Google took over two floors of renowned Dubai hotel JW Marquis to create its “Google House”. Using beanbags and its full range of tech gadgets, Google gave a glimpse of what may be commonplace in our homes 20 years from now, although Michael Valvo, Communications Manager at the technology giant insisted this is not for the future, this is for right now.
The house has 5 rooms comprising a kitchen, study, living room and two rooms that practically nobody would have in their house – a travel room and a fashion room. A sixth room was created for users to experience Google Glass.
The house itself enables users to give voice commands using a tablet to be able to bring up fashion advice, recipes for cooking and pretty much anything else imaginable.
Features
Some of the features had exceptional practical uses, while others were perhaps slightly more niche in their relevance to most. From being able to locate the nearest shop or petrol station using Google Nav, to pulling up a recipe for a steak diane, the other examples which were shared related to receiving advice on what kind of make-up was currently appropriate to wear….
Earlier this year, Google acquired a Nest Labs in a deal worth $3.2 billion. The main appliance they had created before the acquisition was the “learning thermostat”, which controlled the temperature within the home automatically based on the habits of the user, as well as the time of day and the weather outside. This was not on display at the house set-up but it is something that Google are developing currently.
It is thought that Google are keen on moving into the kitchen and domestic appliances market (among many others) and that perhaps going forward things like refrigerators may be able to interact with the user in the same way a smart phone currently does. While there was no demonstration of this at the “Google House”, there was enough there to certainly convince that a fully interactive home may not be too far away….