Accessible Homes of the Future

Bedroom

The bedroom is the place in which we spend the most time. It is the place to relax and get comfortable for the night. Yet, some people may find that it requires additional effort to relax in their bedroom. They may find it difficult to get into bed, to undress or get out of the bed after a night’s sleep. Future bedrooms should provide assistance for all of these issues, to ensure that everyone can achieve maximum comfort in their bedroom.

Wardrobes

Doors that open to the sound of your voice? Furniture in the future will above all be designed for convenience, as well as comfort and aesthetic. Not unlike the mirror described in our bathroom of the future, expect your future wardrobe to be interactive with a smart interface. Code Computerlove has developed an intelligent interactive surface to superimpose images of your clothes onto a life-size video of your body. You will be able to scroll through a variety of outfits with a simple gesture. This will save time going in and out of the wardrobe. The wardrobe will also be able to pull in external information like the weather forecast and your diary.

Bed

With climbing populations, room space may become increasingly smaller, so foldaway furniture will become more of a trend. The next generation of beds may fold away into the walls or even ceiling at the touch of a button. Future sheets and pillows will be embedded with sensors to gauge body temperature, heart rate and other vital signs, tracking our sleep and calculating wake-up times. Looking further, imagine if your covers could monitor your temperature and automatically use heating and cooling systems to keep you comfortable (no more fiddling with the thermostat or opening/closing windows in the middle of the night).

Sleep Monitoring

Do you ever get frustrated when trying to balance your body temperature in bed, with one leg sticking out of the duvet and the other one under it? Beds of the future may be able to monitor the temperature in the room and control the air conditioning, to try and create the perfect temperature for you. It could also be possible to change the temperature of the duvet or pillow, meaning you can always have the cold side if you want. Furthermore, beds could even keep a track on your heart rate and other vital signs, so that if anything goes awry during the night, you or your sleeping partner will know about it straight away.

Bedroom Supports

People can experience difficulties such as getting in and out of bed, turning over, sitting up and generally getting comfortable in bed. Getting in and out of the bed can be a difficulty for a lot of people, so much so that many people are forced to sleep in a recliner for years – bad for a person’s back and bedsore risk increases due to not changing position. For people who have difficulty getting into and/or out of bed there is a range of equipment that can be of assistance. For example, grab handles, lifting poles, leg lifters, hoists and transfer boards. Bedroom items like these will alway be needed, even in bedrooms of the future as the support will be specific to the person and the nature of any mobility issue.

Bathroom

The bathroom is one of the most difficult areas of the home to move around due to the size and shapes of the bathroom elements. Surfaces can be slippery creating safety issues and a lack of mobility can be highlighted when getting into and out of the bath or even bending down to sit on the toilet. From moving around the bathroom to being comfortable and clean, what does the future hold for bathrooms?

Mirror

“Mirror, mirror on the wall… what’s the weather like today?” Mirrors of the future will have built-in LED lighting, motion sensors, and will be ‘smart’. Samsung have created a mirror with Amazon’s Alexa built-in, and you can ask it to read the news, adjust mirror lighting, and control other house gadgets.

In the near future, we could see truly “smart” bathroom mirrors which move beyond being a solely cosmetic tool, performing daily health checks to save both you and the NHS precious time and money. Robert McFarlane, technology expert and head of labs at digital agency Head says “In the future your bathroom mirror could do a mini health check on you. It could use facial recognition technology to pick up subtle cues about your mental state, while simultaneously measuring your breathing rate and levels of oxygen in your blood.”

Toilet

You walk into a bathroom, and your toilet automatically recognises you. The toilet adjusts the seat and settings based on weight and body type. It starts playing the soothing music you’ve pre-selected, or starts an audiobook. There’s a nightlight for when nature calls in the dark. And if it’s cold, it automatically heats the seat. This is the toilet of the future and its purpose is to make life as simple and easy as possible for you. It’ll even open up the lid for you. Japanese company Toto has been at the forefront of toilet innovation and cleanliness technology for decades. In the UK, it is best known for its Washlet, an electronic shower-lavatory (or bidet seat, as it’s sometimes known) with an automated washing and drying nozzle. Its latest model, the RX, features a sensor-operated lid and heated seat for ultimate hands-free comfort when using the loo. Or if you haven’t got £5,000 to upgrade your current toilet, there are options available now to make going to the toilet easier for all, such as toilet supports and raised toilet seats.

Bath

You won’t even need to turn on your taps in the future, which will certainly help with any upper body movement issues. The future is pretty much upon us here, with the SmarTap. It looks like a sleek thermostatic shower/bath controller, but it is Wi-Fi enabled so it can be used via smartphone or a voice-activated system such as Amazon Echo. Turn on the bath while you’re still in bed, then stroll into your bathroom a few seconds later when it’s hit the right temperature.

Grab Rails

Even if this isn’t vital for you or your bathroom at this stage, bathrooms should be accessible for all, including guests. So, you need to think of where the grab rails can go if and/or when you remodel a bathroom. You should block the space out now for fewer obstacles later. The idea of placing reinforcement inside of your bathroom walls—or any walls for that matter—is called blocking. This blocking is then later used to offer the reinforcement needed for grab bars when they are installed.

Lighting

Sight loss affects people of all ages, but as we get older we are increasingly likely to experience sight loss. One in five people aged 75 and over are living with sight loss; one in two people aged 90 and over are living with sight loss. So, in the bathroom, you should always consider the lighting and increase the lighting if necessary- this will lead to less eye strain and the user is more likely to see wet patches on the floor. In the future, there will be facial recognition, which automatically sets the user’s preferred lighting. You can also control the lighting with your voice. Lighting ideally needs to be dimmable to create different moods for ultimate relaxation. Different light levels are required depending on the time of day and use of the bathroom. Several lighting settings can be created, from bright and functional during the day, to dimmed lighting for long and relaxing soaks in the bathtub. Vary the lighting around the room to ensure there are no dark corners – use spotlights, recessed lighting over vanity units, plinth lighting and include some lights within the shower enclosure.

Kitchen

The kitchen is the place in which we can socialise, cook for the family or make our evening cup of tea. However, the kitchen also consists of a number of elements that are hazardous if not utilised correctly. Standard kitchen utensils and scissors, cutlery and plates can all pose a difficulty to those with disabilities; therefore future trends in the kitchen need to ensure they cater for those who may be less able.

Tabletops

In the future, it is predicted that tables will have sophisticated sensors and an intelligent interface to act as a recipe book providing suggested recipes based on the ingredients that are placed on the table. It will also advise on the best way to cut certain ingredients, measure the weight of your food and act as a stove top to cook the meal. The aim is to reduce food waste and help people make more thoughtful decisions about food.

Fridge

GE appliance designers believe that refrigerators will be able to take inventory of what’s inside the fridge and place an order for a food delivery, making shopping trips quicker and easier in the future. The days of checking the expiry date of your cherry tomatoes are numbered.

Microwave

Microwaves of the future will be able to do more than heat specific items of food. They will become far more sophisticated, so much so that a company called NXP have created the Sage “smart oven” which incorporates multiple microwave sources as well as convection heating. Having multiple sources allows Sage to sense individual items and direct microwaves to cook them differently. For example, the firm claims Sage could cook chicken, potatoes and peas perfectly on the same plate despite their different heating requirements. And it says that Sage can also cook or defrost complex items such as a sponge cake with a cream filling, heating each component evenly.

Sink

Smart faucets have been slowly making their way into smart home portfolios for some time, equipped with temperature gauges and efficiency sensors that make it easy for family members to monitor and control how much water they use in the kitchen or the bathroom. Taps can now register voice commands via Alexa, allowing users to turn water on or off, measure water quantity, and even warm water. Ideal for those who struggle to turn taps, but if you can’t get voice activated taps, there are alternative to help with turning the taps on and off. A height-adjustable sink that moves up and down dependent on the user is a future trend that will be priceless from an inclusion standpoint, making access to the bathroom available to all, regardless of age or potential disability

Cooker

Whirlpool predicts we will have smart stoves that will sense the type of food items that are placed on top, and heat them to the perfect temperature. And Swedish appliance manufacturer, Electrolux, has already developed a connected oven app, which allows users to control the temperature and humidity of their oven from an iOS or Android device, watch the cooking via an interior-mounted camera and share the results on social media. Perfect for this with mobility issues.

Cooking Utensils

Again, these will always be a part of kitchen life. Alternative equipment has been designed to take the place of such items for those who are less dexterous or have poor grip for example. Additional aids such as perching stools and indoor trolleys can be invaluable to working safely in the kitchen, and will continue to be so.

Living Room

The living room is the main social and entertaining room in the household. The living room is where we can relax and spend a lot of our time alone or with family members. Yet, some people may find that they have difficulty utilising their living room as they would prefer to. Also if you have guests that have mobility issues, this may well be where they spend the most time, so you should make this room as comfortable as possible.

They may find that chairs do not support them, they find it difficult to stand after sitting for a period of time, or perhaps they need additional accessories around the room to aid them.

Chair

A company called D-BOX Technologies is promoting machinery that can be added to chairs or planted beneath couches to make them wiggle and shimmy during movies. The chair motions, which are often subtle can also have health benefits. Vibration therapy have a range of health benefits, such as:

• improve circulation
• reduce joint pain
• reduce back pain
• alleviate stress

This is the future, but in the meantime seating accessories such as chair raisers, leg rests & footstools, over-chair tables and support cushions are also available.

Sofa

What if the design of your furniture wasn’t static, but could change according to your nature, your personality, and more? Imagine a sofa that could transform from an upright seat, to a relaxing lounger just by detecting your mood. This is the future!

Television

Televisions have been at the forefront of SMART home technology, so they are already ‘connected’ and offer nice benefits such as voice activation. So what’s next? Well, LG has a 165-centimeter OLED television that rolls itself up when the viewer turns it off. The ultra-high-definition unit lowers itself into its stand, rolling up like a yoga mat, saving space and transforming the living area into a ‘living’ room.

Lamp

Smart lights can be controlled from your phone, from switches that you stick onto walls or tables, or even with your voice. So similar to the TV, what is next? Well, one lamp in the 2016 Dyson Awards uses Co2 filters to help minimise air pollution. Could this be the future? Another advancement we can expect to see is a lamp that can actually change the noise level. Deltamorphose is a lamp that is equipped with an acoustic sensor that detects the noise level in the room. The structure grows when the room is loud, absorbing more of the sound, and shrinks when the room is quiet. It is equipped with an acoustic sensor, a circuit board, a motor and pulleys and reacts to the sound intensity.

Table

The Sobro is a crowdfunded coffee table hybrid that offers a built-in speaker, chargers (two USB, two wall plugs), LED lights, and a mini fridge. It’s also got ambient lighting built underneath, so you can set the mood for the room with relative ease.