What is Smart Home Life Like? An Article to Guide You Through

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The combination of individual smart home devices ultimately forms a closed-loop smart home ecosystem. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of smart homes, offering a panoramic view of the smart home landscape.

When you return home in the evening and open the door, the lights from the hallway to the living room gradually turn on, the curtains automatically close, the water heater starts heating, and the air conditioner begins to operate—everything happens naturally. This is what a smart home is.

At the 2019 AWE (Appliance & Electronics World Expo), major players including Huawei, Haier, TCL, Panasonic, and Midea showcased their extensive layouts in the smart home sector.

Now, the application of 5G has expanded the possibilities for IoT (Internet of Things). Advances in Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and ZigBee technologies have significantly improved connectivity, while breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and cloud computing have made smart homes a reality.

Vertical categories surrounding smart homes, such as smart plugs, routers, thermostats, TVs, speakers, and door locks, have become relatively mature. The cost of deploying smart devices is increasingly affordable, and in the future, most new devices will be online, data-driven, and intelligent. In other words, smart homes have already entered the households of early tech adopters.

A complete smart home system encompasses various household appliances and peripheral devices like door locks and cameras. Below, we will analyze each component in detail.

The ecosystem of 'platform + content + terminal + application' is the design framework adopted by companies for smart TVs.

Account login allows users to store their IDs, which helps in creating user profiles and storing user information.

Users log in to smart TVs primarily to access content. Smart recommendation systems and personalized experiences are built on comprehensive user profiles and multi-dimensional characteristics.

Therefore, account login is an essential feature of smart TVs, distinguishing them from traditional TVs. Nowadays, account migration is commonly used—for example, a Xiaomi account can log into all Xiaomi devices, including smart TVs—enabling data sharing and higher efficiency.

Recommendation system technology is already quite mature, with its best applications seen in content platforms. Thus, recommendation systems have become a standard feature of smart TVs. Although different platforms use different recommendation systems, their structures are generally similar, consisting of online and offline components.

The offline part includes backend logging systems and recommendation algorithms, while the online part is the frontend interface displayed to users. The offline part learns from user data and behavior logs to build models, calculating relevant recommendations based on new contexts and presenting them on the online interface.

Modern smart TVs not only support remote control interaction but also voice and even gesture interactions.

Most smart TVs now feature borderless designs, eliminating the need for bezels, with the front almost entirely occupied by the screen.

Borderless designs offer higher screen-to-body ratios, creating a more immersive experience and freeing the visual boundaries.

The latest Xiaomi Mi Mural TV boasts an ultra-thin back panel, measuring just 13.9mm, achieved through a redesigned back structure that removes redundant and heavy components.

As the central device in the living room, smart TVs are both audible and visible, serving as a central control system.

Modern smart TVs typically include:

• Smart Air Conditioners: Their intelligence lies in automatic recognition, adjustment, and control functions. They can identify external climate and indoor temperature conditions, then adjust accordingly. They also support remote control via smartphones, allowing users to turn on the AC before arriving home.

Smart air conditioners also offer:

1. Integration with smart speakers or TVs for voice control.
2. Human presence detection, automatically sensing people's presence, location, and number to optimize the environment.

• Smart Washing Machines: These allow remote control via smartphones, enabling users to start or pause washing cycles from anywhere. Users can also check remaining wash times and receive alerts for issues like detergent shortages.

Most smart washers feature intelligent detergent dispensing, with some achieving precision dosing as low as 1ml.

• Microwave Sensor Wall Lights: A smart lighting solution, these lights are installed indoors (e.g., hallways, bedrooms) and activate when motion is detected, saving energy.

Using microwave auto-switch circuits, these lights create an electromagnetic field. The Doppler effect detects movement, triggering the light. No movement means no activation.

• Smart Beds: These include beds, frames, and mattresses with smart functions, such as adjustable slats (typically five sections). Unlike traditional electric beds, smart beds use sensors and big data to adjust settings and analyze sleep quality via smartphone apps.

High-end models may include home theater functions, connecting to gaming consoles like XBOX or PlayStation, and features like automated blackout curtains, alarm clocks, and news updates.

• Smart Coffee Tables: Featuring multi-touch technology, these tables allow multiple users to interact simultaneously. Some models include built-in ordering systems with mobile payment options.

• Smart Cameras: Core to IoT and cloud applications, these cameras connect via Wi-Fi or cellular networks, enabling real-time monitoring via smartphones. They can alert users to motion detection and record footage, with infrared night vision for 24/7 surveillance.

As video processing technology advances, these cameras will further enhance home automation.

• Smart Locks: Combining IC design, electronics, and innovative recognition technologies (e.g., fingerprint, password), these locks integrate mechanical design, software, and network alerts.

Features include:

• Virtual password technology, allowing random digits before/after the actual code to prevent leaks.
• Embedded processors and monitoring for real-time interaction, remote unlocking, and visitor logs.

Current home smart locks support unlocking via password, fingerprint, RFID cards, remote control, or mechanical keys.

• Smart Curtains: Light sensors monitor indoor brightness, automatically adjusting curtains based on time and light levels.

Smart curtains typically feature fixed switch controls: pressing the 'open' or 'close' button automatically moves the curtains to their fully opened or closed positions, with the motor stopping automatically once the curtains reach their destination. During the opening or closing process, pressing the 'stop' button halts the motor, allowing users to adjust the curtains to their desired position. This fixed switch control eliminates the inconvenience caused by malfunctioning or lost remote controls.

Major tech giants like Amazon, Google, Baidu, Xiaomi, and even Tmall and JD.com have introduced their own smart speakers. As the name suggests, smart speakers are more intelligent than regular ones, capable of controlling smart home devices to realize the concept of a 'smart home.' These speakers act as a central hub, serving as the 'entry point' for home automation.

(1) Microphone Array

Apart from the chip, the microphone array is a core hardware component. Smart speakers are usually equipped with multiple ring-array microphones to extend sound reception range, ensuring that user commands can be heard from any corner of the room. Key technologies include noise suppression, reverberation cancellation, echo cancellation, sound source localization, beamforming, array gain, and model matching.

(2) Face Detection and Recognition

Speakers with cameras can detect faces to determine user locations and assist in sound source localization. Facial recognition can also be used for user identification.

(3) Voiceprint Recognition

This technology identifies speakers based on voice waveforms that reflect physiological and behavioral characteristics. However, its accuracy is lower than fingerprint or iris recognition. Current applications include WeChat's voice lock feature.

(4) Wake-up Function

To protect user privacy and reduce false recognition, smart speakers typically begin complex signal processing (sound source localization, beamforming) and subsequent voice interactions only after detecting a wake-up word. The wake-up module is a small speech recognition engine that requires minimal acoustic and language models, enabling fast, local, and real-time processing.

Smart home subsystems include: wiring systems, home networks, control management systems, lighting control, appliance control, security monitoring, curtain control, background music, video sharing, home theater and multimedia, and environmental control systems.

Imagine waking up to soft music gradually increasing in volume, curtains opening automatically, breakfast being prepared, and news playing as scheduled. When leaving home, there's no need to worry about lights or unlocked doors—simply tap the remote control interface on your phone, and the smart home system handles everything. The security system auto-arms, detecting anomalies like gas leaks, fires, or intrusions, and alerts the property management center while sending real-time notifications to your phone.

Returning home, the security system disarms as the door unlocks, hallway lights turn on gently, and the air conditioning and ventilation systems start automatically with background music playing. A single remote controls all household appliances. At night, curtains close on schedule, and the 'Good Night' mode turns off all lights and devices while activating the security system.

Before leaving, pressing a single button ('Away Mode') turns off all lights and appliances. Smart locks eliminate the need for keys, syncing with indoor lights, TVs, curtains, and air conditioning. In summer, air conditioning can be timed to start before returning home for a cool environment.

During meals, a single scene mode dims unused area lights while brightening the dining area. Kitchen security systems automatically close valves in emergencies and alert users via phone. Kitchen outlets can control appliances with customizable timers and scenes.

Sleep Mode: Turn off lights, curtains, and other devices with one button without getting out of bed.

Night Mode: Motion sensors softly light the path to the bathroom without disturbing others. In the morning, curtains open gradually to welcome the new day.

Bathroom two-button switches control lights, working with motion sensors and smart appliances like washing machines.

Combining individual smart home products creates a closed-loop ecosystem, offering personalized smart home security solutions.

Soon, keys will be unnecessary—fingerprint unlocking will suffice. Upon entering, smart cameras will capture and identify 'family' or 'stranger,' while air conditioners, TVs, lights, and speakers respond automatically to commands. These scenarios will gradually become reality.