The intelligent home is a technological achievement aimed at connecting modern communication technologies and making them available for everyday household tasks. With intelligent home systems it becomes possible to call home from any telephone or desktop computer in the world to control home appliances and security systems. Intelligent home systems guide the user to perform any operation, to control lighting, heating, air conditioning, or to arm or disarm the security system, and to record or to listen to messages. Other themes envisioned in intelligent home systems are automation, connectivity, wireless networking, entertainment, energy and water conservation, and information access.

Whereas optimists praise the intelligent home as the ultimate home comfort system, critics see this development as the dawn of utopian horror scenarios as foreseen in George Orwell's 1984 or Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, in which communication technologies start controlling people's lives. Apart from those general philosophical issues, it also remains to be seen whether such technologies will be affordable enough to successfully enter the market.

Examples of intelligent home systems can be visited in Melbourne, Australia or Berlin, Germany, to name but a few.

See also

• Home automation

External links

• Intelligent home Melbourne
• eHome Berlin
• Electronic House magazine

Housing