(Consumer IoT rant follows)

Current consumer "Smart Home" products always remind me of the old joke about the guy who lost his keys in a dark corner and then goes to look for them under the streetlight across the street - "because the light is better there".

I think there actually are a lot of household chores where automation would really shine - such as cleaning up, doing laundry, doing the dishes, many aspects of cooking, etc.

Of course those tasks are far too complex to be automated to any satisfactory degree as of today - but oddly, there doesn't seem to be much interest in research either. Instead, the industry seems to be running after seemingly low-hanging fruit that on closer look are not even fruit at all: Their products seem driven by what is easily doable with today's technology and what data the vendor would like to collect. Whether the use-case that the product satisfies actually exists seems to be unimportant. Then people are surprised if such products don't sell.

My favourite example is the wifi-enabled water boiler: I could imagine a lot of tasks that involve boiling water and that I'd love to automate: If you live alone and could walke up to an already prepared cup of tea/coffee/porridge would be nice. Yet the makes of that product chose to automate the one aspect of those tasks where automation brings the least benefit: Flicking the switch on the water boiler.

I believe when we're capable of building a "laundry bucket/washer/dryer/wardrobe" combo where you put your dirty laundry in the bucket and it magically ends up in your wardrobe the next day, smart homes will become useful. Not if we stick to light bulbs that need internet access.