The Smart Home is now a very topical subject all over the world. In recent years, the Internet of Things has in fact invaded the home with smart objects that can improve and simplify everyday domestic life. Comfort, safety and reduced energy consumption are the main areas that have always been positively influenced. The large amount of data that smart devices are able to collect, preserve and process, combined with the maturity of technologies based on Artificial Intelligence algorithms, is nonetheless outlining new scenarios for the immediate future: from a collection of connected objects within the house, it is progressively affirming a true Smart Home ecosystem in which actors, typically far from the domestic environment, can enter to offer valuable services to the final user. This thesis fits into this context. After having clarified some key aspects of the topic, a general market analysis was conducted through an extensive mapping of the Smart Home solutions present worldwide which showed that this is no longer a prerogative only for startups and North American companies. Subsequently, as a testimony of the transformation towards a Smart Home ecosystem, it is presented a case study on a company operating in the smart domestic appliance sector: Haier Europe, that is the result of the acquisition in January 2019 of the historic Italian Candy Hoover Group by the Chinese world leader Qingdao Haier. The last section of the thesis includes the presentation of an interpretative framework for the evaluation of the smart potential of a home appliance not yet equipped with connectivity, offering food for thought on the actual effectiveness of the current approach to the decision of making it smart.
La Smart Home è ormai un tema di grande attualità in tutto il mondo. Negli ultimi anni, l’Internet of Things ha infatti invaso le mura domestiche con oggetti smart in grado di migliorare e semplificare la vita quotidiana all’interno della propria abitazione. Comfort, sicurezza e riduzione dei consumi energetici sono i principali ambiti ad esserne sempre stati positivamente influenzati. La grande quantità di dati che i dispositivi intelligenti sono in grado di raccogliere, conservare ed elaborare, combinati alla maturità di tecnologie basate su algoritmi di Intelligenza Artificiale, sta tuttavia delineando nuovi scenari per l’immediato futuro: da una raccolta di oggetti connessi, la casa intelligente si sta trasformando in un vero ecosistema Smart Home in cui possono inserirsi attori fino a ieri lontani dall’ambiente domestico, per offrire servizi di valore all’utente finale. La tesi si inserisce in questo contesto. Dopo aver chiarito alcuni aspetti chiave dell’argomento, è stata condotta un’analisi generale del mercato attraverso una mappatura estesa delle soluzioni Smart Home presenti a livello mondiale che ha evidenziato come questo non sia più una prerogativa solo di startup e aziende nordamericane. Successivamente, a testimonianza del cammino intrapreso verso un ecosistema Smart Home, viene presentato un caso di studio su Haier Europe, azienda operante nel settore degli elettrodomestici smart frutto dell’acquisizione nel Gennaio 2019 dello storico gruppo italiano Candy Hoover Group da parte del colosso cinese Qingdao Haier. L’ultima sezione della tesi include la presentazione di un framework interpretativo per la valutazione delle potenzialità smart di un elettrodomestico non ancora dotato di connettività offrendo spunti di riflessione sull’effettiva efficacia dell’attuale approccio alla decisione di renderlo, appunto, smart.
From connected domestic appliances to a smart home ecosystem : the Haier Europe case
MARTELLOSIO, DAVIDE
2018/2019
Abstract
The Smart Home is now a very topical subject all over the world. In recent years, the Internet of Things has in fact invaded the home with smart objects that can improve and simplify everyday domestic life. Comfort, safety and reduced energy consumption are the main areas that have always been positively influenced. The large amount of data that smart devices are able to collect, preserve and process, combined with the maturity of technologies based on Artificial Intelligence algorithms, is nonetheless outlining new scenarios for the immediate future: from a collection of connected objects within the house, it is progressively affirming a true Smart Home ecosystem in which actors, typically far from the domestic environment, can enter to offer valuable services to the final user. This thesis fits into this context. After having clarified some key aspects of the topic, a general market analysis was conducted through an extensive mapping of the Smart Home solutions present worldwide which showed that this is no longer a prerogative only for startups and North American companies. Subsequently, as a testimony of the transformation towards a Smart Home ecosystem, it is presented a case study on a company operating in the smart domestic appliance sector: Haier Europe, that is the result of the acquisition in January 2019 of the historic Italian Candy Hoover Group by the Chinese world leader Qingdao Haier. The last section of the thesis includes the presentation of an interpretative framework for the evaluation of the smart potential of a home appliance not yet equipped with connectivity, offering food for thought on the actual effectiveness of the current approach to the decision of making it smart.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
2019_12_Martellosio.pdf
non accessibile
Descrizione: Testo della tesi
Dimensione
3.57 MB
Formato
Adobe PDF
|
3.57 MB | Adobe PDF | Visualizza/Apri |
I documenti in POLITesi sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
https://hdl.handle.net/10589/151063