Automated Homes Seem to Be More Realistic in Tablet Age

It’s been one of our dreams for as long as Science Fiction has been written, that we would one day be able to live in a home that was completely automated. While we have made some strides over the decades, it seems like most of the automated houses we’ve seen popping up have been something that is completely out of the norm, rather than something that can be easily copied by other people. Home security systems have come the closest to sort of mass producing automated living, but they only deal with making sure all the doors and windows are shut and stay shut.

It appears that tablets and more advanced smartphones are moving us closer to our dreams of an automated home than a wide variety of other technological advances that have come over the last couple of decades. Savan Kotecha, a 34 year old song writer and producer on the popular music show X-Factor, recently spent nearly $100,000 to bring as much automation to his home as possible. Most of the advances were geared through the Apple iPad.

"It was totally worth it," said Mr. Kotecha, who added that he's thinking about installing even more high-tech features in his house.

Companies like Crestron, RTI and Control4, are all starting to make applications that work on Android and iOS that help run automatic functions in high tech homes. Another company by the name of Savant says that they are only making applications that work with the iOS platform. The automation is becoming ever more high tech, as people can now use these devices to control whether or not they want their driveway to be heated during a snowstorm, and to help them feed their pets with the push of a button. Houses can also employ sensors in a way to protect the elderly by determining if a fall might be bad enough to alert rescue personnel.

"The things you hear about are absolutely amazing," says Jim Carroll, co-founder of Savant Systems. "Anything's possible.”