As we welcome students back for the new academic year, we take a look at some of the weird and wonderful devices we have been helping residents connect to their WiFi.
Gone are the days where students would turn up with a laptop and a smartphone as their only Internet-connected devices. Today’s students are coming from homes with an average of at least 10 Internet-connected devices* including home assistants, speakers and games consoles, bringing some of these with them to their accommodation. Each September as we help new students get their devices set up on their WiFi network, and as more and more products are being made with the Internet of Things in mind, we encounter stranger examples of Internet-connected devices.
Over the past month, we have helped connect the following…
- Automatic fragrance dispensers and humidifiers that can be controlled by an app to provide the optimum scent and atmosphere
- Toothbrushes that provide real time feedback on how well you are brushing your teeth
- A robot hoover that can be operated by an app and connected to voice operated home assistants, cleaning floors automatically
- Rice cookers that can be controlled via an app to change temperature and cooking time
- A mirror that is able to display the time and notifications for weather, news, social media etc.
- And, wait for it… a toilet seat - featuring heating, cleaning and ventilation functions, controlled via an app or voice command
It may seem like a bizarre gimmick to have some of these products connect to the Internet, but this feature allows them to update, communicate with each other and synchronise with devices such as home assistants to create a customised user experience. Soon, the majority of appliances in our homes will be Internet-connected as manufacturers enable people to take control of their homes. For ASK4 users, as long as their device has a MAC address it will be able to connect to an ASK4 network, meaning they will be able to utilise the full features of their IoT devices and customise their homes and routines. These devices may also be able to connect to building management systems to detect when a resident is in or out of their apartment for convenience of energy saving functions.
We expect to see an increasing number of Internet-connected devices registered by our users over the coming months and years, and will be helping our clients to prepare their WiFi infrastructure to cope with their residents’ needs.
If you would like to know more about how 4Network allows devices to communicate with each other efficiently and securely, please get in touch.
* Taken from the Connected Living report
