New app can make smart homes know if you’re sad and cheer you up

Smart mirrors that can detect your mood and suggest workouts to cheer you up are among technology predicted to be in homes of the future.

Speakers which monitor how you are feeling and suggest appropriate playlists are another likely feature.

They are all included in Untapped: The Home Tech Evolution, a report commissioned by electronics giant Samsung.

As smart homes evolve, new tech will include hands-free devices with “gesture control”, facial recognition, and other biometric technologies that will enable touchless doorbells, ovens and washing machines.

A survey carried out as part of the research found 31 percent of people already use tech to manage their stress levels.

And with the increase in working from home, wellbeing apps are expected to become a much bigger market by 2027.

Vicki Loomes, from Trend-Watching, which conducted the research, said the growth in wearable devices on the market that can track a user’s heart rate suggests technology that can recognise moods will not be far behind.

She said: “The next step is emotion recognition and building that into more products used in the home, to be able to track things like your heart rate or the tone of your voice.

“It can get to know you and your voice, detect when you are down and make recommendations based on what it knows about you.”

When asked if this technology will be able to detect if your partner is in a bad mood, she joked: “That’d be the dream, wouldn’t it? Or to let you know if your kids are up to no good.”

Samsung has developed its SmartThings app to connect various tech currently available in homes.

This includes smart buttons around the home to allow people to turn on or off connected appliances, alerts to stock up the fridge when ingredients are running low, integrating the management of energy devices, programming the oven or cooker to come on, and syncing the doorbell camera to the TV.

Since the pandemic people have spent more time entertaining, so kitchens are becoming a more important room. The SmartThings app can already register ingredients in your fridge and suggest recipes, removing the need for cookbooks.

Analysts predict future immersive tech will take this to a new level, with augmented reality and virtual reality headsets guiding home chefs to create restaurant-quality meals.

Vicki explained: “We are starting to see AR headsets that cook along with you, to not just give you a recipe but take you step by step through the skills needed.

“The next step beyond that is with the Metaverse and digital worlds.

“It’s not a stretch to think in the future that you will be able to attend virtual cooking classes in digital spaces to pick up skills to take back into the real world. The technology will be there to give you skills and enhance the real experience.”