BERLIN - Sabine Starling, a Berlin architect, tapped her and selected a cartoon video for her two daughters. The tablet beamed the choice onto the screen of her white, Internet-ready flat panel television a few feet away.
In the wireless household, using a tablet as a television remote is supposed to be just one conversation in a din of synchronized chatter between electronic devices like TVs, phones, audio equipment and computers - and also involving dishwashers, refrigerators, heaters, motion sensors, lights and windows.
But in Ms. Starling's apartment near Kollwitz Platz in the Prenzlauer Berg district in Berlin, the iPad remote, which works with Apple's own TV service, is an all-too-rare sign of the wave of wireless home automation that was supposed to arrive a decade ago.
Experts say there are several reasons why the uncabled home, which became possible with the advent of Wi-Fi networks, has been slow in coming, with consumer indifference, the cost of consuming wireless data, the global recession and competing technical standards among them. “Theoretically, the technology is already there,†said Peter Cooney, an analyst at ABI Research in London. “But there needs to be something to motivate consumers to get it into the home. And there's no one system to pull it all together. It's early days.â€
Wireless connectivity in the home was a major theme of the Internationale Funkaustellung, the largest European consumer electronics trade fair, which was expected to draw a quarter million visitors and nearly 1,500 exhibitors through Wednesday in Berlin.
Wi-Fi networks and residential gateways, which are home networking devices that combine broadband modems, routers, firewalls and network switches, began appearing in 1999.
So far, they have enabled a range of services including home security and lighting, multidevice audio and video streaming and “smart†meter energy management.
But in Pacific Palisades, California, a new 4,539 square-foot, or 422 square-meter, contemporary Mission style home on the market for $3.5 million illustrates the technology's full potential.
Smart thermostats and sensors use electricity and natural gas at maximum efficiency. Air-conditioning, security and irrigation systems are managed by iPads and other smart devices. Video, audio and Internet stream over the Elan G, a multimedia system made by Elan Home Systems of Carlsbad, California. The washer, dryer and bathroom fans are connected wirelessly, letting the local utility reduce power consumption during peak demand. Lighting is controlled by motion sensors. The front, back and garage doors can be activated remotely with an e-mail.
“Improving the efficiency of homes with wireless Internet connectivity is where the industry is headed,†said Robert Kleiman, the co-founder of Structure Home, a custom builder in Los Angeles that built Vision House Los Angeles with Green Builder Media. Mr. Kleiman said home buyers are increasingly demanding wireless technology to save on energy costs and add convenience. “The technology is readily available and will become standard in the near future,†Mr. Kleiman said.
As the number of home networks rises, new automation services are beginning to appear. According to IHS, a research firm in Wellingborough, England, the number of homes worldwide with ethernet connections, which is necessary for Wi-Fi, will double to 800 million by 2016 from 400 million this year. The number of low-power, low-bandwidth networks essential for monitors and always-on sensors is to surge to 28.8 million by 2016 from 3.3 million, IHS expects.
In June, France Télécom introduced MyPlug, a wireless monitor that adjusts household energy consumption and can notify working parents when their children arrive home. MyPlug inserts into an electric socket and uses a remote sensor to detect the arrival of individuals carrying custom electronic IDs, and sends notifications by text message.
