In the TV drama "The First Half of My Life," the refrigerator in He Han's luxury home is very smart, allowing direct purchase of ingredients through its touchscreen. Such IoT home appliances have already entered ordinary households. Although the current IoT products on the market are not yet mature and some are still "high-end and grand," IoT has quietly penetrated our lives in various aspects, from clothing, food, housing, to transportation.
Bought an IoT air conditioner, but haven't used it in three years
Jinan citizen Cheng Cheng is recently busy with home renovation. As a post-90s generation, he has long heard of smart homes and IoT home appliances. Taking advantage of the "Double Festival" promotion, he went to the home appliance market but found that the so-called IoT home appliances are not as smart as imagined. The operation is slightly cumbersome, and the functions are somewhat useless. In terms of cost-effectiveness, they seem inferior to traditional home appliances.
As early as three years ago, Ms. Guo from Jinan purchased an IoT air conditioner. "I could remotely control the air conditioner with my phone. It felt very novel at the time, but after spending over 10,000 yuan, I found that this function was never used because there is usually someone at home. I also had to download an APP, which was more troublesome than using the remote control directly."
In a large home appliance store on Quancheng Road in Jinan, most Midea air conditioners on sale have a "wireless" symbol on their bodies. The most intelligent one among them is a floor-standing air conditioner priced at 16,999 yuan, a new product this year. It is equipped with a camera, allowing users to monitor their home in real-time via their phones and also control airflow through gestures. With the automatic health check function, data is automatically sent back to the backend when a malfunction occurs, and the manufacturer proactively contacts the user for on-site repair. Apart from this smart air conditioner, the WiFi connection on other air conditioners mainly serves remote control and health check functions.
Regarding the price of this air conditioner, Cheng Cheng believes it is not cost-effective. "A price of nearly 20,000 yuan could buy several appliances. My parents just bought a wall-mounted air conditioner for over 2,000 yuan, and it works well."
At the Haier range hood counter, there is only one product that can connect to WiFi. It has a phone-sized screen in the center of the body, allowing users to watch cooking videos, chat on WeChat, or listen to the radio through an APP. Compared to other products priced at 4,000 to 5,000 yuan, this one is priced as high as 9,599 yuan.
Similarly, Midea has a water heater with a screen that can connect to WiFi to watch videos, listen to the radio, and be remotely controlled. Ordinary water heaters cost only 3,000 to 4,000 yuan, but this one is priced at nearly 8,000 yuan. A salesperson frankly said, "The main cost is the screen. Not many people buy the smart version. The water heater itself already has constant temperature and live water functions, so it doesn't require much control."
In the washing machine section, a Casarte dual-drum smart washing machine is priced at 18,999 yuan, with "Smart IoT" prominently written on the label. By setting up the APP and selecting the fabric type and special stains, the washing machine automatically matches the washing program.
Remote home buyers are the rigid demand for smart homes
In this regard, Tian Zhanjun, executive vice president of the Shandong Home Appliance Association, said that IoT home appliances have been emerging in the market for three to four years, but the penetration rate is still not high, possibly accounting for less than 10% of the market share, because people mainly buy appliances for practicality.
Regarding the constraints on the development of IoT home appliances, Tian Zhanjun analyzed that there are two communication modes for IoT home appliances: wired and wireless. Although the former is more mature and stable, many consumers' homes are already renovated, and wired mode requires rewiring, which would damage the decoration. Wireless mode, on the other hand, may experience disconnections and has communication compatibility issues, with not very good stability.
Alongside IoT home appliances, smart homes have also emerged, allowing one-touch control of home lighting, curtains, background music, door locks, etc., via a phone. Yang Yongjie, deputy general manager of Shandong Tiancheng Zhihui Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., which specializes in smart homes, also frankly admitted that domestic consumers currently have limited understanding of such products, and the ownership rate of smart homes among ordinary households is only about 2%.
Yang Yongjie said that smart homes are still hard to find in shopping malls, and they mainly reach high-end users through related industries, such as home theater, central air conditioning, and luxury home decoration.
"Smart home appliances currently have a low penetration rate and relatively high costs. In the future, with large-scale promotion, prices will become more affordable." Tian Zhanjun believes that smart homes and smart home appliances have strong development momentum in the future. "This type of market demand is divided into rigid demand, curiosity, and following the trend." He cited an example: many people have bought seaside houses in other cities but do not often live there. Appliances left in a humid environment for a long time are prone to malfunctions, and the rooms need ventilation. Remotely turning on appliances and windows via a phone is much more cost-effective and labor-saving than traveling there every now and then. Such users have an urgent need for smart home appliances.
Sensors installed in elderly people's mattresses allow children to monitor heart rate and respiratory rate
Although the application of IoT in home appliances is not yet mature, it is undeniable that more and more appliances are carrying WiFi symbols. Additionally, many IoT devices have emerged on the streets and alleys we pass every day, almost imperceptibly.
Shu Minglei, head of the Information Medicine Innovation Team at the Shandong Computing Center, gave an example: this year, on roads like Jingshi Road in Jinan, a new batch of atmospheric environmental monitoring equipment has been installed to monitor various air pollution indices. Previously, environmental index monitoring covered a large area, and it was unclear where specific pollution occurred. Now, pollution sources can be precisely located. "When we use Amap to check traffic congestion, it is actually the GPS data from a large number of mobile terminals aggregated into its database."
With the advent of an aging society, consumer demand for IoT medical devices has significantly increased in recent years. Shu Minglei's team has successfully developed a cloud-based elderly care service system using big data and cloud computing. Through IoT technology, they connect facilities and devices that elderly people come into contact with, collect and transmit their daily life data, remotely monitor their lives, and build a comprehensive database to create a new model of home-based elderly care.
Fiber optic sensors are installed in mattresses to measure vibration patterns, obtaining data on the elderly person's heart rate and respiratory rate, as well as analyzing sleep duration and depth. The sensors connect to WiFi or 3G/4G signals to transmit data to remote servers, allowing children to promptly understand their parents' health status via phone or computer. If the elderly person's heart rate or respiratory rate drops, alert messages are promptly sent to the children's phones. "This effectively prevents situations where an elderly person living alone passes away at home without their children knowing for a long time," Shu Minglei said. Devices like blood pressure monitors, blood glucose meters, and electrocardiographs, when using IoT technology, can transmit health data in real-time to children's phones in other places.
"Placing IoT terminals in rural areas, when an ECG IoT device detects abnormalities in a patient that local village doctors cannot treat, the data is automatically transmitted to a top-tier hospital, where doctors can conduct remote consultations and send results back to the patient," Shu Minglei said. In recent years, investment in IoT medical care has been heating up.
Connected vehicles confirm accidents, insurance companies don't need to be on-site
In addition to IoT medical care, connected vehicle technology is also developing rapidly. Zhang Di, a car enthusiast in Jinan, has noticed that more and more young friends around him are using connected vehicles in recent years. With the popularity of 4G, many high-end cars already have their own connected vehicle modules. In traffic jams, the system automatically selects alternative routes. Information such as vehicle location, fuel consumption, and maintenance reminders can be viewed on the phone. On hot summer days, Zhang Di uses his phone app to turn on the car's air conditioning in advance. In the event of an accident, customer service will immediately connect through the car's phone system to ask about the driver's injuries. If the situation is serious, without needing to provide the location, customer service will immediately notify an ambulance to come.
"I don't mind spending an extra 10,000 to 20,000 yuan for a high-configuration car. Some connected vehicle products already have quite good functions," Zhang Di said. However, some functions may affect driving safety, such as watching DVDs or searching for navigation while driving. He hopes that in the future, in-car product operations will primarily use voice control.
In traffic management, connected vehicles also play a significant role. Wang Binzhong, CTO of Shandong Saiwei Anxun Information Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that they are currently focusing on intelligent transportation. IoT devices are installed in taxis in the city to collect front-view videos, images, and vehicle speeds. Previously, traffic condition technology was limited to marking roads in red or green to indicate congestion. Now, specific images can be seen. "On highways, IoT also plays a major role. We also push real-time road condition images captured by highway cameras to users through an APP."
Connected vehicles better capture user driving behavior. "We are also working on UBI (Usage-Based Insurance) auto insurance, customizing auto insurance based on user driving behavior," Wang Binzhong said. The state advocates green travel, and they cooperate with relevant government agencies to provide subsidies to green travel users. The perception of how much users drive is also achieved through connected vehicles.
When a traffic accident occurs, the vehicle's current location and the accident process can be confirmed through connected vehicle products. In many cases, insurance companies do not need to go to the scene; they can clearly understand the situation remotely.
The wave of IoT is approaching and seeping into our lives. It can be expected that IoT will ultimately shape our future just as the Internet has shaped the present.
