and your immune system precisely destroys the cancer.

            It seems interesting for many cancers, and lifesaving for already metastasized cancers.

            Only downside will be lifelong wage garnishment to The Company.

          • paf0@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            It’s not necessarily a vaccine that you get in advance. It’s simply a vaccine in that it causes your body to create antibodies against the wonky cells, they can happen after chemo or radiation and still be effective.

  • m4xie@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    23 days ago

    Climate change is already happening. We’ll have some gadgets to help cope with that.

    Personal coolers already exist. They’ll get more practical and more common.

    Maybe there’ll be commercially available filtered air systems that keep houses at positive pressure to deal with wildfire smoke.

    • chaosCruiser@futurology.today
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      22 days ago

      There will also be more extreme weather. Super cold winters, super hot summers, super dry times, super heavy rain etc. Storm bunkers could become popular.

    • baldingpudenda@lemmy.world
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      23 days ago

      Everything will be over insulated. We’ll all where “parkas” with integrated water cooling for our 6 month summers when we go outside

  • weeeeum@lemmy.world
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    21 days ago

    I’m not sure what more technology we can invent to distract us from realizing how increasingly poor we’ve become.

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    23 days ago

    I think we’re past due for a major technological breakthrough in energy storage that 1) increases energy density, 2) charge/discharge time, and 3) is more sustainable than, say Lithium.

    With how much R&D seems to be pouring in this right now, I have at least hope.

  • golli@lemm.ee
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    23 days ago

    I think the satellite based cellular networks like ASTS is currently trying to launch will be ubiquitous.

    The tech already seems good, so it’ll happen much sooner than 34, but I imagine by that point it will just be one of those things everyone takes for granted.


    I can also see small autonomous drones playing a much larger role with various tasks.

  • BruceTwarzen@lemm.ee
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    21 days ago

    I’m not really a fan of AI that doesn’t need to have AI in it, but if you see how rapid it progresses, i would assume AI tools where everyone can make a whole movie by just adding prompts. Like make a batman movie, but i’m batman. It’s probably not gonna be great but working. Photoshop skills is gonna be the new: you’re not always gonna have a calculator in your pocket.