Predicting Our Future Andrew Weinreich, serial entrepreneur & inventor of the world's first social network, sixdegrees

For most of human history, we’ve accepted that keeping a home clean and filled with essentials is a burden that we must bear. But are we on the cusp of witnessing a technological revolution where our homes will take care of themselves and manage our lives for us? In the final episode of a 7-part series on the future of the smart home, Andrew paints a picture of what life in our future homes might look like and explores how smart homes will use personas and Artificial Intelligence to fulfill our needs before we’re even aware of them. Listen for interviews with some of the foremost experts and innovators in this space, featuring Daniel Rausch of Amazon, Kit Klein of Wink, Scott Harkins of Honeywell, Sridhar Kumaraswamy of Philips Lighting, Jeff Patton of GE Lighting, Neil Orchowski of Lutron, Professor John Barrett of the Nimbus Centre at Cork Institute of Technology, and Cliff Rosen of Whole Home Control.

If you’re incredibly proficient at using your Amazon Echo, you might already being giving it directions to order more toilet paper or laundry detergent. But how long will it be before the home is communicating directly with Amazon or Walmart and it places an order with no verbal cue or even involvement from you? Will Amazon use their own delivery people to stock your refrigerator?















Interviewees

Over the past few years, the public has mostly come to associate the voice activation capabilities of Amazon’s Echo and Google Home with smart speakers. But in fact these devices and others like them can be viewed as Trojan Horses being used by the world’s biggest technology companies in the war of home operating systems. From devices like the Echo and Google Home, users are now able to control their thermostats, blinds, cameras, locks, and entertainments systems. Will the company that develops the winning operating system for the smart home enjoy similar monopolistic power to that of Microsoft with desktop computing in the 1990s or to the market share Android and iOS hold in mobile devices today? In the fifth episode of a 7-part series on the future of the smart home, Andrew analyzes the race between tech giants to develop an operating system for the smart home and artificial intelligence to change the way we live. Listen for interviews with some of the foremost experts and innovators in this space, featuring Daniel Rausch of Amazon, Kit Klein of Wink, and Cliff Rosen of Whole Home Control.

The most influential companies in lighting are reimagining one of the most fundamental features of our homes: the light switch. Will the smart home of the future understand our lighting needs without us needing to flip a switch? In the fourth episode of a 7-part series on the future of the smart home, Andrew explores whether there’s a place for light switches in the future of smart lighting and why the winner of the space is far from obvious. Listen to interviews with some of the foremost innovators in the smart lighting space, featuring Jeff Patton of GE Lighting, Sridhar Kumaraswamy of Philips Lighting, Neil Orchowski of Lutron, and Derek Richardson of Deako.

While Nest wasn’t the first company to offer a smart thermostat, its first product quickly developed rock star status. Nest helped turn the thermostat -- a relatively forgettable device -- into a sexy offering that made consumers excited about other devices that would be offered as part of the smart home. Honeywell, a company that has long dominated the traditional thermostat market, is now going head to head with Nest in selling smart thermostats. In the third episode of a 7-part series on the future of the smart home, Andrew examines how an industry titan is able to maintain its lead in the smart thermostat space and what this means for manufacturers of smart home devices in other verticals. Listen for an in-depth interview with smart home expert Scott Harkins, VP of the IoT Partner Programs within Honeywell’s Connected Home and Buildings group.

The David and Goliath story of startups entering an entrenched industry and disrupting its leading players isn’t a new one. Yet within the smart home space, an unlikely development has birthed a particularly startup-friendly environment. Crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo have provided the right financing dynamics and access to early customers for startups to successfully launch smart home products. In the second episode of a 7-part series on the future of the smart home, Andrew investigates the evolving role of crowdfunding for smart home startups that have been making waves with innovative hardware devices. Listen for interviews with some of the foremost experts and innovators in this space, featuring Nayeem Hussain of Keen Home, Nils Mattisson of Minut, David Rabie of Tovala, and Christopher Calisi of Nightingale.