In this topic I’m not an expert, far from it, but I have drawn attention to some recent inventions (and not so recent) that perhaps in a future will completely transform the interior and exterior of our homes. If you know any more inventions, I’d appreciate if you comment it here as I would have more info about this topic and our readers can be informed better.

A century ago, inventions such as fridge, microwave, hob and television, were unthinkable. Today, not only are essential in any home, but moreover we don’t pay attention to the advancement that inventions represented at that time. Following this trend, and given that technology advances faster and faster, this could be what awaits us in the not too distant future (10 years, maybe a little more in some points, depending on the purchasing power). Some of the inventions already exist but are reserved for the rich people.

• Energy: The home of the future will be self-sufficient respect to electricity. Not so the flat of the future, unless the photovoltaic panels improve enough to power an entire building, with a few panels on the roof. Yes, photovoltaics, whose only requirement is to cover the roof of the house with some panels, providing unlimited clean energy at no cost.
• Internet: There’s no doubt that all steps in that direction will go home automation. For this, the infrastructure of the homes will be improved accordingly. There are 2 possibilities: wireless networks (3G, HSDPA, 4G) will improve dramatically and will completely free us from the telephone wires, or the archaic copper wire will be replaced with fiber optics, much faster. Obviously, this already exists, but only in certain districts of some cities. Furthermore, it isn’t being exploited all the potential it offers.
• RFID: Perhaps you haven’t heard about these letters (Radio Frequency ID), but surely you’ve ever used that technology. It consists on tiny chips (RFID chips) that contain a short sequence of bytes (an identifier), and can be read by a receiver at a distance of centimeters or even a few meters. They are, more or less, bar codes, but almost invisible, and without need for “visual” contact between the receiver and the chip. For example, they’re used in some public transport vouchers, or library books. Although, if this technology becomes more popular and chips costs diminish further, they can enter our homes as smart barcodes. For example, our futuristic fridge (with RFID reader incorporated), will know what food is inside it (if the food have RFID chips), and can warn you when an item is ending, or even buy it online. It may also suggest recipes based on the ingredients you have available.
• Appliances: Basically, appliances will be the same as now, just with added computer / robotic abilities. There already exist, at quite affordable prices, robotic vacuum cleaners which aspire continually following a random pattern, so cleaning the whole surface of the house, and even auto-recharge (when they are running out the battery, they plug into the battery charger without human intervention). By adding artificial intelligence to appliances, you could, for example, synchronize the clock with the brewer, so when you wake up, you’ll have a cup of freshly brewed coffee waiting for you. That, coupled with the Internet, opens a new world of possibilities. You can check at any time, via a mobile phone, the state of the house, temperature, and for example, turn on the heating 1 hour before arriving home to find the house already warn when you arrive.
• Smart items: As blinds, lights or faucets. A motion sensor in the room, which turns on the light when someone comes in and turns it off when the room is empty; blinds that upload themselves when the alarm sounds, or faucets that turn on when you put the hand underneath. In short, sensors that allow “the house” to behave according to what people are doing or to environmental conditions.
• Computer as the center of the house: From the computer, or even from a mobile phone, you will be able to control absolutely al the parameters of the house, and even automate certain tasks such as turn on and off the heating, or lower the blinds at dusk. Today, computers are no longer computers, are all that and more, and gradually they’re becoming even more. The computer will become the absolute center of the house, integrating television, game console, music player, video, phone…
• New technologies: Recently, there has been presented a technology that will supposedly “kill” the traditional light bulb in 2013. You can call me skeptical, but I don’t think it will achieve in 3 years that low-energy lights are trying more than a decade. This technology involves a kind of wallpaper that emits light, in a similar way as a computer screen emits light (OLED screens in particular). It has the advantage of lower power consumption, and providing a smoother, more natural light, as it’s distributed throughout the room. If you have lost within my explanation, basically in the future, rather than bulbs, there will be light walls, of course with adjustable intensity, and even colors.

I saw nothing more, although I’m sure there are dozens of inventions that should be taken more into account. Most are simple evolutions of what we know so far, which will be phasing in our lives, until a time when we’ll wonder how we could live without it.

The electronics is taking over our homes just as electricity did in the past century. We expect some interesting decades in which some “premonitions” made by the Science-Fiction writers will come true, such as the smart home, the remote machine controlled with the thought, the hologram or humanoid robots capable of learning (apparently). As I always repeat every time I write an article like this, I don’t have a crystal ball, to see the future it’s best to live it.