13th march
Today Bromford have played host to guests from Microsoft and Documotive as we begin imagining how the internet of things will affect the lives of our customers.
Microsoft kicked off the session sharing some of the work that has been done by Halton Housing utilising home sensor technology. That was followed up by Documotive who showed how we could devise systems to take useful data from the home and put it in hands of customers and colleagues.
The main part of the session was to do some thinking about problems we have that a smart home could help us solve.
The things we talked about ranged from the practical to the outlandish:
- How could sensor technology assist older people in our extra care schemes?
- Could wearables assist people with drug and alcohol prevention?
- Could connected bins(!) help spot whether people were coping in their tenancy?
Sensors can now be made that can detect almost anything (even signs of arousal - but we didn't go there..) so the possibilities are endless.
So where will we start?
It makes sense to link our tests to something practical that customers have already raised as an issue. Therefore we are likely to be anchoring our first tests around better detection of damp in properties and tracking of temperature, airflow and humidity.
We'll be fleshing this out in a lot more detail and sharing more details soon as well as looking for participants!