One of my favorite things about modern home automation is the ability to tie automation routines to my location via my cell phone. It is possible thanks to embedded GPS and the principles of geolocation. But as with all things in the home automation space, there are challenges to overcome.
Home automation and geolocation integration pose challenges to both device manufacturers and consumers. The combination is simple on paper. But it gets quite complicated in practice. Let us take a quick look at a simple example and then discuss the challenges involved in pulling it off.
Automatically Unlocking the Door
Imagine a disabled homeowner who struggles to lock and unlock the door with conventional means because of limited mobility. With a home automation system and a smart lock, access becomes a lot easier. What if that homeowner could program his system to automatically unlock the door as he pulled into the driveway? He could also program the system to lock up as he is driving away.
The automated routine would rely heavily on the location of the homeowner’s cell phone. So in order for it to work as intended, he needs to be sure his cell phone is with him when he leaves the house. Otherwise, the routine is useless.
5 Challenges to Pulling It Off
Vivint Home Security acknowledges that adding geolocation capabilities is possible with most modern home automation systems. But they also caution against doing so if you do not possess the technical knowhow. They cite five specific challenges:
1. Data Protection
Geolocation requires continuous tracking. This continuous tracking likewise creates detailed patterns of a homeowner’s movements. Under normal circumstances, it is not an issue. But data leaks are always possible. Sensitive data can be stolen by hackers or even given away by insiders. The fact is that anyone’s data can be misused at any point.
2. Increased Attack Surface
While hackers are more likely to target corporations and government entities, they are not above going after small businesses and homeowners. In that respect, here’s the problem with adding geolocation capabilities to an automation system: doing so increases the attack surface hackers have to work with.
Every device on a network contributes to the attack surface. Geolocation increases the surface exponentially by allowing hackers to get into a home or system by hacking a homeowner’s phone in a public place – like a coffee shop or restaurant.
3. Geolocation Reliability
Although GPS and geolocation signals are reliable most of the time, they are not all the time. Mobile geolocation is especially unreliable thanks to drifting, jittering, and dropped signals. An unreliable signal could trigger automation events unintentionally. Going back to the earlier example of the disabled homeowner, his front door could be inadvertently unlocked without him knowing. That is an open invitation to burglary.
4. Integration Complexity
Device manufactures and software vendors are known for their heterogeneous protocols and security models. In simple English, getting devices to talk to one another correctly is not as easy as it sounds. Communication differences could lead to inconsistent access control, making geolocation more trouble than it’s worth.
5. The Human Factor
Finally, making it all work requires that all occupants of a home participate to some degree. And unfortunately, humans are always the weakest link in a network. One mistake by one person could muck up the entire system. Making a system human-proof is a gargantuan task that requires advanced skill.
Adding geolocation to home automation opens the door to powerful routine. But doing so is not without its challenges. You need to know what you’re doing to do it right.
