Trend Talks: Life guided by a cell phone screen

SMARTOPIA Smartphones have represented a renewal within the technological revolution itself. Sold as cell phones, they have gone beyond their primary function and are now rarely used for phone calls. On the other hand, they serve as a tool for entertainment, accessing banking, shopping, calling a taxi, finding out what time the bus will arrive, and everything else we do via the internet.

Raphael Tristão, an environmental engineer and owner of the company Muuving – which creates platforms to integrate technology with architecture and decoration – knows what this is all about. “I don’t know what to do without my smartphone. During a fire drill we recently had in the building where I work, I dropped everything and took only the device,” he says. At 26, he spent part of his career working in startups creating apps. At his current company, he offers a platform that allows architecture and decoration professionals to learn about products that make homes more technologically advanced. It’s impossible to be more in tune with the latest trends. “As devices now record users’ preferences so that they can have more personalized experiences, household items can now also react according to our tastes and lifestyles. The home has become more alive,” says André Alves, a trend researcher. And best of all, with apps and the Internet, it is now all connected via cell phone. The automation system, which used to require a large financial investment and renovations to electrical installations, is now simple and allows all the electronics in the house to be controlled by a cell phone or tablet, no matter where the user is, anywhere in the world. “With three devices and an app developed by our startup, residents can interact with TVs, home theaters, air conditioners, lighting and various appliances via smartphone, via wireless connections,” explains Giulliano Siviero, electrical engineer and partner at the Espírito Santo startup Kokar . The connected home is the subject of a recent campaign by the American department store chain Target , which set up an entire home in San Francisco with devices that can be connected to the internet and that help to bring more comfort and convenience to the residents' daily lives. The interesting detail is that the home is made up of translucent furniture and walls, to highlight the electronics and their importance. “We are very interested in the internet of things, especially as it relates to the connected home. We wanted to show people how it works, with products that cover different aspects of their lives,” explains Target director David Newman in the promotional video. ]