The “smart home” concept of the 21st century has mostly been centered around household devices and appliances that could connect to the Internet. Now that we are firmly integrating that concept into our daily life through the machine-to-machine (M2M) protocol and the Internet of Things, technology giants such as Sony are looking beyond home security systems, ovens, and refrigerators that update their functional status to the cloud.

Sony’s current vision of home automation is transformative and stylish. The Sony Life Space UX line of products aims to transform living spaces into various experiences that reflect the users’ personalities and moods. Sony is designing smart devices that project and stream digital content with which users can truly interact. The concept is to take an empty space and fill it with light, sound and digital imagery for the purpose of creating a rich user experience.

The Life Space UX items created by Sony are small, portable, stylish, and very powerful. The Symphonic Light Speaker, for example, is a designer table lamp that links to devices such as desktop computers or even smartphones for the purpose of streaming high-quality sound and displaying directional light shows that can liven up any room. A simpler light and sound device in the Life Space UX collection is the LED bulb speaker, which can be screwed into a light socket to stream music.

In terms of graphic displays, Sony’s vision of smart homes in the near future does not involve screens. Instead, portable projectors can display ultra high-resolution images on walls. The images can be scaled so that they can be transferred from the living room to the kitchen and from the home office to the shower.

Also available in the Sony Life Space UX catalog are tabletop screens that can essentially turn any table surface into a touch screen so that users can comfortably work on tasks such as sharing photos, organizing files, editing documents, etc.

In the end, the Sony Life Space UX is a welcome entry in the current paradigm of smart home automation.