Due to the prevalence of electronic appliances in kitchens, it’s likely that it will be the first place to really feel the impact of this interconnectivity.
So, in the near future we will have our fridges recording when they were opened, and our microwaves and cookers remembering when they are turned on, and for how long. As the internet of things evolves, and the appliances interact with our mobile devices, we will actually be able to map our household movements.
Couple this with digital personal assistants, and technology such as the Amazon Echo Dot, which can be set to record everything we do and interact with us, and this map becomes more and more accurate. This will reach the point where, by reviewing the data on your kitchen appliances, we you’ll be able to tell, to the minute, where someone was.
According to the head of Scotland Yard’s forensics unit, this data could, in future be used in a court of law to provide you with an alibi.
Now most uses of the internet of things won’t be quite so dramatic. The interaction between say, a fridge and a cooker, rather than proving your innocence in the witness box, will have much more low key, yet valuable uses. An alarm on your fridge reminding you that you need to remove the chicken and put it in the oven, in the form of a friendly message from a virtual PA, like Alexa or Siri, will be far more commonplace.
And it is unlikely that all smart goods will have the capability to track your movements in the house. But, with the more expensive versions, webcams will become commonplace, and as the technology gets cheaper, then there will come a time when even the most basic smart fridge is equipped with the ability to collect data on a scale that is reserved for only the highest end white goods of today.
With fewer and fewer areas of our home not being monitored, the internet of things will eventually fill the already dwindling gaps.