One of the big patent stories so far in 2022 is Google’s defeat to Sonos in the US courts. As the BBC highlights, Google was found to have infringed on five patents that were being contested by Sonos; relative minnows in the world of tech when compared to Alphabet Inc. With this victory has come the prospect of new innovation. Big tech can’t run roughshod over smaller companies, and must work in respectful partnership. As a result, there’s more space than ever for creative startups, and that’s leading the way for creative new home tech.
Bringing in integration
As more devices come into the market, one of the key technologies that will be required to make it a success is cross-platform integration. This touches on a wider societal move; there’s a general push underway towards housing associations and co-living. Achieving this requires communal services and amenities, as does the matter of linking up tech within individual homes. USA Today has highlighted the crucial impact of services such as Matter in this regard; these platforms provide a way to link together various different manufacturers, and the standards they bring, into one unified service that enables the homeowner to truly operate their smart home – or the co-living board to manage their utilities.
The Metaverse at home
With tightening budgets and the ever-encroaching rise of the digital society, the Metaverse is likely to be the next big social opportunity and will see homes turned into digital playgrounds. While the Metaverse is being led, predictably, by Meta, there is a wide open field for innovation, and according to the New York Times, will be the next frontier in innovation and patent numbers. Expect areas of the house to be turned towards an existence in the Metaverse, whether that be large, interactive spaces for virtual reality play and socialization, or the opportunity to gamify areas of life to further involve them in the Metaverse.
Moving to health tech
The New York Times also hits on another particularly hotly developed area of the smart home – health and wellbeing. Of course, the power of household items as interventions in health is nothing new – toilets in Japan have long been vaunted for their ability to spot health issues well ahead of them becoming an issue. However, new tech such as heart rate and oxygen monitoring fitness trackers, sleep quality meters, and calorie-counting fridges are creating homes that can have an input into literally every aspect of your daily health and wellbeing. There is a danger with this – overabundance of medical data that might otherwise be innocuous can lead to self-diagnosis and hypochondria. On the flipside, for level-headed folk who know how to deal with the information at hand, it can be a great way to tweak diet and create better health.
There is a distinctly ethical tilt to many of the hottest innovations finding the market. Patenting these technologies forms an interesting landscape, but the movement of big tech to allow space for smaller innovators is undoubtedly a good thing.
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One of the big patent stories so far in 2022 is Google’s defeat to Sonos in the US courts. As the BBC highlights, Google was found to have infringed on five patents that were being contested by Sonos; relative minnows in the world of tech when compared to Alphabet Inc. With this victory has come the prospect of new innovation. Big tech can’t run roughshod over smaller companies, and must work in respectful partnership. As a result, there’s more space than ever for creative startups, and that’s leading the way for creative new home tech.
Bringing in integration
As more devices come into the market, one of the key technologies that will be required to make it a success is cross-platform integration. This touches on a wider societal move; there’s a general push underway towards housing associations and co-living. Achieving this requires communal services and amenities, as does the matter of linking up tech within individual homes. USA Today has highlighted the crucial impact of services such as Matter in this regard; these platforms provide a way to link together various different manufacturers, and the standards they bring, into one unified service that enables the homeowner to truly operate their smart home – or the co-living board to manage their utilities.
The Metaverse at home
With tightening budgets and the ever-encroaching rise of the digital society, the Metaverse is likely to be the next big social opportunity and will see homes turned into digital playgrounds. While the Metaverse is being led, predictably, by Meta, there is a wide open field for innovation, and according to the New York Times, will be the next frontier in innovation and patent numbers. Expect areas of the house to be turned towards an existence in the Metaverse, whether that be large, interactive spaces for virtual reality play and socialization, or the opportunity to gamify areas of life to further involve them in the Metaverse.
Moving to health tech
The New York Times also hits on another particularly hotly developed area of the smart home – health and wellbeing. Of course, the power of household items as interventions in health is nothing new – toilets in Japan have long been vaunted for their ability to spot health issues well ahead of them becoming an issue. However, new tech such as heart rate and oxygen monitoring fitness trackers, sleep quality meters, and calorie-counting fridges are creating homes that can have an input into literally every aspect of your daily health and wellbeing. There is a danger with this – overabundance of medical data that might otherwise be innocuous can lead to self-diagnosis and hypochondria. On the flipside, for level-headed folk who know how to deal with the information at hand, it can be a great way to tweak diet and create better health.
There is a distinctly ethical tilt to many of the hottest innovations finding the market. Patenting these technologies forms an interesting landscape, but the movement of big tech to allow space for smaller innovators is undoubtedly a good thing.
Author:Jennifer Henry
