Take the human factor into account when considering technology for the home. By Ed Wenck, CEDIA

 

At a recent Q&A session with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak at Purdue University, “Woz” (who, interestingly enough, doesn’t believe we’ll see sentient, artificially intelligent machines anytime soon), summed up the premise of what makes for good tech design — which would also include home automation solutions: “The user is more important than the technology.”

That frame of mind is the gateway to understanding the concept of “human centric design.” Peter Aylett, president and chief technology officer of integration firm Archimedia, gives an example of a design that fails in this regard.

“I stayed at a fairly expensive hotel recently, and someone thought it would be a fantastic idea that the big, really bright light in the bathroom should be activated by motion sensor,” notes Aylett. “Well, actually, at 3:30 in the morning, no thank you very much. That is automation but that is absolutely not human-centric.

“A human-centric design would understand that if the light is coming on in the middle of the night, then the switch would raise the lights only a fraction of ‘full on’ so I won’t fall over things. That would have been a lot more human-centric. ‘Human-centric’ is a lot more than just having the technologies available.”

The ultimate expression of this notion is described by another integrator, Rich Green of Palo Alto’s Rich Green Ink. “The tools are falling into place now to make, for example, what I call hands-free automation, or  HFA,” says Green.

“Hands-free automation requires no user interface. The building knows who’s in it, what their needs are. Maybe with a little bit of machine learning, the building could learn what their typical routines are and then support those routines without having to reach out and read a keypad button or touch a keypad button.

“Everything’s taken care of for you,” he adds. “And with the right cabling, the right sensors, and the right design, we can apply this kind of machine learning to a variety of systems in the home.”

To find a local certified integrator, visit www.cedia.com. The CEDIA Expo takes place in Denver Sept. 10-14.