With 2014 just around the corner, find out about next year’s five hottest trends in home automation technology before they happen. These dazzling trends will likely all be standard in most luxury residences. Get your first look now.
Many of the most popular home technologies made their debut in corporate offices, restaurants, bars, and hotels. We have been wowed by automatic lights, push button window shades, and integrated audio visual stations All of these items started as commercial products and found their way into luxury homes.
Here are the next five technologies ready to make the leap from the commercial marketplace to your home.
# One: Video Art
You may have seen several LCD panels arranged like a collage showing a slide show of colors, or photos in your favorite restaurant or nightclub. With the ever-declining price of LCD screens, you could soon see this wall art in new luxury homes. Homeowners will be able to change the art with ease using their tablets or smart phones. Planar currently makes most of the video panels used by businesses, but this technology should be easy to port to consumer use.
# Two: Floor Lighting
Illuminated carpeting is a hot trend in the hospitality industry. Manufacturers such as Royal Phillips and Desso are using LED lighting and light transmissive carpet to create elegant floor lighting solutions. Some floor designs allow the lights to be activated when someone steps on the floor panels. LEDs are light and durable, and easy to customize. When this technology makes it into homes, the user should be able to vary the colors of the lights with a control panel or even an app.
# Three: Fingerprint Readers
There is nothing more important to a homeowner than security. Governments and companies have used these James Bond like security devices for years to add a layer of personalized security to sensitive areas.
A fingerprint reader can eliminate the need for carrying extra keys. Everyone in the home can have his or her fingerprint programmed into the reader. Siedle USA is one of the leading manufacturers of this technology. Security conscious homeowners could even use the devices to create different security zones in the home. Fingerprint readers could limit access to everything from the wine cellar to the Christmas closet. Click here for more info
Convenient
No more lost, mislaid or • forgotten keys
Always “at hand”, no • searching and rummaging needed
No heavy, bulky bunch of • keys
# Four: Colored LED Lighting
Like video art, colored LED lighting is another technology that could come into your home straight from nightclubs and restaurants. These decorative fixtures can be programmed to show a range of colors in a variety of patterns and times. A party will always have the perfect lighting to match the music with these colored LED lights. Expert installation of these lights will compliment the architecture of a home, and provide a nice entertainment focal point. Phillips and Lutron are the two best known makers of these lights, and both have robust home consumer divisions, meaning it won’t be long before we are seeing these lights as a standard part of luxury homes.
# Five: Smart Glass
If you dislike the loud sounds of automatic window shades, or find their bulk distracting, smart glass could be just the new home technology for you. Firms such as Smart Tint, Research Frontiers, and Sage Electronics each has a different version of this technology. Companies have long used smart glass to provide the perfect amount of light. The smart glass uses an ingenious combination of lighting and electronics to turn windows from transparent to opaque with the touch of a button, or swipe of a screen on a tablet or smart phone.
The explosion of innovation in the tech sector means that anything you enjoy in your office or favorite restaurant or luxury hotel will soon be made available for your home. The future will hold anything you can dream up. One of the most exciting parts of these new technologies is that the powerful and versatile home control systems created by Crestron technology will be able to control all of these features. Your tablet or smart phone, will not only be able to control your lights and your television, but your smart glass, lit floors, video art, LED light fixtures, and even your doors secured by your fingerprints.
Contact us: AHT Residential Tel 305.593.1965 or info@ahtflorida.com
