It may surprise many of our readers to learn that the first true iteration of the ‘smart home’ appeared in the UK around 1998, in Watford… of all places. Known as the INTEGER Millennium House, it was a demo suite of all the smartest, cutting-edge domestic tech available, open to the public to tour at leisure and stare at agog in wonder of the witchcraft.
Of course, these were the savagely early days of the idea of home automation, back when smart tech was as rare as high-definition hen’s teeth, incredibly expensive and – in all brutal honesty – not overly reliable. The Millennium House also came into existence before we even had WAP (Wireless Application Protocol, that is, not Cardi B’s more recent redefinition of the acronym) phones, the precursor to internet-able phones, and a long way from the arrival of the original iPhone and the golden age of the smartphones that followed.
