The Problem with common smart home systems

Imagine your life as the average smart home developers have conceptualised it.

You come home at the end of a long workday, and your home is only a few meters away. Your front door automatically opens thanks to face and iris recognition software. Your house is already hyper-heated to the precise temperature you have always known and loved.
The light in the hallway is slightly dimmed as your favourite music plays as quietly or as loudly you like it. In the kitchen, you kettle has just switched itself on as you step into the smart home of your dreams.

Smart homes seem to make life much more pleasant and more relaxed. They smooth out all these little everyday routines as they’re now either automated or can be easily controlled by your smartphone.

However, the scenario just described is often entirely different. You approach the front door, but nothing happens at all. The perfect face and iris recognition software you were sold seems to have forgotten how to recognise you!

Of course, you knew that this could happen in certain circumstances, so you reach into your pocket to grab your old house keys. You open the front door to enter the unusally dark house you used to call home. It’s freezing cold. The central heating system that was supposed to start automatically two hours before your arrival is off.

A few moments later, the smart alarm sounds. Usually, it should detect the presence of your smartphone and then…