I have been catching up with a property developer friend for a year or so and we regularly end up talking about Smart Habitats. He asked me about 6 months ago what would be the next big thing in ‘smart environments’? I didn’t take long to respond. For me it is pretty simple, it will be smell.
Of all the human senses, smell is the one least focused on and commercialised right now. Our sense of smell is complex but it is also the most powerful human sense to re-visit memories – great meals, outdoors, beach or the hesitate entrance to grandma’s house with the corned beef cooking.
If you produce the ‘happy’ scents this would make your home really ‘smart’. Imagine you have had a bad day, call out to Siri or Alexa to customise each or all rooms in your Smart Habitat to a calming scent. It might be the smell of roses, frescias, a freshly cut lawn, the beach, vanilla, lavender fields or a coconut curry.
Well now you can customise the scent in each room remotely via your smart device. At CES 2018 there was a product exhibited that will customise a scent for you in a room.
My prediction is ‘scenting’ a room may become the number one invested smart home request. Sure fancy light controls and electronic doors can be cool to play with, but I doubt they provide the same level of comfort and bring back happy memories as your favourite scent would.
Stay safe. Be Smart!