What is the Digital Home? With the growth of broadband networks (fixed and mobile) many of the activities of daily life are expanding into on-line delivery directly into the home.  The Digital Home is the converging point of computing, Internet, multimedia and telecommunication. The Digital Home provides an exciting opportunity for the emergence of new products and services to enrich the lives of the people living there.  The occupants using these services will be demanding technology that is easy to use and that fits easily into a domestic environment regardless of age or ability.  Consumer adoption of new digital home technology will be driven by the basics - does this technology improve the quality of life and is this technology easy to use?

There are at present three distinct driving trends in the design and development of the Digital Home:

1. Green
2. Personal
3. Smart

Lets take a brief look at each of these Digital Home trends:

The Green Home

The Digital Home of the future is all about leaving the smallest environmental footprint possible, both in the contruction of – and living use of – the home.  Design features include automated smart technology systems which enable homeowners to control heat, window coverings, lighting, security sensors and cameras—and track electricity, gas and water consumption in real-time (for one example read more about Z-Wave technology). The green Digital Home will also be capable of generating its own energy and recycling its own waste water. Today's homes are already capable of recharging electric vehicles, but the Digital Home may soon become a refueling station for other fuel alternatives including hydrogen, various biofuels, and even bioelectrical.  Want to take a first step today? You can quickly Green your PC with a cool Facebook application that optimizes the green settings on your computer automatically.

The Personal Home

The driving force of this trend is remarkably simple: You and technology living with each other in harmony. This is reflected in various aspects of design now being incorporated into the Digital Home including many health & safety oriented technologies: monitors & sensors, virtual medical devices that allow doctors to treat you in home (from their office), automatic emergency response, home computers which monitor health through tiny, invisible, wireless wearable computing devices, biometric screening devices for secure entry, robot assisted living for cleaning, caregiving and companionship, and much more. Beyond health the Digital Home of Future will become a center-piece for balance and human fulfillment including becoming the travel agency of the future, the university of the future, the garage of the future, and more.

The Smart Home

The “Smart” Digital Home is amazingly networked, with its principle goal to connect occupants and everything else in the house together. A central computer accepts voice commands, distinguishes between occupants for personalized responses and actions, makes various electronic decisions on our behalf.  Computers, appliances, all electronics are networked and connected to the internet.  In fact every every appliance has its own Internet address and can be remotely managed from anywhere on the planet.  The central computer tracks movements and even lifestyle patterns to turns on/off lights, adjust temperature etc. Tiny processing devices, hidden everywhere in the home are capable of letting you know when an appliance needs maintenance; they can can request their own repair dispatch. On the other end of an even more extreme spectrum, there is even research and development being done to create a smart home controlled by thoughts alone!

In the coming weeks, we’ll go into much more detail about each of these trends, and give you an idea of the promise and potential each holds to enrich your life!