When will the mantra "home, sweet home" shift to "home, smart home"?

For decades from about the 1950s, many expected that it would happen in the 21st century. In fact, it was a preoccupation expressed in books, amusement park exhibits, TV shows and movies.

The question of whether our homes -- the place where we lay our heads and charge our gadgets -- will get to move the tassel and graduate to the distinction of being "smart" was put to a group of 1,000 experts, observers, and critics. And the result was an even split on whether the home will have a brain in addition to a heart.

The Pew Internet report, in conjunction with Elon University, found that 51% of survey participants agreed that by 2020, the connected household will have "become a model of efficiency, as people are able to manage consumption of resources (electricity, water, food, even bandwidth) in ways that place less of a burden on the environment while saving households money."

"Homes will get more efficient because it will cost more and more to waste energy – the devices will become simpler because no one likes being outsmarted by their thermostat," said David Weinberger, a senior researcher at Harvard University’s Berkman Center for Internet & Society, according to the release.

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