Home Automation - History

History

Home automation has been a feature of science fiction writing for many years, but has only become practical since the early 20th Century following the widespread introduction of electricity into the home, and the rapid advancement of information technology. Early remote control devices began to emerge in the late 1800s. For example, Nikola Tesla patented an idea for the remote control of vessels and vehicles in 1898.

The emergence of electrical home appliances began between 1915 and 1920; the decline in domestic servants meant that households needed cheap, mechanical replacements. Domestic electricity supply, however, was still in its infancy - meaning this luxury was afforded only the more affluent households.

Ideas similar to modern home automation systems originated during the World's Fairs of the 1930s. Fairs in Chicago (1934), New York (1939) and (1964–65), depicted electrified and automated homes. In 1966 Jim Sutherland, an engineer working for Westinghouse Electric, developed a home automation system called "ECHO IV"; this was a private project and never commercialized. The first "wired homes" were built by American hobbyists during the 1960s, but were limited by the technology of the times. The term "smart house" was first coined by the American Association of Housebuilders in 1984.

With the invention of the microcontroller, the cost of electronic control fell rapidly. Remote and intelligent control technologies were adopted by the building services industry and appliance manufacturers worldwide, as they offer the end user easily accessible and/or greater control of their products.

During the 90s home automation rose to prominence. By the end of the decade, domotics was commonly used to describe any system in which informatics and telematics were combined to support activities in the home. The phrase appears to be a portmanteau word formed from domus (Latin, meaning house) and informatics, and therefore refers specifically to the application of computer and robot technologies to domestic appliances.

Despite interest in home automation, by the end of the 1990s there was not a widespread uptake - with such systems still considered the domain of hobbyists or the rich. The lack of a single, simplified, protocol and high cost of entry has put off consumers.