IBM's Advanced PvC Technology Laboratory

ShellDawg writes "IBM had this really nice article article which showcases their new pervasive computing technologies lab in Austin, Texas. Gadgets which let you control everything in a room from light bulbs (which have assigned URL's )to smart kitchen-tops to a wireless enabled car. There's even a refrigerator that has a display which projects an image of whats inside without opening the doors." I for one am the first to sign up for this. I'm tired of opening the door just to realize that I'm out of everything except baking soda and butter. Mmmm. Butter.

Comments

I mean, really...

[JanneM]

what is it with IT people and refridgerators?? By now I've seen 'glimpses of the futuer' with refridgerators being net-terminals, being able to automagically tell what's inside it, suggesting recipies, being a 'home communication nexus' (i.e. replacing notes and magnets with an internal email system), being karaeoke machines, displaying its contents, ad nauseaum. It seems, if it's doable on a screen, our refridgerators will do it. People, there's a _reason_ mankind invented desks, and desktop computers to put on them. Do you _really_ need to play Quake, surf for pr0n and check your stock portfolio in front of your fridge?

Besides, I bet the screen will go all strange once the users start placing a few refridgerator magnets on it :)

/Janne

Re:I mean, really...

[bonoboy]

LG Electronics, the Korean firm that used to be Goldstar and the Lucky Company (my girlfriend's Korean, she says this sort of name is normal - but still finds it funny) said they made their Internet Fridge (short for 'refrigerator' no d!) because while the tv is the source of information for alot of families to the outside world, they still keep their bills and notes on the fridge. Internally, they believe this is where the world organises itself and communicates the best. So as a 'core router' it makes alot more sense than a tv, which will always be a volatile border device.

The fridge is an ideal situation for a switched centre. Just because the tv already has a screen doesn't mean it's the best thing to inherit all the functions of a household. Think about someone trying to watch tv while someone else downloads their email to a pda via that same screen. Pain in the butt. Sure, later with better wireless networks you won't need a visual display. But you still don't want to lean on your single border device to do all the internal routing of the network.

Been there and done that.....

[Lumpy]

With my ocelot and the associated hardware My lightbulbs and outlets have a type of a URL (an address on the rs485 bus to be exact) And X10 devices have done this for years also (but at a really low reliability) I agree the technology behind it is neat, bt it is far from revolutionary... Building this into a light bulb is pretty stupid. Right now I can change a light bulb and all is well, with their design I would have to take the lightbulb to the server, register the lightbulb or program it, then replace the burned out unit... we do not need addressable consumables, we need the durable good addressable and leave the consumables the way they are... cheap and dumb.

Re:Just what my grandma needs

[sharkey]

...Al, the plumber, who is quite the whiz with computers. In just an afternoon he manages to get the lightning working.

Let me guess, Al is very tall, with an overdeveloped chest and biceps, carries a hammer and tells everyone to, "Just call him Thor" at parties.

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Re:IBM pvc?

[rmull]

even better - smart pants.

Re:Light Bulbs?

[dublin]

I can see toasters and coffepot weeb cams with IP numbers. but light bulbs? Like we can't run out of IPV6 space fast enough already.

Uh, 2^128 = 3.4 x 10^38: IPv6 address space is BIG. We're not gonna run out of IPv6 addrs anytime soon. (Someone pointed out back in an early IETF meeting on the subject that this is enough to address every particle in the solar system. I haven't verified that math myself.)

Re:My fridge contents

[Restil]

Well Duh. I suppose I shouldn't have generalized so quickly. Not everything is kept in the fridge. I keep a catalog of everything I buy, including the non-food stuff.

Sorry for the confusion. :)

-Restil

Re:My fridge contents

[Restil]

Some of the descriptions are mine. The program I wrote, upon receiving a UPC code its not familiar with, query's the Internet UPC database to see if there's a match there, and if so, downloads the name, otherwise it prompts for the name at that time, along with cost and other information.

I'll post the source someday when its actually in a semi-functional state.

-Restil

My fridge contents

[Restil]

I have a barcode scanner set up next to my fridge so I can keep an inventory of whats in there. Its still quite buggy, but thats what a work in progress is, after all. :)

If you want to see, check it out at
http://206.54.177.105/cgi-bin/barcodehtml.cgi

-Restil

Invaluable if you're like me...

[Velox_SwiftFox]

And after too long on fast food and microwaved stuff from the freezer, opening the refrigerator door is something to be truly feared.

At last, no more dreams of tentacles dragging me inside to a moldy fate...

end of days

[joq]

I'm tired of hearing about all of this technology which will supposedly make the world easier to live in. Soon we'll end up having a world full of lazy people whom will create something for them to avoid having them do anything for themselves. Out of a fictional book of robots taking over.

So you have a fully digital life, next what implants to monitor your every move via GPS, monitor your heart rates, etc...? Oh wait that's already coming out next month...

Digital Angel sends and receives data and can be continuously tracked by global positioning satellite technology. When implanted within a body, the device is powered electromechanically through the movement of muscles and can be activated either by the "wearer" or by a monitoring facility. "We believe its potential for improving individual and e-business security and enhancing the quality of life for millions of people is virtually limitless"

[source]

What happened to creativity, are we all turning into the PC and the PC turning into a human?

Been there done that

[mattr]

Our team built an Internet Fridge with Sharp in Japan. After all was said and done, it got a Netscape browser in a color LCD screen inset in the freezer area at head height, a camera (this got removed later), a ups (as long as the fridge is plugged in..), and a cellphone antenna (so you could call it from outside.. also nixed). It didn't sell amazingly at the time. Might do better if it included a router for your home network now that I think about it since those things sell like hotcakes.

The interesting thing was that a friend at Intel told me there was a group some years ago that thought about doing the same thing with a garage freezer in the U.S., since the "deep freeze" American houses seem to have must be a good place to stick a server, and there's space in the garage.

Personally I wouldn't mind having a terabite in the freezer.. ouch just to save a week of TV and not worry about which channel when.

IBM pvc?

[Ukab the Great]

IBM has a pvc lab? Is this that "smart pipes" techology everyone has been talking about?

Steve Talbott's NetFuture

[michaelmalak]

If you haven't read Steve Talbott's NetFuture columns, now is a good time to become aquainted. The premise of the column is responsible use of technology, especially when there are unknown consequences upon society, and there is a whole series of articles on ubiquitous computing. The earliest NetFuture article on ubiquitous computing is actually the best.

Seems familiar..

[Carnage4Life]

This looks like a marketer's version of the Georgia Tech Aware Home Research Initiative which is more about building a house that is actually smart instead of just blindly adding IPs addresses and remote controls to a bunch of household devices.

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Re:it's so obvious...

[jgdobak]

"...people would probably benefit more from a healthy relationship with food (cooking themselves with fresh ingredients)..."

Dude, I don't know about you, but I wouldn't consider cooking myself healthy, no matter what kind of ingredients I used...
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Were I in touch with the toilet that is humanity, I'd have flushed it long ago.

Jim Knows Best

[alexburke]

Mmmm. Butter.

I just got through watching Me, Myself & Irene, and if there's one thing to be learned from it, it's that skin lotion tends to work better, without being greasy like butter.

Make the switch today, Taco!

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Re:Peekaboo Fridge

[jedwards]

They don't need to come over. http://fridge.kitchen.sparcv9.home

Light Bulbs?

[Alien54]

which let you control everything in a room from light bulbs (which have assigned URL's )

I can see toasters and coffepot weeb cams with IP numbers.

but light bulbs? Like we can't run out of IPV6 space fast enough already.

sheesh!

;-)

Check out the Vinny the Vampire comic strip

Re:Light Bulbs?

[Erasmus Darwin]

I can see toasters and coffepot weeb cams with IP numbers. but light bulbs?

They didn't say IP numbers. They said URLs. If every image, page, frameset, and CGI script on the web can each have their own URL, providing one to each lightbulb isn't going to be that difficult:

http://bulb.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/bulb1
http://bulb.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/bulb2
http://bulb.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/bulb3

Of course, on the other hand, they could also mean URLs in the form of:

http://10.0.5.1/
http://10.0.5.2/
http://10.0.5.3/

So they aren't necessarily doing things the smart way. But my guess is that they use something simpler than TCP/IP for communicating to the actual bulb sockets (unless this is one of those projects that is just mindlessly burning money). In reality, it wouldn't surprise me if the URLs turned out to actually be something closer to:

http://www.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/cgi-bin/bul b?id=1&set=on
http://www.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/cgi-bin/bul b?id=2&set=off
http://www.erasmusdarwinsapartment.org/cgi-bin/bul b?id=3&set=toggle

Overall, though, attempting to idly speculate based on the vague details from an obvious fluff piece isn't really going to get us much.

Re:Prior art

[Technician]

My oven has had windows technology for 20 years. It even has a light switch on the outside so the door does not have to be opened to turn on the light.

buggy

[zephc]

as I've heard from a friend that recently worked at IBM, this new 'house of the future' is very buggy and apparently quite insecure... one could literally crack into the house and play Poltergeist >;-]
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bah

[Blymie]

"There's even a refrigerator that has a display which projects an image of whats inside without opening the doors." For fuck sakes, anyone ever hear of glass?

Peekaboo Fridge

[sparcv9]

Great, just what I need: people being able to come over to my house and see that my refrigerator contains nothing but three bottles of Dr. Pepper and four gallons of homemade chili.

display fridge

[SpoonMeiser]

It's not that bad if it's double glazed. I mean we have one of the display Coca-cola fridges that shops use, a shop down the road from us was throwing one out and we 'liberated' it. I'll tell you what though, those things are f**king heavy, the four of us had bruises for weeks afterwards. Anyway, the point is, it works (after a little repair), and considering that people aren't always opening and closing it to see what's inside, it does work rather efficiently!

It's huge too, so we can stokepile lots and lots of cold beer... mmmmm... beeeer

This is *so* totally missing the point

[cosmo7]

Why have a wired fridge? you're not interested in eating the fridge; you're interested in the food. the food ought to be intelligent.

At Last Science Can Answer...

[NetGuru(42)]

One of the bigger questions of life.
Between Heisenbergs Principle, and Schrodingers Experiments on a cat, we have never been able to know.
Until now, that is.

When you close the door, is the light on or off?

Thanks IBM.

Just what my grandma needs

[blang]

The town's mom and pop electric store upgrading grandma's fridge and light fixtures and tv, and their 13 year old whiz kid is setting up the interface. He's the kind of guy that just discovered blink, and uses links with spaces instead of %20.

It'll be a 2 month project before the fridge is up and running, and grandma retrieves the old oil lamp from the attic, sho she won't blow her household budget on candles.

Friendly neighburs will pop in and help out now and then, amongst others Al, the plumber, who is quite the whiz with computers. In just an afternoon he manages to get the lightning working. Just too bad he broke the links to the fridge.

And the holiday season is getting closer, so the designated webmaster prodigy is now busy programming the christmas tree. Grandma never really cared for disco, but now she'll get a peek at what she missed.

She's a open-minded soul, so she doesn't mind all the cusswords being inprinted on her toast every morning by script kiddies. Also she keeps her cool when FBI busts in one evening to confiscate her washer and dryer, which allegedly had been used to break into pentagon, as well as hosting a web site poking fun at General Motors.

She only gets upset when her electric tea kettle gets the "blue screen thing", and she won't be able to serve those nice FBI agents some nice tea.

See if glass can do that!

[james(honest)]

Well obviously the light goes out when you close the fridge door, so the web cam has to take an image before it closes and then show you that. Duh.

it's so obvious...

[m08593]

That's it's already here. Many devices in our homes have microprocessors. Of course, they will get networked when it makes sense to do so and when it becomes cost effective. If you are willing to pay for it, you can get that kind of functionality already: go to places like SmartHome and X10.

Some of them make a lot of sense: remote access to temperature and lights in the home can be useful. Others don't. For example, I don't think more automation in the kitchen does much good: people would probably benefit more from a healthy relationship with food (cooking themselves with fresh ingredients) than minute tracking of soft drinks and junk food. And short of automated driving and road following, I don't really need or want any additional gadgets in my car.

I wonder if this tech can be apllied to relatives.

[GreyOrange]

This is a nice modern convience. Just can't wait until hackers figure how to start switching off and on my refriderator though.

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