Future Tech Trends | Josh . ai
How was your recent trip to ISE ?
ISE was great . We taught a course on integrating voice control for the whole home and I gave a speech about the future of the user interface . Part of the reason we attended ISE was to get a better understanding of the European market and the complexity that expansion would involve . With 75,000 attendees and great conversations we felt ISE provided this insight in spades . is tightly coupled with the home automation system , making for flexible and natural commands , the ability to deep-link content and the ability to string together multiple commands . For example , without a prior scene configured one could say , ‘ Watch Game of Thrones in living room , dim the lights and close all the shades .’
What types of applications / projects does the system get used for currently ? Any favourites so far ?
Josh . ai is primarily focused on the high-end residential market , often in homes that are 8-10,000 square feet and larger . Voice commands around music , lighting , HVAC , shades , fans , garage doors and more are common . My favourite applications are synchronised scenes in larger residences that orchestrate complex commands with simple and natural speech .
Is the public really ready for voice control ?
We think so . Voice control makes home automation much simpler for elderly and children less excited about technology . It ’ s easy to use , simple and powerful . We don ’ t think the mass market , DIY way of doing things is right for the smart home space today , but in the professionally installed market , voice control is plenty powerful today .
How will voice control change in the coming five years ?
Right now voice is often a simple control layer on top of traditional button presses . For example , if you can turn on the television or activate a scene with a button , you can add a voice trigger to control that . It ’ s all moving away from this direct control and more towards automation . For example , can the home understand what ‘ I ’ m home ’ means , factoring the weather , time of day , who gave the command and other inputs in order to get the house ready for a particular preference . This involves a layer of artificial intelligence to get smart about what to do and how to do it . We see home automation becoming more predictive . The other attribute is using gesture and image recognition to decouple vague commands such as , ‘ turn that on ,’ where someone points at a lamp or television . Voice compliments technologies such as AR ( augmented reality ) and VR ( virtual reality ), so we ’ ll see voice becoming more important as those technologies mature as well .
Is there anything UK / European installers should know about Josh . ai
Local regulation and privacy policies tend to be a bigger impediment to seeing this technology in the UK than the technology itself . Don ’ t get me wrong , customising a language processor to work in the native language and accent of individuals is a complicated task and it ’ s not 100 % there today , but the combination of technical advancements and regulation requirements sets the UK at about 1-2 years behind what we ’ re seeing in the US as far as voice control is concerned .
Josh . ai is billed as a home ’ s best friend , hence the logo . The system is designed to be intelligent , responsive and learns the owner ’ s commands .
10th-11th May 2017 , Sandown Park , Surrey . Sponsored by March 2017 | 29