SMART environments

Harnessing the potential of technology to improve the human experience within the built environment.

Technology still has huge contributions to make to the built environment, the most profound of which will generally not derive from one source but entail several technologies combined together. The key to shaping tomorrow’s environments will involve teamwork between designers and technologist partners like the Ci Group and their numerous partners. Enterprise integration is a collaborative effort.

The range of desirable outcomes to benefit from such contributions will include: Time Saving, Facility & Property Management Efficiency, Wellness, Quality of Life, Green Goals, Communication, Sensory Experiences and doubtless many more. This is because the responsive principle behind this new technology direction can generate so many possibilities.

Rethinking physical spaces

SMART, responsive technologies are not new. What’s changed, however, is our capacity to invent uses for them and put them into practice thanks to the arrival of the IoT (Internet of Things). Well-designed networks can today offer so many opportunities to be technologically creative and assistive.

A relatively early example of responsive technology is the self-opening door, triggered by disruption of a light beam and later by motion sensors. With little need for promotion, the self-opening door soon became the standard entry for so many destinations. It simply made life better.

Many of the responsive technologies introduced to us by the automotive industry also made life better; auto wipers triggered by sensors, auto headlights driven by sensors, auto door unlock driven by sensors. Different sensors were used in each instance, but the principle was essentially the same, “If this, then that” actions driven by the data presented automated the decision process and things just conveniently happened without any human effort necessary.

Convenience, however, is but one of the benefits responsive technology makes possible. Once you combine the logic control principle with the gathering of data through sensors and other sources, so many more opportunities arise.