Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Beyond 2030: Smart homes?

As public housing evolves, urban visionaries imagine that eventually, flats might even come with intelligent features now found only in some cutting-edge private developments. Professor Lye Kin Mun, Deputy Executive Director (Research) of the Institute for Infocomm Research, said some current trends include appliances that can be controlled or activated using smartphones and tablets. Smart homes could also be outfitted with medical applications to assist the elderly, such as facilitating remote tele-consultations with doctors. Prof Carlo Ratti, Director of the SENSEable City Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said appliances tomorrow could “tell us if the kids are asleep in their bedroom or whether the chicken in the oven is done, so that we can comfortably monitor the home remotely”. Cost is now a big obstacle to installing such features — especially in public housing where affordability is imperative. But Prof Lye is hopeful: “It’s only a matter of time before mass deployment will drive prices down.”

Related topics

home 2030

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.