Last night I was watching a TV game show: there was a 23-year-old contestant who didn’t know that the acronym CPU stood for the central processing unit of a personal computer. This seemed strange to me, and so I started wondering why. When I was that age, a little less than 20 years ago, a computer was an object of desire, whose hardware specifications, such as the processor, RAM and hard disk, were the stuff of rivalry between friends, and indeed were essential in being able to run the latest video game on the market. Even the first PCs highlighted the CPU’s clock speed in MHz, just like what happens for sports cars, with engine revs or turbo pressure. Twenty years have now gone by, and those features that were once something to be proud of, are now less important and indeed remain as a topic of discussion for enthusiasts (also known as nerds) or computer manufacturers only. What has changed? Technology has evolved. With consumer products, we have been very good at learning how to conceal technological complexity, leaving users the pleasure of simply enjoying them. The world has thus become simultaneously more complex and simpler for users. This is what we older nerds and the new generations now expect.

The challenge for industries that infuse technology in their products is to satisfy users who are increasingly unwilling to be fascinated by mere technical issues, but rather want to be amazed by simplicity, reliability and perceived usefulness. So for me, a smart product is a device that is capable not only of interpreting the surrounding environment, but also users’ habits, amazing them by proving useful. Moreover, users should not be bored by requests for configurations that they are not interested in learning about, otherwise they will readily switch to a competitor.

The refrigeration and air-conditioning industry is no exception: they work with the same new generation of users, both technicians and end users of the technologies offered in this market. Companies with a significant focus on innovation, such as CAREL, have invested greatly in making their products smarter, through configuration wizards, self-explanatory user interfaces, supervisors that are simple to use but full of valuable information. A lot has been done, but I don’t believe that we have yet managed to de-empower ourselves completely. The breakthrough will come in this business too, just like for self-driving cars; the challenge lies in being able to get there first, and with concrete results.

Even for HVAC/R applications, time saved in installation and maintenance is a key factor in energy saving, and can offset a higher upfront investment. Increasing the intelligence and self-awareness of electronic controllers means making them capable of adapting to changing operating conditions, predicting - and therefore avoiding - malfunctions. Users will simply be left the pleasure of being amazed by and bragging about what a great choice they made and how much technology is at their disposal.

Again yesterday I asked my smartphone to show me my photos from last summer, in normal speech, without knowing whether it would manage to do it, a sort of challenge. I was surprised and even a little excited when it did, because I recognised the amazing ingenuity of humans and that the goal of complex simplicity has finally been reached.

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