Wireless in the home

Wireless devices in the house used to be limited to radios, tv remotes, and televisions (over the air signals). However, now it has expanded to a myriad of devices. Common devices seen in people's home now are routers, house monitoring devices, entertainment centers, gaming consoles, and many others. Four technologies that help drive all these devices are radio frequency, infrared, WiFi and bluetooth.

Routers are just as common in people's houses as refrigerators. People connect their laptops, mobile phones, and other mobile devices to their routers to be connected to other people. A company that supplies a lot of house monitor devices is Smarthome - http://www.smarthome.com/_/index.aspx. They offer various wireless devices to ensure home security. One product they offer is called the Sensaphone. It's essentially a phone that monitors things such as temperature, noise, power failure, and environmental changes and alerts the user via telephone call if something changes. They also supply applications on mobile devices (primarily iphone) that has the same functionality except through WiFi as long as you have the appropriate hardware set up.
Some new things that are becoming big are the Powermat and gaming consoles. The powermat allows the user to wirelessly charge a device by just placing it on the mat with the appropriate receiver. They have one version that allows up to 3 devices to be placed on for charging. The product is limited though in the devices they can charge because of the receivers that they currently offer. Only a handful of devices are supported currently, but in the future we can expect a lot more devices to be supported. This idea is also being expanded to replace entire kitchen counters and work desks. You will be able to put your laptop, mobile phone, mobile device, clock, and various other devices down on the desk and have them all powered without them being plugged into a wall outlet.

New generation gaming consoles all have wireless controllers. The Nintendo Wii even allows the user to physically interact with their games more so than any other console currently. However, that is about to change. Sony is Playstation Move, which functions the same way as the Wii controllers, but allows for finer movement. The user holds onto two controllers and can interact the same way as the Wii. Microsoft is making the user the controller in their upcoming Project Natal. No controller is required!!! The person uses gestures and motions to control their characters in the games. Natal is set to launch holiday season this year.

Overall, the wireless devices in the home are increasing and the functionality of these devices are increasing as well. The level of security wireless security systems offer is increasing and the level of entertainment gaming consoles are increasing as well. There is some interesting research being done on wireless appliances in the kitchen such as refrigerators, toasters, and others. However, their usefulness is still being determined.