The words digital mortgage and e-closing may just be getting to the mortgage finance world, but the home technology world is light years ahead.

A new article from NPR by Liz Reid showcased exactly how far smart home technology has come.  

From adjusting the temperature for when owners get home to knowing when there is no toilet paper in the bathroom, smart home technology nearly does it all.

This latest innovation, according to the article, reduced the need to buy a bunch of smart technology products and instead purchase one stand-alone sensor to monitor everything.

From the article:

Gierad Laput, a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon University, says as the Internet of things becomes more ingrained in our daily lives, there are a couple of ways people are turning ordinary homes into smart homes.

"One way is basically to buy all the appliances, smart oven, smart dishwasher, smart microwave, smart toaster, all these things," Laput says.

The other way is to get sensors, and put them on everything you want to monitor.

This latest innovation from Laput and his team involves just one sensor that could monitor a whole range of activity in a room, the article stated.

But not everyone is onboard with the idea of smart home technology.

From the article:

"Surveillance is now the business model of the Internet. Companies make money spying on you," says Bruce Schneier, an Internet security expert and the chief technology officer at IBM's cybersecurity arm.

"We're building a world-size robot without even realizing it," he says.