The “Smart Home” is a home that literally thinks for itself. What is meant here are households in which the various technical devices – everything from central heating systems and kitchen kettles through to washing machines – have IT interfaces, are networked with each other and can be controlled using a smartphone or tablet. If, for example, the outside temperature drops, the heating automatically turns itself up. In such a scenario, washing machines may be operated from the workplace – so that the laundry is done by the time the residents get home. By 2020, the BITKOM industrial association anticipates that approximately one million households in Germany will have become Smart Homes.