Meet Anna, a 40-year-old PR professional woman, married to Erik, and their 3-year-old daughter Emma. They are the kind of family who care about the environment and sustainability, healthy living and the circular economy. They live in a house with a garden in the suburbs of Stockholm. Anna and her husband Erik wake up at 6 am every morning. The temperature has dropped during the night but Eco-bee, the smart Wi-Fi thermostat, has read the temperature this morning and adjusted it to Anna’s preferred level – 19 degrees. Mr.Coffemaker is perfectly timed and starts making the coffee, while the couple shower and get dressed. Both Anna and her husband wear OMsignal t-shirts with sensors measuring their heart rate, breathing and other vitals. The sensors then send the data to their phones and will warn them if any irregular patterns occur. They wake their daughter Emma up, dress her and seat her at the table for breakfast. Emma gets to wear a Flip 2: a wearable phone and locator for kids. She goes to daycare but her parents still want to make sure they can locate her if she wanders off. As they leave the house after breakfast, Erik pulls out the Wink Relay app on his smart phone. The app makes sure all the lights are off, the alarm and energy saving mode of the house is on, and the garage door is opening. They share their van with another family, thus sharing the cost of fuel and parking plus reducing traffic congestion and CO2 emissions. Blossom – the smart watering controller starts sprinkling the flowers in the garden as they pull out of the driveway. The controller is automated with real-time weather data and lowers their water bill up to 30%.
After dropping her husband and neighbors off, Anna automates the car to find an available parking spot using the wireless sensors embedded in the parking lots. Thus she reduces congestion as people hunting for a parking spot cause 20-30% of the traffic jams. At her work in the PR agency Anna uses Highfive: a videoconferencing device that she attaches to her phone and has already managed to have conversations with New York, Paris and Tokyo from her own work desk. The family is planning a beach vacation and Anna smiles at the lovely possibility of being able to work form her hotel room. She double-checks the location of her daughter and satisfied proceeds with her daily work. She also checks the “Pay as You Save” smart service by Enlighted which places sensors that automate, analyze, control, and report environmental data to drive energy efficiency. Anna is satisfied by the report that the company has managed to lower its energy cost with 50% this year. They also use sensors to tell them when waste bins need to be emptied, printer toners and paper refilled, all signals coming to one smart app.
By the end of the day Anna receives messages from a bracelet connected to all her calendar and social media about the events that evening. She had planned to go to her book club but switches the bracelet off and decides to have a quiet evening at home instead. Collects her husband Erik plus the neighbors in the van, and drives to the daycare following the directions of a smart navigation system helping her avoid traffic stops and long queues. After they have picked their daughter up and arrived home, Anna uses Maid – a smart microwave directed through voice and gesture recognition. Anna reads through Maid’s recipe of healthy stew suggestion, based on the oven calculating the family’s calorie requirements and prepares it. the door bell rings and Erik uses his phone to check who is at the door. It is the delivery man from Ecolådan – delivering their fresh seasonal vegetables. After the dinner is ready, the family takes all the gadgets off, has a lovely dinner together and snuggles in their comfortable pajamas. As they fall asleep the washer drier starts doing the laundry at a time when the electricity cost is the lowest. Another day in the Internet of Things!
The Passions of EkaLars 