IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - September/October 2021 - 48

Bits versus Electrons
but its voice command capability became the
heart of Alexa.
INNOVATION BEGINS AT HOME
Living a Beta Life
I use the existing technologies and devices
because they do make my life better. But they
also whet my appetite as I think beyond their
current design point and use cases.
My software ability and my limited ability to
build hardware allows me to explore new possibilities.
I can repurpose these devices and use
them as building blocks.
Building myown solutions does have its downside
since they don't always work smoothly, and
when things fail, I have to fix them.
These downsides are minor compared with
what I learn frommy efforts. And I also gain the benefits
of the results. Why guess what an unlabeled
wall switch does when I can use my own browser
app, which gives me, in effect, labeled buttons.
Living the beta life allows me to explore
potential futures and learn what is possible. I
also learn from what doesn't work so well. I
quickly learned that the complex automation
rules don't scale and that it's not wise to trust
too much to mindless automation.
I've got over 250 connected devices in myhome
Today, there is an Alexa on my wife's side of
the bed that acts as a radio and an alarm clock,
though, in practice, her alarm clock is a 21-yearold
cat. It's a smart alarm clock that decides
when she is supposed to wake up. She has little
say in the matter.
For variety, I have the Google Hub on my side
of the bed. Yes, the one that failed me this morning.
The current version is a terminal on the
Internet rather than a local device that can,
optionally, take advantage of the remote (AKA
cloud) services to enhance local capabilities and
function autonomously. Note that, increasingly,
devices like smart doorbells do face recognition
locally rather than completely failing in the
absence of a connection.
It's easy to understand the shift shifting from
purpose-built devices to valuable services. It creates
an incentive to invest in new capabilities
that people want to pay for. Over 100 million
Alexa devices have been sold. Most people see
connectivity through the lens of these services
and are unaware that they can build their own
applications.
usingmostlyWi-Fi connections. I see bothhow well
this worksbut also how it fails. Howdo you manage
hundreds of connected deviceswhen a light bulb is
an endpoint that may be part of other systems?
The good news is that if I " bind " to my apps (and
Alexa) by name, I don't have to redo everything. I
put the wordbind in quotes because it's a technical
term here. I normally connect a wall switch to a
light fixture by running a wire. With software, I can
make that connection, a binding, by just giving
both endpoints a common name, and they can see
each other independent of how they are connected.
At least that's how it should work. But the
current tools to do that are quite limited and don't
work well beyond the simplest cases.
Currently, we're awash in bespoke automations,
with each manufacture having its own app.
In my beta life, I get a chance to see beyond this
early phase.
Using What's Available
The Internet was not the result of trying to
improve the phone network. If anything, it was
48
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine
IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - September/October 2021

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