Lifestyle

Smart Home Tech Worthy of the LGBT Stamp of Approval

By Jess Walter

December 12, 2018

Smart tech in the home is becoming more popular every day with as many as 25 billion smart devices expected to find their way into our homes by 2020 according to stats released byglobal outfit Gartner Research. Where technology was once onlyutilized by the LGBTQ communityto meet, get together with and empower like-minded individuals, it is now infiltrating our homes as well, with countless benefits. Home technology is fast changing how we go about our daily lives, revolutionizing the way we eat, sleep and keep ourselves and our belongings safe.

Cooking is no longer a drab

After a long day at work, not many people have the energy to prepare a home-cooked meal prior to hitting the town or even just spending a quiet night at home. Cue a range of smart kitchen gadgets that make everything from brewing a cup of coffee to preparing a gourmet meal an absolute breeze. Now you can shave your early-morning brew awaiting you when you wake up as well as come home to a freshly-prepared meal just waiting to be served.

Invest in a few handy smart devices

Connecting to an app on your phonevia Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, a smart coffee maker can be programmed to make freshly brewed cup of coffee when you need it most. Whether you are a drip or pod fan is irrelevant as there are models on the market that support both methods. If you are impressed by how easy making coffee has become, you might want to transform your cooking in a similar fashion. A smart crock pot allows you to put all the ingredients for a tantalizing dish in the pot in the morning before you leave home, controlling the entire cooking process via anapp on your smartphone. You can turn the pot on and off as you please, or simply adjust the temperature to ensure your soup or stew is cooked to absolute perfection every time.

Staying safe

House burglaries have increased by 30%, making it increasingly important to make sure your home remains intruder-free. While bulky burglar bars and security gates can help keep you safe in your own home, they are no match for a tenacious criminal with a crowbar. Thankfully, the home safety market has had a severe overhaul, now offering house and apartment dwellers a range of nifty and sleek security gadgets that will help keep their belongings (and themselves) safe at all times.

There’s a security gadget for everyone

With an increase in home invasions and hate crime against the LGBTQ community security gadgets such as a remote home monitoring system will increase both safety and peace of mind tremendously. A system such as this will enable you to view both the inside and outside of your home via an app on your smartphone, regardless of where you are. If unauthorized entry is gained to your property you will be notified via the app is directly connected to a range of strategically-placed sensors both inside and outside your house. Coupled with a smart door lock, remote garage door access, and remotely-controlled LED lighting, a remote home monitoring system is bound to keep you safe even when crime is spiraling out of control.

It’s all in a good night’s sleep

Life is becoming increasingly frenzied for the non-Cishet individuals who try to juggle demanding careers with busy social lives, often to the detriment of their sleeping patterns. As many as 1 in 3 Americans do not get enough sleep according to the CDC, often leading to compromised health and well-being. Luckily smart technology is making it easier than ever before to not only track your sleeping habits, but to help you get a good night’s rest as well.

Get a mattress pad or change your bed

The Nokia Sleep mattress pad fits perfectly under your mattress from where it will assess your sleep quality, detect snoring, and keep track of your heart rate. The pad also offers a sleep coaching program and IFTTT integration that will allow you to adjust the room temperature settings on your smart thermostat as well as dim your smart lights, allhelping you sleep better. If you don’t like the idea of placing a pad under your mattress, you can always invest in a bed that will do all the sleep tracking for you. The Sleep Number It bed boasts built-in sensors that will track the various stages of sleep, your heart rate, your body movements and then provide valuable feedback on how to improve the quality of your sleep. All you need to do for the bed to do its job is to get in, and sleep.

Technology has already revolutionized our lives in so many ways and will undoubtedly continue to do so. As our daily activities become more streamlined we may even end up with more time to spend doing things we love with the people that mean the most to us.