Value for whom is the question.

To be fair, many of these objects are, as the local parlance would put it, in beta, because Open House is meant to be a laboratory, not just a smart-home version of the Apple store. The “community space” is for early user testing of these products.

This being the case, may I make a plea for R&D in four major areas? 1) integration of functions 2) usefulness 3) sustainability and 4) privacy/security.

The move toward the Smart City — programs ranging from 311 to Comstat and sensor-enabled trash collection — is very much about using data to improve efficiency, reduce costs and make better use of resources. This has not carried over to the realm of the Smart Home; instead, the tendency has been to throw excess technological capability at every possible gadget without giving any thought to whether it’s really necessary.

Integration. Instead of one gadget for each function, why not one gadget, many functions? My treasured aunt and uncle, serious cooks with a tiny galley kitchen in Manhattan, have a hard and fast rule: no single-function kitchen items allowed (i.e., fondue pots or asparagus cookers). It’s a good rule and gets back to that product-integration idea.

Usability. Focus on technology that solves issues people actually face. While it’s true, as Steve Jobs famously said, that “people don’t know what they want until you show it to them,” let’s not give them stuff that’s ridiculous. Work harder to discover people’s domestic pain points: I anxiously await the creation of some truly smart things for the home, like a self-emptying dishwasher or a laundry-folding dryer.

Sustainability. Smart cities worry about their ecological footprint; smart homes, seemingly not at all. Every gadget in the so-called Smart Home is plastic and, last time I checked, this material has not become a renewable resource. And I shudder to think of the planned obsolescence built into these objects. I am not the first to lament that the efforts focused on less than essential “innovations” in Silicon Valley has led to brain drain in other arenas (medical research, et al). Redirecting some of the R&D money and energy currently devoted to the cool factor toward reducing waste and material usage and improving manufacturing processes instead — now that would be smart.

Privacy and Security. Every one of these items is connected to the Internet, and therefore all of your usage patterns are recorded for posterity — to the delight of pet food manufacturers, propane tank distributors, grill manufacturers, designers of baby linens and locksmiths. Our computers and smartphones already have a frightening amount of information about us — what we buy, what we watch, what ailments we fear we have. The connected home increases the amount of that information exponentially, yet scant to zero efforts are in place to protect consumer privacy and security. You may be able to get your phone to project bright colors if your window sensor detects a burglar, but what is protecting you from your phone?