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KB Home ProjeKt takes the spotlight at CES 2019

I’m ready for this smart home future.

Smart home kb home projekt showing smart house of the future
Image: Builder Magazine

Smart devices for your home, from virtual assistants like Alexa to smart lights, garage door openers, and home security, have become more popular and easily accessible in recent years.

We haven’t quite crossed the threshold into complete smart homes being commonplace, however. KB Home is hoping to change that with the prototype that they unveiled at this year’s CES show. Let’s take a closer look at KB Home ProjeKt and what you might find in your smart home of the future.

KB Home ProjeKt

From the outside, this 3,200 square foot home might not look much different than any other house you’d see on your block. Once you turn the handle and open the door though, it becomes an entirely new world. As soon as you open the front door, the house comes alive — the lights turn on, the blinds raise, and a plethora of other smart devices start up.

Every room in the house comes equipped with these devices, with over 400 in total controlling everything from the air conditioning to the appliances in the kitchen. One wall of the kitchen even has a vertical garden that grows herbs and vegetables that you can harvest and use in your recipes.

The showcase at CES 2019 is just a prototype, and that becomes apparent when you ask the home’s AI to accomplish a task. It takes a few seconds for the system to react to each request, which can break the immersive feel a little bit. In spite of this delay, it paints a pretty clear picture of what our homes could look like in the future.

Benefits of a Smart House

While a house that can do little tasks for you, like turning on the lights or opening the garage door, might seem superfluous, there are quite a few benefits of building a smart home. Smart homes that are designed to be more energy efficient, for example, can help protect the environment as well as your health.

According to experts, roughly 40 percent of people who suffer from asthma experience exacerbated symptoms because of the air quality inside their home. Humidity, temperature variations, dust, and pests can all make asthma symptoms worse. Since we spend upwards of 90 percent of our lives indoors, investing in a smart home that automatically controls the climate according to your specifications can help to reduce these symptoms.

Just controlling the climate inside a home can improve cardiovascular health, reduce the risk of lung cancer from radon exposure and improve mental health. Not bad for a house that is designed to do everything else for you too!

What to Expect in a Smart House

What sort of fresh, smart devices would you expect to find in a smart house? Our dream house might look something like this.

In the living room, you’ve got the hub, from which you can issue commands to any device in the house. There might also be a hub in the master bedroom. You’ve got smart lights that can be controlled from the hub or your smartphone as well as smart power strips to help you reduce energy waste.

Whirlpool connected hub wall oven with smart technology in kitchen

Image: Whirlpool

In the kitchen, you’ve got a smart stove with temperature controls that can tell you when your food is done cooking. You have a smart fridge that uses sensors to notify you when your food is starting to spoil. Your coffee maker turns on automatically when it’s time for you to get up for work.

You might not think of the bathroom as a place to find smart devices, but you’d be surprised. In our dream house, there’s a smart mirror over the vanity where you can watch videos, browse the news or talk to your friends. In the shower, there is a waterproof, voice-activated sound system, so your shower serenades will always have accompaniment.

As impressive as that sounds, we’re thinking small. The KB Home ProjeKt has more than 400 devices integrated into the home that work together seamlessly.

There’s no release date for these smart houses just yet, but if the reception at CES 2019 is any indication, we’ll probably be seeing smart home options appearing across the nation before too long. Smart homes used to be relegated to science fiction stories but once technology advances enough, it doesn’t take long for science fiction to become science fact.

What do you think? Ready for a full-blown smart home? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Kayla Matthews is a technology writer and blogger who runs ProductivityBytes.com. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter to read all of her latest posts!

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