Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1442793
3 According to analyst firm Transparency Market Research, the home automation market will hit $116 billion dollars by 2026. That represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of almost seven percent over the next eight years. The increasing popularity of smart home devices over the last decade has been a significant driver of this growth, with the number of connected consumer devices skyrocketing. But it's also driving adoption in building automation as well, and smart spaces are transforming work spaces, shopping, and even parking. Voice assistants including Amazon Alexa, Apple's Siri, and Google Home are exceedingly useful and easy to use in the household, and exposure to these devices is accelerating awareness among consumers and encouraging the adoption of other automation technologies. Simultaneously, a new era of building automation is dawning. Smart lighting in particular has experienced notable success in building automation thanks to a wide selection of application- specific wireless protocols and the broad availability of smart, connected LED lightbulbs. For connectivity and home automation to continue its trend of ubiquity in our homes and offices, interconnectivity between lights, fans, HVAC, security systems, door locks, and entertainment systems needs to happen. For example, retail or commercial settings want make use of technologies such as Bluetooth ® beacons to provide location-based advertisements, track assets, and also develop heat maps of foot traffic. If developers can integrate Bluetooth beacons into other connected infrastructure such as lighting, users can build out large-scale, dense regions with Bluetooth beacons. Using the mesh network to deploy updates across the network also presents an opportunity to simplify lifecycle management as well. With the ability to support multiple protocols, innovative approaches to speed system updates can also be implemented. Other new technologies use occupant presence, location, and other environmental information such as temperature or humidity to deliver context-enriched applications and services that anticipate a user's needs and can be situation-aware to enact activation of lighting, thermostat, and other smart home devices. These context-aware smart home applications driven by AI and smart sensor devices are only possible due to chip-level technology enhancements that enable greater battery life, longer range, intelligent computations at the edge, and higher levels of security. Beyond homes and offices, manufacturing is also realizing the benefits of automation. Smart machines are making such an impact on automation and control that it's being described as another industrial revolution. The potential of smart, connected devices in manufacturing settings range from sensors and motors to fully automated operation. For this to happen, component manufacturers, standards bodies, and regulatory entities will need to develop solutions that blend developer demands of scale, cost, and data management with end-user expectations of ease-of-use and security. In this e-book, we cover a range of topics to help you speed up the development of your device and cut through some of the complexities that come with wireless development. From choosing the right mesh technology to using low power Wi-Fi for automation. By Johan Pedersen Product Marketing Manager Z-Wave/IoT, Silicon Labs FOREWORD Connectivity for Building & Home Automation