Tomorrow's Home: Connectivity - Smart Devices

Tomorrow's Home 2050 is a free exhibition at the Museum of the Home in Hoxton, from Saturday 20 November to Sunday 9 January.

Each week we're hosting talks based around one of the exhibition's themes - beginning with 'Connectivity'.

"Hey Siri, tell me about smart devices"

Smart devices - sometimes referred to as 'the internet of things' - are ubiquitous in our modern homes.

From speakers, to doorbells and fridges, our home objects are connected to the internet, communicating with each other, and sharing data. Creepy or convenient?

Hear from our experts as they explore the possibilities and pitfalls of smart devices.

Speaker line-up - more details coming soon!

• Professor Manish Tiwari, UCL Mechanical Engineering
• Professor Rui Loureiro, UCL, Aspire CREATe, the Centre for Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology
• Dr Richard Beckett, Bartlett School of Architecture UCL
• Dr Angelo Karunaratne, MAS Health
• Dr Ivana Drobnjak, UCL Computer Science
• Dr Henry Goodfellow, 'Living With COVID Recovery App'
• Dr Gemma Hughes, University of Oxford

Professor Manish K Tiwari: 'Could nanoengineering make tomorrow's home more sustainable?'

Nanoengineering – engineering at a teeny tiny scale – has a lot of benefits for sustainable healthcare technology. Manish will talk about how nanoengineering can create surfaces or paints that make it difficult for bacteria and viruses to survive. He'll also discuss self-cleaning surfaces which could reduce the need for environmentally-harmful detergents, and conserve water and energy use.

Manish is a Royal Society Wolfson Fellow and Professor of Nanoengineering in UCL. He leads a platform in UCL’s Wellcome/EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Science.

Dr Angelo Karunaratne: 'Smart textiles - a convergence of fabric, technology and healthcare'

Angelo is Head of Product Development at MAS Health, a Sri Lankan-based company that develops 'next-to-skin' solutions that enhance people's quality of life. He'll talk about the work they do at MAS Health and how design, textiles and health can come together in harmony.

Dr Richard Beckett: 'Why do microbes get such a bad rep? Creating probiotic environments'

Architect Richard will discuss his work which flips the idea that germs in our homes are bad for us on its head. Richard's work acknowledges the important role that germs or microbes play in healthy bodies and healthy environments. His work includes encouraging beneficial bacteria to grow, and restoring environmental microbes which are missing from our cities.

Richard is an architect and Associate Professor of Bioaugmented Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

Dr Ivana Drobnjak: 'Introducing ETHERA - a digital platform for monitoring health at home'

Ivana will talk about her work developing ETHERA, a real-time patient monitoring platform that bridges the gap between home life and in-patient care. ETHERA captures health information via wearable sensors and mobile apps and usings AI to analyse the data and alert healthcare professionals to any problems. It's been designed in collaboration with patients and clinicians to empower patients to take charge of their health!

Ivana is an Associate Professor in the UCL Department of Computer Science.

Dr Gemma Hughes: 'Blurring the background - boundaries of the public and private in health and care at home'

These days, it's common practice to blur backgrounds on video calls when we participate remotely in health, education, work and other social activities. Gemma's talk draws on emerging findings from two qualitative research studies: the use of video consultations for healthcare during the pandemic and a study, Virtual Presence, of telepresence technologies in the home. You'll learn more about how private and public spheres of life appear to shift and change as people participate in these activities, and reflect on our assumptions about homes.

Gemma is an interdisciplinary health services researcher in the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Services at the University of Oxford

More about Tomorrow's Home

Tomorrow’s Home is an immersive installation where the home of the future – 30 years from now – has become a reality. Drawing upon leading research from the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering it playfully imagines how our dwellings could be designed to help us live independently and well as we age, and support our changing planet.

Explore imagined health technologies, from the toilet that analyses your waste to the doormat that can detect intruders, and explore how they could become deeply embedded in people’s homes.

The installation has been curated by design specialists The Liminal Space in collaboration with researchers from University College London (UCL). It is supported by a Royal Academy of Engineering Ingenious Award.

Free entry | Museum of the Home | 136 Kingsland Road, E2 8EA | 10am - 5pm, Tuesday - Sunday