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Panasonic R&D 'House of the Future' To Open
Tomo Hiratsuka writes "On January 4 Panasonic opens its new R&D showcase in Tokyo, featuring the usual raft of environmentally friendly products and a take on how to make gadgets more usable for the graying societies of the future. Examples are thin on the ground at the minute but the company's Universal Design (UD) concept could be just the kind of simplification everybody's grandparents have been whining for over the holidays when faced with the space-age remotes on new-fangled DVD players and the like." Details can be found via CBS, and an official release.
"Dinner still has to be cooked. OK, it's very easy because this system automatically sends the cooking data to the network microwave oven. " Don't we see this shit every decade or so? That sounds like a commercial from the 70s for those new fangled robots... When I can afford this junk I'll be interested.
mix_master_mike
vafrous
The House is designed to accommodate diversity in age and abilities. The corridors are wide enough to allow wheelchair access and handrails are installed to aid walking and prevent accidents. Furniture and fixtures in the House have rounded edges and are set at a height the users can access comfortably from sitting in a chair.
(CBS) The last thousand years have seen dramatic changes in the human home: flush toilets, electric lights and air-conditioning, among them.
Now, as the millennium approaches, we're looking ahead to what could be the ultimate dream home. From Japan, CBS News Correspondent Barry Petersen reports.
December 13, 1999 08:46:27?
Hurry! Get her up to 88!
So where in this house is the IT expert going to stay?
Invexi - a Phoenix, AZ based web design and web development company.
Sounds intriuging. I doubt that it'll be as big as the USB innovation, but if it even comes CLOSE it'll be amazing.
OTOH, it could just end up being an overpriced, dysfunctional way of just making things even more complicated.
We'll have to see...
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
well.. totally off-topic, but I followed an ad from that site to http://www.dynamism.com/ , and from there to http://www.dynamism.com/gp2x/
Sounds like a potentially cute device.. already runs linux, the developers have a wiki, they embrace open source and tinkering.. hmm(!)
This is all fine and good, but don't you think we should have hover cars by now? I want my hover car!
It's a hand twinkler, you dumbass! And I got a bag of whoopass for you!
I recall US based companies used to do this too (in the 50's?) Somewhere along the line they just stopped. In a way I think it's sad because to me it mean State side companies decided at some point dream of what future could hold isn't important anymore. Now it's always about near term profit, stock valuation, what will get the executives the fattest bonuses...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Haha! USB simply was taking a SCSI-type system and then lowering the speed to make a smaller cord.
Effectively the USB ID of each device connected is just like an auto-assigned scsi chain.
(With apologies to The Barenaked Ladies)
It seems like every few years, some tech company does a "home of the future." AOL's version was the "Home of the 21st Century" http://www.h21c.seas.gwu.edu/ done in conjunction with The George Washington University http://www.gwu.edu/ at the Virginia Campus. The technologies on display are always either *very* nice and high-end, or kludged together from off-the-shelf stuff. I'll be interested to see what the cool-factor on this is, though.
Fight psychopharmacological mccarthyism. http://www.norml.org/
we'll do your homework every night
it's really hard
that's why we got that stephen hawking
my god this house is freaking sweet
Family Guy
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
I'm sure the windows run Windows, while the fridge has various apple products.
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
In other news, Samsung responded by opening 'Housewife of the Future' showcase, featuring the usual raft of environmentally friendly products and a take on how to make women more usable for the graying societies of the future. Japanese noted, that actually they were the first ones.
As the race to future tightens, there has been rumours about Samsung R&D on next generation wives cloned from female college students, but this far prototypes haven't succeed...
House baby-proofs YOU!
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
I just got back from Tokyo where we visited Toyota's "Mega Web" building that is a cross betwen an auto dealership and a "world of tomorrow" exhibit. One entire section is devoted to the models and modifications of their cars that assist the handicapped and elderly.
They also had the outragous concept cars and transport devices such as the i-unit.
If you don't want to repeat the past, stop living in it.
what about a pet penguin and a daemon in the basement
...house contents address environmental impact, through the company's mysterious "Factor X," and usability, via intelligent design of device controls...
Intelligent design of device controls? I knew it! All along the purveyors of intelligent design have been in cahoots with Matsushita over Japanese control of the US school system.
Other than this text, there is no discernible information contained in this sig.
Someday my furnace, washer, dryer, water heater and security system will get an IP from my router. I'll be able to see off the router's homepage the status of my laundry, change the water heater's temp., etc. All this stuff could be in place by now, there's just no demand for it. Every one of these "homes of the future" events brings us a bit closer.
Don't worry, that blue you are seeing is just the sky.
It's a tough call - do developments like this merely improve life for already isolated old people, or do they make it easier (particularly on the conscience) to dump old people in isolated apartments with less and less social contact?
I'm torn between these two arguments. It's not like everyone treated old people warmly and integrated them into normal social life and then technology came along and messed it all up.
Finally, I'm dubious about how 'eco' all of these clean redesigns are. Visiting California, I'm always amused to hear about people with their new 'eco-mega-mansions' - big houses built really far from anywhere, at great expense, with lots of 'energy saving' features. They may save energy in the steady state - but the massive expenditure of energy and capital required to build them is significant. In a part of the world that isn't really experiencing much population growth, gadget-packed new developments (almost guaranteed to be obsolete and difficult in 10 or 20 years) probably aren't a very eco-friendly way to go (even if their theoretical characteristics in the 'steady state' look good).
HOUSE: ATTENTION DO NOT COPY THAT FLOPPY!
User: Floppy? What are you, stuck in 1986? This is a pizza you stupid computer.
(alarm sounds)
HOUSE: COPYRIGHT INFRINGMENT IN PROCESS!
STERILIZE AREA.
(gas seen escaping from windows - people screaming in background)
Yup, the future should be fun.
Welcome to the world of TOMORROW!
That every electronics manufacturer agrees to NEVER EVER make wall-wart power supplies ever again. Is it that much to include a standard plug a few inches long from the transformer? I don't want to have to buy bigger and bigger power strips to accomidate a flawed design. 3 years ago I bought an HP printer that had this implemented. Just a few months ago, I bought another HP printer that went back to the wall wart design.
And while we are at it, is it that hard to label the peripheral that goes to said wall-wart power supply? C'mon, make it easy for everyone.
Please. Otherwise, sell me a box of mini extension cords and labels.
The CBS article appears to be from 1999.
If you built the house of the future today with a high thermal mass material like concrete or compact earth, composting toilets, solar and wind turbine power, and grey water utilization...guess what? The bank won't finance it! Ha! It's the biggest inside joke in the real estate business.
If you built a sustainable house there won't be any comps for a house like that. No comps and that means the bank can't sell your paper to Fannie Mae, which means it won't end up at a discount aggregator like Washington Mutual or Wells Fargo. It would have to be a portfolio loan that the bank carries and there are damn few of those.
It can be done, but you either have to be rich enough to afford to finance it yourself, build it yourself with a builder's loan that the bank will end up carrying. And if you're going to sell it, you'd better be prepared to wait for a wealthy buyer or owner finance.
That's why we have row after row of surburban ticky-tacky houses that look exactly alike. With the same cheap, inefficient appliances, cracked foundations, uneven floors, sloppy drywall and doors that won't close right. Because everything in the real estate world is set up to work a certain way and if your house doesn't fit in that mold you have to put up the money. Building codes, home owners associations, comps, and financing are set up to do what they've always done and that's why houses still look pretty much like they did 100 years ago.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
This is exciting news. Perhaps Panasonic's US R&D division employees can use their Christmas bonuses to go visit the new facility.
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
Malvina Reynolds
1. Little boxes on the hillside,
Little boxes made of ticky-tacky,
Little boxes, little boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
2. And the people in the houses
All go to the university,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
And there's doctors and there's lawyers
And business executives,
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
3. And they all play on the golf-course,
And drink their Martini dry,
And they all have pretty children,
And the children go to school.
And the children go to summer camp
And then to the university,
And they all get put in boxes
And they all come out the same.
4. And the boys go into business,
And marry, and raise a family,
And they all get put in boxes,
Little boxes, all the same.
There's a green one and a pink one
And a blue one and a yellow one
And they're all made out of ticky-tacky
And they all look just the same.
Oh well, what the hell...
A large number of American houses of the future will look a lot like the trailor parks of today but with more expensive services. Urban living will probably be in high rise condos ala Hong Kong and a very small elite group will live in walled communities and or condos enjoying fabulous wealth and access to the latest technologies. They will pay dearly for security protection, clean water and reliable power. Mexico City would probably be a good indicator of where the average large American city is headed over the next twenty years.... provided the economy doesn't collapse first. As for the American Dream, it's still around, but it got outsourced to China!
The little boxes are still there. Still green, pink, blue, and yellow. In Daly City, California. And they're now very expensive little boxes, because they are in a beautiful location, overlooking the ocean and just south of San Francisco.
I guess the sky really IS falling!
Stupid drivers...
http://www.TheGamerNation.com/Forums
Houses today aren't really meant to last more than 50 years or so ... except for some high-rent districts with old well-built houses... houses are built to be remodeled or re-built evert 20 years or so now. Old houses were built based on the builder/owner's ability to afford good materials and craftmanship. Now almost everything is built of the cheapest materials and is marked up as high as possible. Most houses now are built by developers who then sell them to customers.
The last thing I need is getting a fatal error because the OS on my fridge had a fatal error and let the mayo get a little too warm. I don't trust windows to store my text-files, how do they expect me to entrust it with my foodstuffs?
Last Christmas, I was shopping for a cordless phone suited to my (old) parents, one was dedicated to older people, but it cost twice as much as other phones with less functionnality.
The only real improvement for older people was that it had less functionnality and had bigger buttons.
Somehow I wasn't ready to pay twice as much for bigger buttons.
My feeling is that the company doing it was way too greedy and treats older people as 'cash cow', barf.
I'll believe it when I see it. After watching the development of PCs, VCRs, etc. etc. etc. over the past twenty years I've come to the conclusion that tech companies are *incapable* of developing technology that's grandma-friendly. They fail to do granny-testing, and when grannies complain that they can't work X,Y,Z manufacturers blame the end-users. Not their products.