Smart Home technology aids those who have different disabilities in different way, for some it can be day to day life, while others can use it to explore a use of entertainment. Using research project on people’s opinions of smart technology to find the advantages and disadvantages of the brands of smart home tech they use. This covers three different brands, Alexa, google and apple to discover which one could work the best for people with different difficulties in life.

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Smart speakers is one type of smart technology and the research project was done to see which of the three ‘main’ brands was the best depending on your lifestyle and price range. The speakers enable people to go about their life in a way which means that they do not have to unnecessarily strain themselves because of their specific disability, the smart speakers aid them in:

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• Checking weather [1]

• Checking time [1]

• Voice calling [1]

• Making lists [1]

• And other normal daily tasks

 

The three people which have the interviews have different types of disabilities:

*names have been changed.

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• Sam, Autism Spectrum, this effect both his physical and mental disabilities.

• Olivia, Asperger’s

• Sam, Friedrich Ataxia

Google

 

Sam explained how they preferred Google over their other Brands because they were all connected to everything he had, and to have them all connected still meant that it could be cheaper. He said that there are some issues with his speaking to google as they can have similar names when he wants to call someone for example Izzy and Lizzie can get mixed up for his phone. However, with research Googles top smart home speakers can get up to £399 which was the most expensive speaker out of all the potions from the three being compared.

 

With Jacob he also uses google, it helps him too with everyday tasks, but he also uses it as a means of entertainment with it playing music for him and also playing games with the google mini. It helps him to get up each day with an alarm that he set alarm while also getting him to go to his online school when he is needed. He enjoys asking to google lots of questions to increase his curiosity and knowledge which can help him to become more independent for the future.

Apple

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While Olivia uses Apple, she finds it good because they connect with each other much like google however a disadvantage of apple is that it is quite expensive, so while people may find it better because they already have most of the apple collection, if someone was starting brand new and wanted a phone, laptop tablet and watch it would cost more.

Apple however does give a good feature to the smart home as it has the most amount of devices which you can connect to one another with it having a smart home, laptop, table, phone and watch meaning that having one of everything isn’t a problem and it can be more accessible

Alexa/Amazon Echo

 

Sam has used Alexa in his life, however he stated that he went to google after as the connection since amazon could not link to other devices as well. Though there are some advantages of it like it is much easier to purchase something with Alexa as it connects directly to your amazon account.

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While the echo does not necessarily sound as good, it can be helpful as well as also being a cheaper option of the three. It can help in similar ways to the other two, as long as they are part of the devices which are allowed to be connected with the echo.

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OverView

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All together This found that Google was the favourite of the people who were interviewed for this mini research project; however, there were not a lot of people who were interviewed in the first place so this case study may not be accurate to everyone, and there are lots of different types of disabilities which are not included so it may not cater to everyone’s life. As well as the fact there are also negatives of google or if, for example, you already have lots of apple products and you are concerned about the price, apple would b cheaper and easier for you to get, so that the speaker can be connected to your previously bought devices.