In 1999, a six-minute television segment laid bare Microsoft’s vision for the smart home of the future. Despite being viewed through a pre-millennial lens where smartphones didn’t exist and the internet was still getting started, the company made some surprisingly accurate predictions.
Here’s what Microsoft got right about the smart home era.
Smart locks and video doorbells
Microsoft’s dramatization shows what life could look like in a “typical” family smart home. The first thing we see is a woman arriving home, unlocking her door with facial recognition, with the option of using a voiceprint or fingerprint scanner instead. This technology already existed; we just published a review of the SwitchBot face-scanning smart lock a few days ago.
Though facial scanning technology isn’t so popular in smart locks (yet, anyway), fingerprint scanners are old news. The prevalence of voice-cloning via AI means that vocal recognition is likely to remain off the menu, but other methods like palm recognition and the ability to unlock using features like Apple HomeKey and a smartphone are commonplace.
Microsoft combined its door unlocking prediction with the sort of camera we now commonly see on video doorbells. Later in the video, this technology comes into play again as a traveling salesman (remember those?) comes knocking, and we see a reverse shot of who’s at the door appearing on the television.
It feels like a blunder to not include a face-on shot of the salesman’s face, but this functionality is something you can already experience. The Apple TV will show a preview of your doorbell’s camera feed when someone rings the doorbell that’s connected to Apple Home. For Amazon smart homes, Ring cameras will show you who’s at the door on your Echo Show.
One cultural aspect that sadly feels missing is the camera system’s refusal to ring the doorbell because the family was eating dinner, noting that the salesman can only leave a message. In our haste to connect everything, we seem to stray further from the idea of “downtime” as our tech gets smarter.
Smart home control panels
In Microsoft’s rendition of a smart home, the control panel appears to be central to the experience. A physical wall panel allows different family members to control all aspects of the smart home. This is something that you can add to your own smart home, but that can also feel surplus to requirements.
That said, dashboards are still a big part of the modern smart home experience. Microsoft didn’t quite predict the rise of the smartphone in this video (though they came close), but systems like Home Assistant and Apple, Google, and Amazon smart homes are all built around dashboard functionality.
Amusingly, a man uses a “web phone” on a nightstand to do things like arm a security system right at the end of the video. What is a web phone if not a smartphone that’s permanently connected to the wall?
Automated scenes
Scenes or routines allow you to control a plethora of connected devices with a tap or a voice command, and the concept is central to Microsoft’s 1999 vision. In the video, a woman returns home and activates a “welcome home” routine using her beloved smart home control panel on the wall. Later in the video, a man triggers a nighttime scene with the “goodnight” voice command. I do that every night myself.
Scenes are one of the most useful smart home features, and something most smart home owners use every day.
Smarter “dumb” devices
Making “dumb” devices smarter is one of the simple joys of building a smart home. Connecting smart plugs to old lamps and adding smart lightbulbs to overhead lights are cheap and effective upgrades that give you a greater degree of control.
Smart lighting appears in Microsoft’s vision as part of routines. On top of this, motorized shades (blinds) also make an appearance. It’s hard to imagine that fitting a motor to regular old blinds in 1999 would have been an insurmountable task, but the idea of connecting them to a smart home system and integrating them with a routine was certainly forward-thinking.
Smart speakers and voice assistants
While there’s no specific smart speaker pictured in the video, voice assistants make several appearances. Microsoft’s vision is surprisingly similar to what we have today, where a wake word is preceded by a command that executes an action.
In the video, “Astro” is the wake word, and the voice assistant is used to perform common tasks like placing a call and adding items to a shopping list. It’s not like this concept would have felt entirely groundbreaking even in 1999, given the success of sci-fi movies and TV shows starring faceless assistants referred to as “computer,” or more memorable ones like HAL.
Funnily enough, Astro also happens to be the name of Amazon’s upcoming household robot.
-
- Connectivity
-
Bluetooth, Wi-Fi
- Voice Assistant
-
Siri
The Apple HomePod Mini is a Siri-enabled smart speaker for those invested in the HomeKit ecosystem. Compact and discreet, the HomePod Mini is available in five different colors, too.
-
- Display
-
No
- Dimensions
-
3.9” x 3.3” x 3.6”
Looking for a stylish addition to your smart home? This smart speaker looks great and sounds great.
Notifications from connected devices
It seems Microsoft even predicted the flood of notifications that we endure to this day from needlessly connected devices. In this instance, it’s a notification from the stove appearing on the TV that the desired cooking time has been reached.
Smart ovens have been a thing for a long while, though the “smarts” usually come from features like remote start (to warm up the oven before you need it) and a camera that can show you the cooking status without having to open the door and check.
The video also features a young girl playing a piano that has a tablet resting on it, which sends a notification about a TV show starting. Of course, this is laughably unrealistic because nobody watches TV shows live in the future.
Smart thermostats
In Microsoft’s vision, control over heating, cooling, and ventilation is shown as a feature of the smart home system that underpins the entire home. In this example, it’s controlled via a Windows PC, but the idea is the same as modern thermostats like Nest that have become so popular in modern homes (even those that don’t go all-in on the smart concept).
Though controlling central air using a clunky Windows interface seems unappealing, Microsoft’s dramatization states that this control could take place from all over the house and wasn’t limited to any single device. This goes hand-in-hand with modern smart home platforms like Home Assistant or Apple Home that allow you to control your thermostat by whipping out your phone or giving a voice assistant a command.
Other solid predictions
Outside of the smart home, Microsoft made a few more predictions. One is a digital family calendar, which includes everyone’s schedule. Platforms like Apple’s Family Sharing set up a shared family calendar automatically, while Google Calendar has remained free and incredibly popular. Digital reminders have existed for as long as computers have been around, but the idea of a central household shopping list that’s shared between all members is something we all use every day.
There’s a scene where a young girl reaches for what at first looks like a smartphone but turns out to be a pocket PC. Ironically, our smartphones can still use the same SMS protocol (or its evolution RCS), which was gaining popularity in 1999.
Location sharing is also alluded to, though this appears to be a car tracker rather than a personal tracker like the one on a phone or wearable. Lastly, the home’s ability to turn off the doorbell so that family dinner time isn’t disturbed sounds a lot like modern do-not-disturb or Focus modes on smartphones. Though our homes don’t turn off the doorbell, perhaps they should.