High-Tech Home of the Future

San Francisco It was a poetic convergence of tech trends at the corner of Fourth and Howard streets.

Over in Moscone Center West, Google was getting its Internet-of-things groove on at its developers conference, touting plans to tie digital devices together with products like TV sets inside our homes.

Meanwhile, across the street in Moscone North, thousands of the people who will actually be building these tech-savvy abodes developers, architects, manufacturers and contractors were having their annual powwow, giving each other a peek of what awaits us all just inside our front doors of tomorrow.

All across the exhibitors floor at the annual builders trade show late last month, amid the nontechy stalwarts like roof tiles and toilets, you could almost hear the mantra humming just below the surface: When it comes to the home of the future, all . is . one.

We put the backbone wiring inside the new home so that everything we use in that home is more connected, said Joey Hill, a market representative with Legrand North America, a global rock star of switches and sockets. Its partnering with General Electric on cutting-edge home security and home entertainment technologies, the very stuff that the Googlers were crowing about nearby. We provide the infrastructure that supports things like Netflix on your Apple TV, Hill said. This is where the industry is going: Youll control your home lighting, security and audio, all from your smartphone or tablet.

While this trend has been picking up steam in the past year, Hill and others at the show painted a picture of an ever-rapid advancement in the digitally driven household. And borrowing a page from companies like Apple, where powerful computing is dressed up in sleek designs, Hill said, Its not just cool gadgets around the house, but well be seeing much more of a focus on style.

And with that, Hill demonstrated a pop-out outlet, a wall socket thats tucked into the wall and emerges abracadabra! with the push of a finger. This technology has to be beautiful, he said, if its going inside your house.

Standing nearby, Shannon Stafford was nodding her head in agreement. Ive got that system installed in my own house, said the owner/president of Illuminations Lighting, an electrical equipment supplier in El Dorado Hills, Calif. I can completely control my entire house with my phone.

Stafford sounded like a kid in a candy store, describing the magic-wand features coming soon to new homes across the country. I can dim any of the lights down to 10 percent. I can customize every switch, outlet and night-light.

Heck, this was a candy store for the home-tech crowd. On display a few booths over were new magical doorknobs that you can bump into with your rear end to open if your hands are full of groceries. Security, of course, is big, with sophisticated alarm systems and closed-circuit cameras that can turn a home into Fort Knox.

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High-Tech Home of the Future