What users want from smart homes

[Chuck]

I have been the subject of several interviews and surveys where folks come to my house and interview me about home automation. They pay me pretty good money (about $100/hr) for several hours of my time. Some of the conversations are video taped.

Several of the interviewers are foreign and most of the foreigners are from Germany. 

The questions they ask me are interesting to say the least. It is pretty clear they don’t know what the public wants in a smart home. Some of the situations they are proposing is rather complex and would be way to burdensome for the average user.

The one thing that all these people have said is that my house is way beyond any of the other homes they have visited and my ideas are way beyond what they have ever considered. I find that interesting since many are actual companies that are working on home automation.

It looks like the rest of the world is working hard to catch up with us.

Chuck

> On Nov 5, 2014, at 10:36 AM, Rob Lewis <rob at whidbey.com> wrote:
> 
> Interesting survey: 
> 
> http://robohub.org/smart-homes-my-home-my-comfort-say-readers/ <http://robohub.org/smart-homes-my-home-my-comfort-say-readers/> 
> 
> Of course, as we all learned from (among others) Steve Jobs, asking users what they want isn’t always the best guide. The classic quote from Henry Ford: “If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’.” 
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