Lea Simpson 
High Maintenance Homes 
the ups and downs of your connected everything
GET EMOTIONAL 
THE TWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK 
THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD 
GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 
14/11/2014 2
MEH 
meh 
meh 
14/11/2014 3
14/11/2014 4
14/11/2014 5
DEPICTIONS OF THE CONNECTED HOME 
Dystopian 
Utopian dystopia – even when it’s good, it’s really, really bad 
14/11/2014 6
I wake up at four to some old-timey dubstep spewing from my pillows. The lights are 
flashing. My alarm clock is blasting Skrillex or Deadmau5 or something, I don’t know. I 
never listened to dubstep, and in fact the entire genre is on my banned list. You see, my 
house has a virus again. 
Image via Wired 
14/11/2014 7
Technically it’s malware. But there’s no patch yet, and pretty much everyone’s got it. 
Homes up and down the block are lit up, even at this early hour. Thankfully this one is 
fairly benign. It sets off the alarm with music I blacklisted decades ago on Pandora. It 
takes a picture of me as I get out of the shower every morning and uploads it to 
Facebook. No big deal. @mat for Wired UK 
Image via Wired 
14/11/2014 8
Fun experiment, but do we really want to live like this? 
14/11/2014 9
"We’re a little bit of a hammer looking for a nail right now," Chris Quatrochi, Whirlpool's 
global director of user experience and connectivity 
14/11/2014 10
WHAT ABOUT THE BIG NAMES? 
ORAL B 
Bluetoothbrush! The Oral-B SmartSeries electric toothbrush, talks to your phone via 
Bluetooth 4.0 and shows a countdown on your phone.
Dear Connected Home, why so sh*t all the time? 
Image via @0100
GET EMOTIONAL 
THE TWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK 
THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD 
GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 
14/11/2014 13
SETTING THE SCENE 
A SMART HOUSE DIVIDED 
The House of Babel
A SMART HOUSE DIVIDED CANNOT STAND 
• Some speak to your router over Wi-Fi 
• Others speak to your tablet over Bluetooth 
• Kwikset, Yale and Schlage make smart deadbolts that relay information 
using Z-Wave 
• Philips Hue bulbs are fluent in ZigBee 
• There's Insteon's network 
• Clear Connect protocol spoken by Lutron products 
• And countless other proprietary languages to keep track of
SmartThings’s mission is to sit at the center of this open physical graph ecosystem. 
Supports: Ethernet, Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth. It doesn’t have to be built into home 
devices, but it works with devices that are already connected. 
Open to outside developers.
MachineShop is about the ‘Internet of Services’, i.e. providing APIs and service 
exchanges to help companies deliver services in the connected world. Raised $3m in 
funding on March of 2014.
Picture about people worrying 
Privacy, 
what about 
privacy? 
Will the IoT 
could widen 
the digital 
divide? 
Do we even 
know how to 
fix these 
things when 
they break? 
Nah, this stuff’s 
for expensive 
infrastructure for 
the military, 
hospitals and 
prisons
19 
Stuck in a design rut?
GET EMOTIONAL 
THE TWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK 
THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD 
GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 
14/11/2014 20
1. MAKER CULTURE 
2. BORINGNESS 
3. PLATFORM THINKING
1. MAKER CULTURE
Kamkwamba, who grew up in a tiny rural farming village off the grid in Malawi, was 14 
years old in 2001 when he spotted a photo of a windmill in a U.S. textbook one day and 
decided to make one. 
14/11/2014 23
Harness the power of mobile phones to encourage best practice 
for dairy farmers and increase milk production.
“…because of advances in technology, part of the opportunity is now to make the tools 
that are needed for production, and prototypes are now democratized” President Obama
2. BORINGNESS 
14/11/2014 26
EDGEHome senses the electrical 
signature from an outlet. 
A dashboard provides remote control 
and a System Map to control 
individual socket or switches. 
It can detect when you charge a 
laptop -- and turn off the power when 
it’s the battery is at 100%.
CubeSensor can detect problems in the 
home, including temperature fluctuations, 
high humidity, noise pollution, high or low 
lighting levels and even barometric 
pressure. 
There's also a detector for volatile organic 
compounds that come from rotting paint or 
other airborne toxins. 
You can shake it to see a glowing color: 
say, blue for healthy detection.
Wally (as in Wall-E) uses the copper wiring 
in your home to create a wireless network 
to detect leaks and mold. 
The kit comes with six small sensors that 
you can place next to the toilet, the 
dishwasher etc that use a wireless signal 
that connects to the WallyHome hub. 
So the copper wires in your home act as 
an antenna, and you get an alert if a 
sensor detects a leak.
3. PLATFORM THINKING
PLATFORM WHATNOW? 
Instead of creating a product that will work in a market context… 
provide the market context 
Create the conditions for everyone involved to benefit from the value 
exchange 
Like a dating service for consumers and producers 
Not creating a market, you’re enabling roles 
14/11/2014 31
14/11/2014 32
PLATFORM THINKING AT HOME 
The goods manufacturing models as we know it couldn’t be more 
different to platform models 
The success of their linear business model relies almost wholly on the 
efficiency of production 
Imagine what would happen if they brought the makers and the 
buyers together? 
14/11/2014 33
CONNECTED HOME
INTERCONNECTED HOME
Hey Whirlpool, maybe the interconnected home won’t 
even have a washer/dryer at all. Maybe it’ll be tapped 
into an automated laundry service that will collect, 
wash and dry your dirty stuff as the pile reaches a 
certain weight. Without a peep (or tweet).
Hey Whirlpool, maybe the interconnected home won’t 
even have a washer/dryer at all. Maybe it’ll be tapped 
into an automated laundry service that will collect, 
wash and dry your dirty stuff as the pile reaches a 
certain weight. Without a peep (or tweet).
GET EMOTIONAL 
THE TWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK 
THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD 
GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 
14/11/2014 38
The Next Industrial Revolution
Want your microwave to tell Netflix when your dinner is heated up 
so it can cue the rest of the film you started watching? Done.
Want to tell your microwave to start on your way 
home using your car’s dashboard? Done.
How about programming your microwave to automatically start 
ten minutes into your drive home and cue Game Of Thrones…
On Wednesday nights, only when you’ve been to the gym? Done.
A totally different relationship with stuff. The decline of ownership?
User generated products
What’s less shit than the connected washing machine?
Solve real problems. Explore preventative healthcare.
Make like the makers: 
embrace the open protocols 
Think platform thinking: 
aka nobody wants your tweeting toaster 
Be boring: 
you are now in the service industry
Thank you 
@leasimpson

Lea Simpson

  • 1.
    Lea Simpson HighMaintenance Homes the ups and downs of your connected everything
  • 2.
    GET EMOTIONAL THETWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 14/11/2014 2
  • 3.
    MEH meh meh 14/11/2014 3
  • 4.
  • 5.
  • 6.
    DEPICTIONS OF THECONNECTED HOME Dystopian Utopian dystopia – even when it’s good, it’s really, really bad 14/11/2014 6
  • 7.
    I wake upat four to some old-timey dubstep spewing from my pillows. The lights are flashing. My alarm clock is blasting Skrillex or Deadmau5 or something, I don’t know. I never listened to dubstep, and in fact the entire genre is on my banned list. You see, my house has a virus again. Image via Wired 14/11/2014 7
  • 8.
    Technically it’s malware.But there’s no patch yet, and pretty much everyone’s got it. Homes up and down the block are lit up, even at this early hour. Thankfully this one is fairly benign. It sets off the alarm with music I blacklisted decades ago on Pandora. It takes a picture of me as I get out of the shower every morning and uploads it to Facebook. No big deal. @mat for Wired UK Image via Wired 14/11/2014 8
  • 9.
    Fun experiment, butdo we really want to live like this? 14/11/2014 9
  • 10.
    "We’re a littlebit of a hammer looking for a nail right now," Chris Quatrochi, Whirlpool's global director of user experience and connectivity 14/11/2014 10
  • 11.
    WHAT ABOUT THEBIG NAMES? ORAL B Bluetoothbrush! The Oral-B SmartSeries electric toothbrush, talks to your phone via Bluetooth 4.0 and shows a countdown on your phone.
  • 12.
    Dear Connected Home,why so sh*t all the time? Image via @0100
  • 13.
    GET EMOTIONAL THETWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 14/11/2014 13
  • 14.
    SETTING THE SCENE A SMART HOUSE DIVIDED The House of Babel
  • 15.
    A SMART HOUSEDIVIDED CANNOT STAND • Some speak to your router over Wi-Fi • Others speak to your tablet over Bluetooth • Kwikset, Yale and Schlage make smart deadbolts that relay information using Z-Wave • Philips Hue bulbs are fluent in ZigBee • There's Insteon's network • Clear Connect protocol spoken by Lutron products • And countless other proprietary languages to keep track of
  • 16.
    SmartThings’s mission isto sit at the center of this open physical graph ecosystem. Supports: Ethernet, Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth. It doesn’t have to be built into home devices, but it works with devices that are already connected. Open to outside developers.
  • 17.
    MachineShop is aboutthe ‘Internet of Services’, i.e. providing APIs and service exchanges to help companies deliver services in the connected world. Raised $3m in funding on March of 2014.
  • 18.
    Picture about peopleworrying Privacy, what about privacy? Will the IoT could widen the digital divide? Do we even know how to fix these things when they break? Nah, this stuff’s for expensive infrastructure for the military, hospitals and prisons
  • 19.
    19 Stuck ina design rut?
  • 20.
    GET EMOTIONAL THETWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 14/11/2014 20
  • 21.
    1. MAKER CULTURE 2. BORINGNESS 3. PLATFORM THINKING
  • 22.
  • 23.
    Kamkwamba, who grewup in a tiny rural farming village off the grid in Malawi, was 14 years old in 2001 when he spotted a photo of a windmill in a U.S. textbook one day and decided to make one. 14/11/2014 23
  • 24.
    Harness the powerof mobile phones to encourage best practice for dairy farmers and increase milk production.
  • 25.
    “…because of advancesin technology, part of the opportunity is now to make the tools that are needed for production, and prototypes are now democratized” President Obama
  • 26.
  • 27.
    EDGEHome senses theelectrical signature from an outlet. A dashboard provides remote control and a System Map to control individual socket or switches. It can detect when you charge a laptop -- and turn off the power when it’s the battery is at 100%.
  • 28.
    CubeSensor can detectproblems in the home, including temperature fluctuations, high humidity, noise pollution, high or low lighting levels and even barometric pressure. There's also a detector for volatile organic compounds that come from rotting paint or other airborne toxins. You can shake it to see a glowing color: say, blue for healthy detection.
  • 29.
    Wally (as inWall-E) uses the copper wiring in your home to create a wireless network to detect leaks and mold. The kit comes with six small sensors that you can place next to the toilet, the dishwasher etc that use a wireless signal that connects to the WallyHome hub. So the copper wires in your home act as an antenna, and you get an alert if a sensor detects a leak.
  • 30.
  • 31.
    PLATFORM WHATNOW? Insteadof creating a product that will work in a market context… provide the market context Create the conditions for everyone involved to benefit from the value exchange Like a dating service for consumers and producers Not creating a market, you’re enabling roles 14/11/2014 31
  • 32.
  • 33.
    PLATFORM THINKING ATHOME The goods manufacturing models as we know it couldn’t be more different to platform models The success of their linear business model relies almost wholly on the efficiency of production Imagine what would happen if they brought the makers and the buyers together? 14/11/2014 33
  • 34.
  • 35.
  • 36.
    Hey Whirlpool, maybethe interconnected home won’t even have a washer/dryer at all. Maybe it’ll be tapped into an automated laundry service that will collect, wash and dry your dirty stuff as the pile reaches a certain weight. Without a peep (or tweet).
  • 37.
    Hey Whirlpool, maybethe interconnected home won’t even have a washer/dryer at all. Maybe it’ll be tapped into an automated laundry service that will collect, wash and dry your dirty stuff as the pile reaches a certain weight. Without a peep (or tweet).
  • 38.
    GET EMOTIONAL THETWO THINGS HOLDING US BACK THREE THINGS TAKING US FORWARD GET EMOTIONAL AGAIN 14/11/2014 38
  • 39.
  • 40.
    Want your microwaveto tell Netflix when your dinner is heated up so it can cue the rest of the film you started watching? Done.
  • 41.
    Want to tellyour microwave to start on your way home using your car’s dashboard? Done.
  • 42.
    How about programmingyour microwave to automatically start ten minutes into your drive home and cue Game Of Thrones…
  • 43.
    On Wednesday nights,only when you’ve been to the gym? Done.
  • 44.
    A totally differentrelationship with stuff. The decline of ownership?
  • 45.
  • 46.
    What’s less shitthan the connected washing machine?
  • 47.
    Solve real problems.Explore preventative healthcare.
  • 48.
    Make like themakers: embrace the open protocols Think platform thinking: aka nobody wants your tweeting toaster Be boring: you are now in the service industry
  • 49.