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Reconfigurable, Modular Dream Home
ssyladin writes: "CNN is reporting a new dream cyber home being designed by the Brits for use in Hong Kong. It combines smart home technologies of touch panels for lights, heating, water taps, with the ability to move the interior wall partitions around with a basic toolbox and about a half day of labor. No more LAN parties in the garage! The homes can also be built faster and with less waste too. Bit skimpy on the details, but its an exciting prospect if its ever finished." Concepts like this probably fill a lot of napkin doodles around the world -- what do you think this particular one should do differently?
"You can control your temperature of the flat, you can control lighting," said Donald Hughes with the Hong Kong Housing Society.
...
Just imagine
Wait a minute. That sounds like a cubicle. 'Cubicle' and 'dream cyber home' do not belong in the same article, ok, guys?
Maybe the state's highest function is to grind out insoluble problems. (Zelazny, Hall of Mirrors)
When do we get this here? (NJ/US)
[o]_O
I dunno...I wouldn't want to buy a house designed by a company with a name like "The Integer Group"...sounds limiting.
"I may be quite wrong." - Socrates
The best thing to do is to uninstall RealVideo and to never ever use it again... even if it means you can't get CNN video.
"America, I smoke marijuana every chance I get."
How is that possible?
I thought the web browser was an inseparable part of the home.
#define sig "Every social system runs on the people's belief in it."
But what I really want to know is does it have a dispenser to dispense a cup with spongy jelly
Ack! Dont tell my wife! She will want that! I can see it now....
Honey can you move this wall over here? Then that wall over there and then this over there?
Later that week...
Honey can you move that wall back over there? Maybe this wall over here?
I can already hear my own screams.....
Vote early. Vote often. Vote CowboyNeal.
First off: they're using a stylus for the main control panels? Does the designer of this brilliantly planned system use salad tongs to throw light switches in his current house or something?
"You can control your temperature of the flat, you can control lighting..."
Hey, they're onto something here! A method for controlling lighting--patent it while it's hot, lads! And controlling the temperature of one's flat? Sheer brilliance! Can I do all of this with the same stylus, as well??
"If you have a party, and want to control your music sound, you would basically be able to press [a few central] switches instead of walking around the whole flat."
Well hell, looks like I should have held off on buying that "Walk around my whole flat" stereo control system. Of course, I still get a good workout when setting the equalizer...
"The Internet fridge"
I stopped reading the article right here. Anything that talks about the Internet Fridge is doomed to failure. It's like the Goodwin's Law for overuse of technology.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
You come back from the store to discover that your kids remade the house into a giant giraffe.
Table-ized A.I.
You probably have to patch your home and rebuild it before you can install that bidet module. I don't think many consumers would go for that.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
.. like crown molding? I guess if you're into that, but I can't imagine the walls looking anything but like an office building.
Not to mention I wouldn't want to give my wife the option of changing the size of the rooms; rearranging the furniture is enough of a hassle
Live web cams
And in other news...
This one guy and his soon-to-be-famous company from somewhere on Earth developed and created this thing that can do some really cool technical stuff.
Karma: NaN
Wait until Steve Jobs gets a hold of this...
Dear God I hope not. I don't want to take a shower in a translucent bathroom.
Table-ized A.I.
"How"?
"You know all those unsold floor-to-ceiling movable office partititions we have in the warehouse?"
"Yeah, and we've got another ten acres worth coming back from the WorldCom bankruptcy. Nobody's fitting out office space right now. What do you want to do with them?"
"Let's team with a builder to build house shells and use the partitions as interior walls in homes. It'll be cheaper than regular construction. And homeowners will be able to reconfigure; add a bedroom for a new kid, open it up when the kids leave.
"That will never fly; house buyers are too traditional".
"Maybe if we had a sales gimmick... Let's call it a "modular cyber house".
"What's "cyber" about office partitions?"
"We'll throw in a home control system. We've got lots of commercial building automation parts in the warehouse too."
"Well, maybe. But we need a design for a house. Just a big shell, but modern-looking".
"Just build a big round roof, and frame it with stock glass and metal exterior panels. That'll be cheap to build. It'll look like those old '50s designs from that Fuller guy. And prices are really low on exterior panels right now."
"This could work out. Let's draw up some renderings of what it would look like and get some press. Even if it doesn't work out, maybe we can do a bulk sell on the partitions to some homebuilder."