The Internet: Your Next Remote Control

Makarand writes "According to this article on NewsFactor, a Hungarian company, Timothy Technologies, wants to turn the Internet into a pervasive Remote Control. This device, called FlatStack, allows users to operate home appliances using the web. The FlatStack is an entire web server on a tiny circuit board which can be connected to the Internet and wired to the device needing remote control. Later versions of FlatStack will connect to appliances wirelessly. The FlatStack, with a variety of applications at home, can also be adapted in offices, factories and agricultural settings. It is expected to sell for around $75."

Comments

Already invented at Viola systems

[vinsci]

This is already invented in Finland :-). See http://www.violasystems.com/index.php

And the article

[BrianGa]

If Hungarian startup Timothy Technologies has its way, the Internet is about to take a giant leap forward, off the pages of the user's Web browser and right into every home appliance, from toaster ovens to air conditioners. Well, perhaps not the entire Internet, per sé, but enough of it to turn an ordinary home of the present into a remote-controlled Smart Home of the future. With an innovative new device known as the FlatStack, a user can log on to a Web page and operate home appliances with commands issued through an ordinary Web browser, with point-and-click ease.

The FlatStack is a tiny circuit board with an embedded operating system that functions as a Web server. The device connects to the Internet and, in turn, can receive commands through an ordinary Web page. The user logs on to the Internet, opens the Web page and is presented with various options. For example, on a hot day, one can log on to the Web page, check the current temperature at home and turn on the air conditioner remotely, so that the area will be cool by the time the user arrives home. Likewise, the user can switch on a coffee maker, TV, lights or any other home appliance to which the FlatSstack device is connected.

Vast Universe of Uses

And while uses are nearly unlimited for consumers, the FlatStack is also applicable in industrial settings, including offices, factories and agricultural arenas. Wherever there is an electronically controlled device, the FlatStack can be used.

Still, the sophisticated technology that powers FlatStack will remain outside of the user's view, as in nearly all other embedded systems. "You, as a user, will never be able to see it," Meta Group vice president Steve Kleynhans told NewsFactor recently when commenting on similar Smart Home devices. "The only thing you'll ever see is the interface they [graft] onto it." For FlatStack users, this is good news, as the Web interface is particularly simple and easy to use.

Timothy Not Home Alone

Timothy Technologies, however, is not the only high-tech company with the vision of extending the power of computing to the home. At the recent Comdex trade show, Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) chairman Bill Gates announced, "Today, the home environment is one where the PC is starting to play a bigger role."

To that end, a new class of computers equipped with the upcoming Microsoft XP Media Center Edition will be able to remotely control televisions, DVD players and display digital images. The new version of Windows XP will make its debut on PCs produced by Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) that carry a price tag of several thousand dollars. By contrast, the FlatStack offers similar remote capabilities and retails for somewhere between US$75 and $100, while offering a key benefit that the Microsoft/HP system does not.

Fitting into the palm of a hand, FlatStack can remain mostly unseen and does not take up space in the home. The Microsoft/HP system, on the other hand, is relatively large and obtrusive in comparison, though it does offer some bells and whistles not offered by FlatStack.

nothing new

[Dizzo]

This isn't really new. Ever heard of siteplayer?

http://www.siteplayer.com/

Uh...

[seanadams.com]

Big whoop. Ubicom makes a damn fine embedded TCP/IP platform, and it's all on one chip, with built-in Ethernet using a software MAC. And it's $13.

It's been done more than once - TINI

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only X-10 but TINI from Dallas Semiconductors offers the integral web server w/JVM ($50US), JStamp w/JVM, and Basic Stamp/Javelin Stamp could all be used similarly and are compatible with X-10.