Home automation

The impact of home automation on domestic lifestyles will be as far ranging as was that of factory automation on industry and its benefits will be available to all sectors of society. Home automation will be achieved not with the household robot but with embedded computing power and memory within dozens of pieces of domestic equipment, each of which will communicate with the user and with other equipments. Within the integrated home system the communication media will include infra-red, radio, mains wires, installed twisted wires and coaxial cable, and later perhaps optical fibre. Applications will include security, lighting, heating, cooking, washing appliances, audio and video systems, energy management as well as a number of new applications such as health monitoring, home publishing etc. A large standards activity is in place by the major manufacturers of domestic equipment throughout Europe to ensure that their equipments are reliable and compatible