The Healthy Smart Home of the Future
Radar: Future of the home
Smart homes have the advantage of intuitive and intelligent response to consumer needs—an attractive proposition, but subject to valid criticism from a privacy standpoint. The smart home revolution ultimately represents access to a better quality of life in exchange for personal data. There’s no denying the smart home is a surveillance tool: it listens, watches, and detects patterns in order to maximize user benefits. Prioritizing health and wellness outcomes can help ensure that invasive data collection results in a win-win for consumers and society alike. Meanwhile, trends such as the rising cost of health care and looming healthcare provider shortages require accessible solutions to medical needs.
Smart home technology is intimate and personal. The information about how people eat, exercise, sleep and speak in the privacy of their home is sensitive and potentially damaging. Rather than permit Big Brother fears to dominate the narrative, this article explains how seven wellness hot topics (mental health, chronic conditions, disabilities, dementia, maternity care, dietary concerns, longevity, and acute illness) might become more manageable as a result of the smart home revolution.
1. Mental health
Mental health is a key factor of wellbeing, and growing awareness about the value of stable emotional states has medical researchers on a quest for modern remedies. There are many newly accessible treatments to help. Apps and telehealth have emerged, for example, which can support depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and other debilitating mental conditions.
Is the ability to ‘hack’ the brain on the horizon? Neurotechnology devices that activate signals to the brain (in the form of external equipment or internal implants) identify distress then provide soothing stimuli to counteract unhealthy mental states. Harnessing the power of music or other sensory inputs via neurotech devices could become a pathway to mental healthcare in the comfort of home. Smart home neurotechnology might soon become an option for psychological self-help in a familiar, safe setting such as a bedroom or study.
2. Chronic conditions and disabilities
Demographic shifts indicate a transition to an inverted population pyramid, which means there are more older people than ever before in many parts of the world. An aging population will require homes that can respond to various disabilities and chronic diseases that are common in old age. A longer life span often means living with conditions that limit physical or mental activity, so how can homes be designed to benefit the aging boom coming down the pipeline?
Modular and adaptable furnishings might be one example of interior design to suit the aged or disabled, such as chairs that can lift or raise to help those with limited mobility. Interactive kitchens could guide the preparation of healthy meals, providing encouragement and reminders of the value of diet for managing health conditions. There could also be a direct channel to health care providers through a number of devices or appliances. Imagine if a refrigerator could give an honest report on eating habits during medical visits, allowing more transparency between doctor and patient to permit more targeted care.
3. Dementia
Research published in The Lancet recently predicted global dementia cases will triple by 2050. The cognitive decline associated with dementia means millions of people may require housing that protects and supports compromised abilities, whether they reside in individual homes or institutional settings.
Preserving quality of life for dementia patients may involve a series of smart, connected devices that can monitor safety and offer help with day-to-day activities like bathing, dressing, and eating. A smart home could even help with preventing dementia. For example, new research has linked air pollution and obesity to dementia risk, so adequate air filtration or calorie-counting could be connected to a home control center to specifically protect from external risk factors.
4. Maternity Care
Research has shown that successful pregnancies have a solid foundation of support—mental, physical, and emotional. The home could be a comforting source of the information and care women need during pregnancy and post-partum. Emotional states could be supported by ambient effects that bring calm and serenity to the expectant mother, supporting healthy sleep and stress levels. Rooms could be equipped to prevent morning sickness with lighting or scents that overcome unwanted sensations. Furniture could adapt to provide comfort to the changing body as the pregnancy progresses.
Smart speakers might be able to provide information and emotional support for a healthy mental state. High-risk pregnancies could be monitored through wearables that detect issues that need medical attention, notifying caregivers as soon as problems are detected. Post-partum care could also be facilitated in a well-equipped smart home, possibly curbing instances of baby blues and permit experts to remotely monitor mother and newborn health for red flags of distress.
5. Dietary Needs
Eating healthy is a habit, just like exercise and self-care. Developing consistent habits can be reinforced through smart home mechanisms. Perhaps a smart pantry could suggest the right recipes to maintain weight or manage dietary illnesses like diabetes. Automated grocery subscriptions would be helpful in ensuring the right foods are always available and preventing prohibited items from being brought into the home.
Appliances that help consumers cook well and serve proper portions could be encouraging for those who need to lose weight or follow a strict diet. There may also be special dietary needs for those with ADHD, Autism, cancer, or other common concerns, which a smart home could help cater to without much human involvement.
6. Longevity
A long healthy life is becoming an obtainable goal for many individuals as the standard of living continues to rise. How could a smart home contribute to longevity? Digital assistants could serve as personal trainers that encourage and motivate regular exercise into old age, adapting the activities as needed as years go by. There is a growing recognition that vitamins and supplements can maintain mental and physical stamina, which wearables and smart objects around the home could play a role in ordering and administering.
There may also be memory support devices, perhaps gamified or entertaining in nature, to help keep the brain active. A smart home might also be able to simulate past memories to ease anxiety of those suffering from dementia so that they can experience independent living for longer. One major benefit of smart homes might be the ability to age in place without having to relocate to assisted living or memory care facilities.
7. Acute illness
One of the biggest lessons learned from the pandemic is that keeping contagious diseases away from crowds is safe and considerate. Symptomatic patients could shield others from illness if smart homes are someday equipped to facilitate in-home treatment for the common cold or flu. The inconvenience of having to wait for office hours to start or find an appointment could be eliminated through a truly smart telehealth experience where video, audio, and digital diagnostic tools work together to transmit information to a health care provider from the home. This type of convenience might keep sick patients out of waiting rooms and prevent the spread of illness.
Is it possible some advances would justify the practice of medical house calls? When necessary, provided the advanced technologies necessary for a healthcare visit exist in the home environment, doctors could come to the sick patient rather than risk public health by having contagious patients leave the home. High-tech sanitizing appliances could help keep the germs contained, protecting the physician and the other home residents from illness.
Conclusion
The home is a space that has gained attention during the pandemic. Online education, working from home, and telehealth trends reflect technological advances through which homes are taking on the qualities of once distinct spaces like schools, workplaces, and doctor’s offices. As the smart home movement grows, the benefits of automation and connectivity could result in a living environment capable of providing consumers with a high level of healthcare, better quality of life, and contribute to improved public health standards. Even though innovation is always accompanied by ethical dilemmas, there is good reason to think that smart home health and wellness technology is a step in the right direction.
Future of the home radar courtesy of Fibres. View more:
https://app.fibresonline.com/embed/945/radar/default?apiKey=fd66c235-818d-4e1c-8e65-4cb36188d6e2
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