Technology
The Future of Homes: From Smart to Autonomous
For years, consumers have been promised that their homes will be connected and smart, integrating the latest technology to optimize and control lighting, heating, energy consumption, electronic devices, and security features.
However, the future has come a little slower than expected. By the end of 2017, it’s estimated that only 16.3% of Americans will live in a smart home, though this percentage will increase to 35.6% by 2021.
Examining the Smart Home Market
Today’s infographic comes from Insurance Quotes, and it helps to give an overview of the current market as well as the reasons for hesitation in the switch to smart homes.
The infographic also provides a future outlook, including the impending movement to “autonomous” smart homes.
In 2016, smart systems were installed in about 45% of all homes in the U.S. that got renovated.
However, they are far from ubiquitous yet – many consumers still have concerns that are holding the market back from reaching its full potential.
Top Trepidations
The largest hindrance to smart homes for now is cost, which is cited by 42% of consumers as an obstacle.
However, there is also evidence that a fear of devices being hacked is also a challenge for many wanting to adopt the technology – in fact, 17% prospective buyers cite privacy and security concerns as a top hindrance. Further, about 10% of consumers have already had smart home devices hacked, and 87% of them had to shell out money to solve the issue.
Paradoxically, even though technologically superior security systems are a top reason that homeowners want to have smarter homes in the first place, the vast majority of IT experts say that IoT apps such as those used at home are far harder to secure than regular mobile apps.
Autonomous Smart Homes
After smart homes, the next logical step is an autonomous smart home that can learn based on your habits and behaviors. Such a home would recognize you and other family members, adapting things like temperature, lighting, or recommendations to you automatically based on your lifestyle and activities.
For this to work – everything would need to be truly connected: your mattress would assess how you sleep, your alarm would connect to your coffee maker, and the morning lighting would be shifted to match your evolving preferences.
While there are many uncertainties about what an autonomous smart home would mean, the inevitability of their rise is clear.
Technology
Visualizing AI Patents by Country
See which countries have been granted the most AI patents each year, from 2012 to 2022.
Visualizing AI Patents by Country
This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.
This infographic shows the number of AI-related patents granted each year from 2010 to 2022 (latest data available). These figures come from the Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), accessed via Stanford University’s 2024 AI Index Report.
From this data, we can see that China first overtook the U.S. in 2013. Since then, the country has seen enormous growth in the number of AI patents granted each year.
Year | China | EU and UK | U.S. | RoW | Global Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2010 | 307 | 137 | 984 | 571 | 1,999 |
2011 | 516 | 129 | 980 | 581 | 2,206 |
2012 | 926 | 112 | 950 | 660 | 2,648 |
2013 | 1,035 | 91 | 970 | 627 | 2,723 |
2014 | 1,278 | 97 | 1,078 | 667 | 3,120 |
2015 | 1,721 | 110 | 1,135 | 539 | 3,505 |
2016 | 1,621 | 128 | 1,298 | 714 | 3,761 |
2017 | 2,428 | 144 | 1,489 | 1,075 | 5,136 |
2018 | 4,741 | 155 | 1,674 | 1,574 | 8,144 |
2019 | 9,530 | 322 | 3,211 | 2,720 | 15,783 |
2020 | 13,071 | 406 | 5,441 | 4,455 | 23,373 |
2021 | 21,907 | 623 | 8,219 | 7,519 | 38,268 |
2022 | 35,315 | 1,173 | 12,077 | 13,699 | 62,264 |
In 2022, China was granted more patents than every other country combined.
While this suggests that the country is very active in researching the field of artificial intelligence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that China is the farthest in terms of capability.
Key Facts About AI Patents
According to CSET, AI patents relate to mathematical relationships and algorithms, which are considered abstract ideas under patent law. They can also have different meaning, depending on where they are filed.
In the U.S., AI patenting is concentrated amongst large companies including IBM, Microsoft, and Google. On the other hand, AI patenting in China is more distributed across government organizations, universities, and tech firms (e.g. Tencent).
In terms of focus area, China’s patents are typically related to computer vision, a field of AI that enables computers and systems to interpret visual data and inputs. Meanwhile America’s efforts are more evenly distributed across research fields.
Learn More About AI From Visual Capitalist
If you want to see more data visualizations on artificial intelligence, check out this graphic that shows which job departments will be impacted by AI the most.
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