Smart Home: Digital Assistants, Home Automation, and the Internet of Things

The idea of a smart home includes a wide variety of emerging technologies. Examples include voice controlled digital assistants, robots, smart thermostats and blinds, and unifying platforms like SmartThings and IFTTT (“if this, then that”). In my home, I incorporated a combination of these things. Some overlap.

The technology is futuristic and, frankly, cool; but it required me to change the way I interacted with the world around me. Once my smart home was set up the way I wanted, I had to be mindful that it was there to help me - albeit not necessarily on my terms. I had to learn how to interact with my digital assistants. That journey is still unfolding, and I expect my smart home to keep expanding and improving as more things are added.

This book started simply as the notes that my wife kept during our recent personal experiences with selecting and setting up smart home devices after we built a new house. While whole-home solutions like HomeSeer or SmartThings are available in the market, we selected what we felt was the best product for each task, and made sure they would all integrate with our existing home. (In the interest of full disclosure, references to “me” or “our” attribute more credit to me than is due. She was the driving force and brains behind the whole endeavor!)