Smart thermostat
In 2011, Nest Labs developed the Nest Learning Thermostat. The Nest Thermostat attempted to reduce home energy consumption by addressing the problems with programmable thermostats through the use of better technology. This new technology included the implementation of sensors, algorithms, machine learning, and cloud computing. These technologies learn the behaviors and preferences of the occupants, and adjust the temperature up or down to make the occupant comfortable when they are home and to save energy when they are away. Additionally, the Nest Thermostat connects to the home Wi-Fi. This allows users to change the temperature, adjust the schedule, and check energy usage from a smartphone or laptop. All of these features were part of Nest's goal to create an easy to use thermostat that saves users energy and money.
Sentroller
Many of the new things connected to the Internet will be Sentrollers. Sentrollers are either actuators, sensors, controllers, or combinations of these three things. One simple example is a home thermostat. A thermostat is a sentroller as it senses the temperature in the home, checks whether the home or room in which the thermostat is monitoring temperature is at the desired temperature, and if not, turns on the heater or the air conditioner. Therefore, a thermostat is a sensor and a controller – a sentroller. No human interaction with the thermostat or the cloud will be necessary for the thermostat to keep the heat in the home at the right level.