Completely wireless home
still a dream

It's unclear if having a home completely outfitted with wireless gadgets would make our lives easier, but it sure would be nice.

There's been talk for years of moving to a completely wireless home, but it doesn't appear we're anywhere close to that. To have a home in which devices such as televisions, home security systems, game consoles, and washing machines are interoperable using wireless signals, there must be a widely accepted standard that all manufacturers agree to integrate into their products. It's safe to say that's quite a ways off.

The devices that use established, open wireless standards such as 802.11 Wi-Fi have already begun to trickle in. There are also plenty of devices for the home built on closed, proprietary systems, such as Sonos' wireless in-home audio system, Sony's S-AIR audio, and others. Any product--from an HDTV to home theater system to a phone--that depends on wireless protocols that are not agreed upon by the majority of the consumer electronics industry will have trouble gaining traction. Indeed, we've been waiting years for some wireless products to make it to the mainstream.

It's not that we don't want them. Certainly we're growing comfortable with a wireless lifestyle, as evidenced by our increasing reliance on cell phones and wireless routers for our home Internet use. And there's a massive amount of potential for areas in and around the home to apply wireless technologies to network our lives and our gadgets together, both for fun and domestic utility. However, the entire ecosystem--standards, devices, and manufacturers--has to be on board before the devices gain widespread consumer acceptance.

"We've tried in a variety of ways, with a variety of technologies," said Jonathan Gaw, digital home analyst for IDC. It usually pans out the same way: "There are two or three technologies that are leading contenders, and they will have their own manufacturers and suppliers. And you will have a standards battle, which will take two or three years. One will rise from the ashes, and (then) we'll actually have a product."

A perfect example of a technology still trying to make its way into our homes is ultra wideband. The idea is to use it for shifting high-definition video (which takes up a generous amount of bandwidth) around the home among devices, such as a set-top box, a TV, and a game console. But it can be tricky to send high-definition video wirelessly at resolutions of 720p and 1080p at fast speeds and not lose the crispness or color quality.

A few companies--such as Westinghouse and Samsung--have made wireless HDTVs available, but none is burning up the display market with them, likely because it's unclear how they will interact with other home video products we may already own.

As open wireless standards mature, more devices will start popping up in our homes. While the top consumer electronics manufacturers are tackling the complicated issue of wireless video, smaller companies have come up with far simpler implementations of the technology. As Gaw of IDC put it, "If you make it cheap enough and easy enough, people will find applications."

Wireless digital photo frames are a good example. Yes, they're still pricier than standard photo frames. But sending photos to a digital frame wirelessly uses mature technologies that mainstream consumers can easily see utility in.

Then there's the Chumby. It's quirky for sure, and not necessarily a mainstream type of product, but the cuddly Wi-Fi device is almost a no-brainer as a product category. Who wouldn't want something that essentially functions as a networked clock radio that tells you the weather? These are the kinds of simple solutions that a wireless home should offer.

A few domestic appliance companies are also tackling the use of standard wireless technology for the home, such as the Intelligent Oven from TMIO, which can be programmed via the Web or cell phone to give cooking, warming, or refrigeration directions. It could refrigerate your pot roast for several hours inside the oven until you give the OK via text message to begin the roasting process. It's expensive (starting at $2,500 for a single oven), but a good application of wireless technology that most people are already comfortable with.

Another fledgling application of established technology in the home is the plan to use radio frequency identification tags to track food consumption. Samsung announced at the Consumer Electronics Show last year that it was developing a refrigerator that would use RFID tags on food containers to let you know when you're out of milk or beer, and even compile a shopping list sent directly to your cell phone.

Although such a refrigerator has potential as an extremely useful product, the implementation of a whole new ecosystem is still the main problem. Until all of our perishable goods have RFID tags on them, having an RFID fridge is fairly useless.

Bottom line: the dream of a wireless home will come true, but not right away.

"It's going to take some time, these things aren't easy. Not that I don't believe in a vision where everything in our home is connected and maybe it's wireless," said Gaw, "but I would say that we tend to have an enthusiasm that occasionally needs to be tempered."

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