Imagining the smart home with a TV as its hub

By Jenny McGrath January 15, 2015

will your tv become a smart home hub best tvs — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Right now, most smart home hubs are shaped like small rectangular boxes or cubes or even a Russian nesting doll. These hubs exist to sync an increasing number of smart home products, from lights to thermostats to security cameras, even if they’re not all from the same manufacturer. The idea is that instead of needing tons of apps or individual controls, a single device will talk to everything and enable everything to talk to each other.

Yesterday, Logitech announced its Harmony API, which features voice control and lets developers access smart devices on lots of other platforms; the company is working with IFTTT and SmartThings, for example. Its home hub already comes with a remote, and the Ultimate Home Remote can control lights, too. Right now, Logitech’s devices are pretty home-entertainment-centric, but it seems like the company is looking to change that with the API. However, depending on whom it partners with, a future hub could just be baked into a smart TV.

Smart TVs already exist, of course, and their capabilities will only grow. Due to their nature as a gathering point for many families, and because they’re often found in more than one room of the house, we could see them acting as a hub for other connected devices some day. There were rumors that Apple’s HomeKit will use the Apple TV box as a hub, though the company denied it. Still, it did get us thinking that having notifications pop up on the TV if a sensor detects an intruder opening a window, or switching the picture over to the front door camera automatically when the bell rings, or lowering the volume if the smart baby monitor picks up sounds from the kid’s room would all be extremely handy.

Many of these things could happen on your phone or tablet, too, and eventually the connected home may not require a hub at all. Right now, Nest is positioning its thermostats as the center of its imagined smart home, and we can’t even watch The Mindy Project on that.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Jenny McGrath is a senior writer at Digital Trends covering the intersection of tech and the arts and the environment. Before…

Smart Home

SimpliSafe is now using AI to prevent burglars from entering your home

A SimpliSafe outdoor camera monitoring a stranger.

SimpliSafe rolled out the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera in 2023, which coupled AI technology with live monitoring to better protect the inside of your home. The company is now looking to expand those features to outdoor cameras, with Live Guard Outdoor Protection rolling out to early access users before seeing a full-scale launch later this year.

Live Guard Outdoor Protection works much like the Smart Alarm Indoor Camera does, though it's been modified to work outside. When your system is armed, cameras equipped with Live Guard Outdoor Protection will use AI to identify threats on your property. If AI finds something suspicious, the event will be escalated to SimpliSafe's professional monitoring team, who can then intervene via two-way audio to let the intruder know they're being filmed. They can also trigger a siren or request police dispatch.

Smart Home

Samsung’s new Smart Refrigerators are already discounted

samsung smart refrigerator deal may 2022 last chance bespoke 4 door french feature

For great refrigerator deals, go straight to the source and buy Samsung’s latest Smart Refrigerators for a great discount. As part of its Spring Black Friday sale, Samsung has discounted six different smart refrigerators with up to $1,200 off some of them. If you’ve been waiting to buy a new refrigerator and you want to invest in a high-end smart refrigerator, this is your chance to do so while saving substantial sums of money. The best thing to do is click the button below to see for yourself what’s on sale. Alternatively, read on and we’ll take you through what we know.

What to shop for in the Samsung smart refrigerator sale
Samsung easily makes some of the best smart refrigerators around so you simply can’t go wrong with whatever you buy. One immediately tempting option is the . It usually costs $4,214 but it’s down to $3,199 as part of this sale. It has changeable door panels which feature the Beverage Zone with two temperature settings which are perfect for drinks and desserts. There’s a choice of an internal dispenser or a built-in AutoFill Water Pitcher. The fridge has a modern design which blends into any kitchen while its automatically opening doors work through a simple, light touch of the sensor, saving you from needing to juggle too much at once. You can also customize the lower-right storage space to be a refrigerator or freezer with five adjustable temperature settings.

Smart Home

Blink sale: Up to 42% off home security cameras and video doorbells

blink mini indoor camera white set in a living room blurred in the background

To make sure that your family is safe at all times, you should think about investing in video doorbells and security camera deals. If you're thinking about buying them right now, you're in luck because Amazon just launched a sale for discounts of up to 42% on various Blink devices. As one of the most trusted names in the home security space with their compatibility with Amazon's Alexa, we don't think stocks will last long for these offers, so it's highly recommended that you choose what to purchase and proceed with the transaction as soon as possible in order to pocket the savings.

What to buy in Amazon's Blink sale