Introduction to Smart Homes

A smart home is a one of the classical applications of Internet of Things. It becomes

intelligent by applying cognitive computing to connected home IoT data to uncover
insights to enhance convenience ─ and monitor wellness, security and energy use. An
intelligent home can even “learn” about residents to recommend further improvements.
Its key characteristics are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Smart home’s

characteristics
Home automation and convenience
Integrate rooms, devices and services in the home while simplifying the life of residents.
Whether in the connected, cognitive kitchen, living room or garage, residents can better
manage their home and family life with IoT data.
Energy and cost management
The connected home uses IoT data to provide residents with greater transparency and
the ability to analyze their consumption of energy and other home services or
resources.
The connected home can generate insights about these issues and even make
recommendations to help residents conserve resources and manage cost.
Health and wellness
Connected home sensors, IoT data and alerts can improve the health and wellness of
residents, and equip caregivers, health providers and concerned family members with
the tools and insights they need to monitor and care for residents.
Safety and security
The connected home combines capabilities such as video and audio, biometric sensors,
presence detectors, leak detectors, and smoke, fire and air quality sensors to reduce
the risk of accidents or security problems.
The connected home can use IoT data to detect an adverse event and even alert
residents, first responders and insurers as needed.

Introduction to IBM Watson IoT Platform

IBM Watson IoT Platform is a managed, cloud-hosted service designed to make it
simple to derive value from your IoT devices. Watson IoT Platform and its additional add
on services - Blockchain service and analytic service - enable organizations to capture
and explore data for devices, equipment, and machines, and discover insights that can
drive better decision-making.
 Its key features are:
 Capturing data in real time: Process IoT data instantly to help identify valuable insights related
to device behavior and operations in the field. Spot trends before they impact the bottom line.
 Optimizing operations and resources: Reduce operational expense by understanding your
IoT devices to operate them more effectively and efficiently. Visualize your IoT data to better
plan your operations and increase productivity.
 Increasing revenue: Use improved business insight and bidirectional communication with the
end user to introduce innovative new products and services.
 Analytics Service: Enrich, augment and interact with your IoT data from the IoT Platform with
the analytics service add-on.
 Blockchain Service: Increase trust and transparency by enabling IoT assets to validate
provenance and events in a trusted, immutable ledger with the blockchain service add-on.