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What's Next for Your High-Tech Home?
koreth asks: "You have the remote-controlled lighting. Your kitchen has speakers in the ceiling and a control panel to play your MP3s, your bedroom is wired for gigabit Ethernet, and you already record HDTV on your computer and watch it on a front-projection screen. You even have a robot to do your vacuuming. So now what? Is has all the nifty stuff been done already, or are there still some nifty homebrew projects out there? What's next on your list of high-tech home improvements? What have you had to cobble together yourself, because nobody sells it in a package yet? What gizmos and conveniences do you expect your home will have in a year or two?"
"A few years ago, there was a rush of innovation in household high-tech items for early adopter types. Hobbyists tinkered to get their PCs to act as DVD players, put their baby-cams on their private Web sites, and pieced together low-cost audio servers. But that rush seems to have largely evaporated, perhaps a victim of the .com bubble bursting. There are still lots of products coming out, but they're aimed squarely at late adopters who have yet to catch up with the latest stuff -- witness the huge number of PC media convergence products announced in the last six months, all of them with functionality that's been available in some form for years."
What gizmos and conveniences do you expect your home will have in a year or two?"
Broken gizmos. Lots of them. Warrantee expired.
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Unfortunately, wives compatible with hi-tech households are quite rare.
What gizmos and conveniences do you expect your home will have in a year or two?
My SO is going to be a year and a half into grad school two years from now. I'll be lucky if I can afford a coffee maker at that point.
I like my women like my coffee... pale and bitter.
Arguably though, early adopters are the only ones with PC-based 'digital convergence' systems. They are based on expensive motherboards and fast, hot chips. As a result they are either noisy, or a lot of money was spent to make them quiet. The market is waiting for a small, quiet, powerful (in relative terms) platform.
The Via Epia boards are almost there but are just a little short of processor horsepower to handle DivX decoding (and other processor intensive operations). The rumours are that there will be a 1.2Ghz Via C3 processor on a new core revision (C5P) out shortly. C3's provide roughly 50% of the horsepower of a similarly clocked P3 in the current core so at 1.2 Ghz (with some potential improvements in the new version core) you are almost at the level where you have a cool, quiet platform with enough horsepower to be a serious media-center PC.
Of course, Via are rumoured to have some very cool stuff on the horizon, included a possible dual-cpu board and a new processor codenamed 'Esther' to be produced in IBM's fab.
Maybe this is what I am waiting for? So perhaps this is the year when digital convergence becomes a reality for the masses?
My high-tech home could use a working hoover, a comfortable sofa, and some cats would be nice. Much more useful than another toy that breaks after six months, and definitely more conducive to a pleasant environment.
I'm trying to get technology away from my life - it's not bringing me joy.
For $3500 - I could buy a DLP Projector or Or I could go to France for a month - get fucking drunk on good wine, eat good food and attempt to have fun with the pretty french girls.
Guess which one I'll be thinking about on my death bed?
Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.
Funny you should mention that -- my office which only has a couple of desktops and a laptop running in it, still manages to be several degrees warmer than the rest of the house. Too cold in your house? The obvious solution is a Beowulf cluster, of course!
In my experience, the majority of people that have all these devices aside from the ludicrously wealthy are also sadly single.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
OK, if you're into home automation as much as I am then here are some ideas. Please note that not all of them are realistic at this time but technology is always improving.
1) Full climate management on a per-room basis. If it's too hot in a room the system turns up the AC, too cold it opens a radiator valve or turns on the underfloor heating, too bright it closes the blinds/drapes.
2) Intruder detection, link individual room alarms to cameras and record the pictures digitally.
3) Voice control of all functions. Imagine walking into a room and saying 'increase lights by fifty percent and it happens.
4) A home phone system combined with an intercom.
I started my tech career reading Circuit Cellar and that gave me lots of ideas (thanks Steve), if you ever find a collection of the Circuit Cellar books then snap them up because you will be prying mine from my cold dead fingers.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.