CES: Three Standout Ideas For The Homebuilding Industry

The new technologies showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)  last week in Las Vegas have the potential to change the way we live in our homes and interact with our communities. Our Director of Economic Research, Ali Wolf, explored the countless exhibit halls of CES and picked out three standout ideas for the homebuilding industry.

YOUR FACE TELLS IT ALL

Facial recognition is no longer just a product of the big screen. Companies at CES debuted new at-home security cameras with facial recognition capabilities and smart city concepts founded on the ability to scan faces.

In the homebuilding industry, facial recognition could be incorporated into model homes. The artificial intelligence platform can:

• Recognize new shoppers. Facial recognition allows the builder to know whether a visitor is new or returning. This knowledge can influence the interaction between the shopper and the sales agent.
• Estimate the age. The technology can help you track the age of the individuals touring your community. Using this data, the builder can better understand if the model home is staged correctly for the age and lifestyle of the traffic.
• Identify key rooms. The face scan reads emotion. The builder can use this information to determine rooms that resonate the most and general sentiment about the home or community.

Anonymous in their current stage, the use of facial recognition would provide another dataset to help builders better cater to their home shoppers, assuming consumers can get over the privacy implications.

SMART EVERYTHING

The focus on “smart” technology was inescapable at CES.

• Wouldn’t it be cool to have clothes tagged to tell your washing machine their ideal cleaning conditions?
• How nice would it be to cook your leftover burrito to perfection?
• What about an alert from your mailbox to your Apple Watch telling you the letter finally arrived?

Well, the exhibitors solved all of those problems and more.

As the housing industry juggles trying to stay relevant with smart homes, while aiming to hit an attainable price point, it is challenging to find the right balance.

SMALL STEPS, BIG VISION

CES proved that the impact of technology on homebuilding and community development is upon us and deciding the nice-to-have from the necessity is critical.