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What Would Be Your Ideal Futuristic Home?
deman1985 asks: "As the owner of a small commercial and home integration company, I'm exposed to a wide variety of customers with differing tastes and needs. I'll get requests for anything from the ordinary audio distribution systems and full home theater systems, to downright bizarre requests like having bubble baths run automatically, when they walk in the door. However, the vast majority of customers I encounter are not technologically inclined and are more interested in simplicity rather than impressiveness. What would your ideal integrated home look like? What's the most unique feature you would like to see? If you had access to an unlimited budget, what would you spend money on to make your home stand out? Whole-house audio? Hidden video screens? Automatic locks? Do most people view home integration strictly as a toy for entertainment, or is the technology ready for prime time?"
I love technology. My family has several laptops, desktops and we run a few servers as well. We have gadgets. But the thing about it all that bothers me, is that it is all dependent on the precarious infrastructure for power and telecom. I would love to have solar and wind power backup. I'd love to have redundant methods of communication, even going back to low-tech/old-tech radio systems. I'd also like to have local caches of reference materials such as wikipedia, about.com, CIA world factbook, etc. I'm not a survivalist freak, but I do find it painful when the power goes out for a few days at a time! It'd be nice to have some basic backups!
Helping with organizational effectiveness is our job.
I'd want a small home(1,500 - 2,000 sq.ft.) on plenty of land (4+ acres) with trees. The only electronics I'd want is something that blocks anything wireless so I can have some peace and quiet for once. Also, I'd have an excuse for why I wasn't pestered by any phone calls...I mean, why I didn't get someone's call.
Saturday is April 1. Slashdot will be shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
of the above. :-)
What happens when you ask a bunch of nerds and engineers to collaborate on a home design? You get the DUH: Dilbert Ultimate House (Professional Edition).
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
Ideal home integration? ... probably could do with a bit less.
Simplicity. Japanese style furniture, and few and selected furniture, and the stereos, hifi, etc would be simplistic as well. No TV - possibly a projector. Ideally Bose but any small and good sounding speakers, integrated with iPod. Integration with Airport Express should be easy - so can control the musics of all the rooms of the house by the computers (a few in different rooms or where needed).
Actually, for TV needs now the computers do fine - mostly viewing movies anyway, and some cartoons with eyeTV.
Lots of small lights in ceiling and on walls to get enough light on winter, and enough analog candles for the mood.
And simple materials to keep it all timeless - such as white walls, dark wood, some stone, some metal, and selected details in bright colors.
And the simplicity factor will make it more simple than now - there are 16 iPods in our house now
Breasts.
Xanadu of course. No, not that Xanadu. THIS Xanadu.
Just imagine! A home with a built in Apple II computer, where you can watch Xanadu in your kitchen on a 10" built-in screen! What could be better?
Xanadu, your neon lights will shine...
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I want bigscreen porn on every wall!
www.weberseite.at
I wouldn't want a complete turn-key solution, I'd want to have the infrastructure in place so that I could tinker as I chose.
My new house would have a wiring closet/server room that would be the electronic equivalent of the furnace/AC/water heater room. There would be racks and/or cabinets for various computers and A/V equipment. The room would be properly ventilated. The house would be wired to hell and back before walls went up.
Then leave me to my devices. I'll handle the rest!
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
I want one of those bases to belong to me.
A touch screen near the door that allowed me to walk in, and pick from a simple list of pre-programmed profiles for lights, music, and TV.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
As a Computer science Major, I would love a home with an inegrated network for all computers, home entertainment systems (including a projection screen), alarm and lock controls, clock alarms in every room, etc. I would love to be able to control my thermostat from any room in the house, while restricting access to my kids or whoever should not be messing with such controls. Of course, it has been a childhood dream of mine to own at least one secret passage, so I would find a place for one somewhere. But overall, the house must be hospitable. I would want people over lal the time to watch movies, hang out, do business, spiritual guidance, or whatever else. So I would need at least a couple of large lobby-like rooms, maybe a lot of basement space, etc. I would also want an electronically indexed library of books.
I find that although many people are liberal in beliefs, they are conservative in actions.
Oooo, I think I'm on to something here!
There was this builder on NPR a year ago. He builds house in Athens, GA. He figured out that if he left as many trees as he could on a property, he could sell the house for a premium. I just thought - "Uh, Duh!" Most GA builders just clear cut everything and plant weeds (i.e.a lawn).
Saturday is April 1. Slashdot will be shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I'd like my home to be a 1:1 scale mock-up of a Firefly class transport. But then I'm a nerd...
It's sad when choosing an installation directory on your own qualifies you as an "advanced user."
That way should I not like my neighborhood, I can move to a new one.
That and live like the turtles, taking my house with me as I visit places across the sea.
No matter what the house of the future would be like, it will need to have at least one room that is devoid of tehnology and gadgets (things like lighting and HVAC aside.) Specifically, no computers, Internet, TV, radio, etc.) It would be a room where you can sit and think, read, ponder, whatever, without the distractions and temptations of technology. A place where one could "focus"--reminding us we shouldn't completely rely on technology for everything. While I certainly love Techmology, there are times when I just have to get away from it for sanity sake.
-Jim
http://jimstips.com/
http://gmailtips.com/
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
What would be cool would be a home dug out of the side of a canyon.
Have a winding passage through the rock between every room.
Instead of wallpaper or monotonous single color walls, have a painted mural in every room from floor to ceiling.
Maybe a small underground stream flowing through the living room.
Oh, and one more thing -- the audio should automatically mute itself when the phone goes off hook, and unmute when the phone is hung up.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Considering that the first things I did when I moved into my house were to build a movie theater in the attic and wire the whole house for audio, video, and Internet, I'm definitely in your target market ;-).
Here are the things I would love to have but am too lazy to have actually gotten around to:
The ability to wirelessly stream TV from any of my DVRs to any of my laptops.
Ringing the doorbell should automatically pause any television, movies, or music playing and bring up the front (or side) door-cam
Similarly, video and audio should pause when the phone rings.
Be able to use any device in my house as the source for my whole-house audio-video system (currently only the devices in my living room system can function as sources).
I want a security system that allows me to check the status of my house (hopefully including seeing pictures) from an internet connection. I travel a lot, and it would make me feel better to be able to see that everything is okay.
And some general comments:
After playing around with a bunch of universal remotes, I can categorically state that the Home Theater Master MX-850 (Aeros) is my favorite. I have played with a bunch of high-end touchscreens like Crestrons, and actually have a HTM MX-3000 for my theater, but I find that the "wow!" factor is offset by the day-to-day reality that hard-buttoned remotes are easier to live with.
I don't give a rats' ass about having video screens hidden. I paid a lot of money for my plasma screens, and I'm perfectly okay with having people able to see them. However, while I don't want to hide them, I am perfectly okay with disguising them. I would love to have my main plasma framed so that it looked like a painting on the wall, and I think the ones that look like mirrors when they are off are awesome as well.
I do like to have video in unusual places. I have a high-def TV mounted over the master bathtub which can receive audio and video from the whole-house network. We don't use it very often, but it's great for escaping from reality for a little while. Similarly, I would like to eventually have a weatherproof TV mounted next to my hot tub.
I guess basically the bottom line is that I want to be able to get my video and audio from any device to any device easily. I am unfortunately very busy, and really don't have a lot of time to watch TV or movies -- so being able to fire up a recorded copy "The Simpsons" on my laptop (without the bother of downloading a torrent or ripping a DVD) would make it easier for me to enjoy those few minutes I do have.
Now, that said, I have no intention of actually work with a company like yours. I mean no offense, but in my experience, installation companies like to choose absolutely ridiculously expensive equipment and spend far too much time trying to maximize their profits. The simple fact is that in many cases white paint (cost: $20) provides a projection surface superior to even the much-vaunted Stewart Firehawk (cost: $thousands), and yet I don't think there is a theater company in the world that would actually admit that.
My screen (160" with an Infocus 7205) is white paint. Sherwin Williams Ultrapaint, to be precise. It looks like a real screen, because I have the projection surface framed off with duvetyne tape and the rest of the wall painted dark blue, and I have had very knowledgeable people comment that it's the best image they have ever seen. And it's just white paint. Similarly, my DVD player cost me $50. The output is completely and utterly indistinguishable from a $1500 Denon (and yes, we have run blind tests -- nobody could tell the difference). So I'm very jaded about the home theater industry in general.
ZFS: because love is never having to say fsck
First of all, we'll need an architect, we'll have to resurrect John Lautner.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I want a futuristic home that pays its own property taxes. that way i can live in it forever.
I love the idea of "green" backup power via wind and/or solar so that a power outage will no longer mean that I'm without PC/TV/fridge/water/etc. I'd like one of those flash water heaters, too, so that I only heat as much water as I need. And can I have windows that automatically adjust to the outdoor light level, with optional manual override? Oh, and I don't need carpets, so how about one of those cool radiant-heat under the floor systems?
I'm a EE senior specializing in controls and also working for a small scale home automation company. My senior design project is a built from scratch auomation system offering wireless light control, temperature control, and media (IR) control. It will also provide energy monitoring.
The fun part about the project is coming up with ways to intereact with the system. I want to make it as scalable and expandable as possible, allowing any hobbyist to add functionality as they choose. How would you readers like to interact with your house? Voice seems simplest and the least messy, but what creative ways would you enjoy interacting with your home?
I would love for my living room to look like the bridge of the Enterprise.
Windows that let sun in, but keep nosy people out.
...
...
... and has automated curtains
...
:)
Hidden passages throughout the house, including a tunnel or two!
An entertainment room that would put Imax to shame.
underground garage - - kinda like the old batman TV show, only without the bats and crimefighting tech
an open flow/feel to every common area (kitchen, living room, dining room, balcony, patio, etc )
BIG back yard with all the fixin's -- pool, play ground
Small race track for bikes or minicars around said BIG yard (10+ acres)
helicopter pad (and helicopter of course)
just about every form of anti-spying technology possible. If you want to peek, ya gotta come to the front door.
gates encompassing the entire front yard to keep people out from asking about my house. w/cameras, electrified fence, dogs, etc
elevated lake side view
Gotta have a sun room
Bed room that has nearly 360 degrees of windows (see ideal window above)
voice activated everything. Stove, TV, stereo, computer, doors
im sure there is more, but that is just off the top of my head
One that's paid for in full. Just a future goal, not a futuristic one.
Constitutionally Correct
I think I would like to live in a modernist prefab home like the ones listed here. The shipping container home looks damn cool too.
given that global warming will cause many to disappear, and that the resulting ice age will make such warm properties to be very disirable.
Oh, with beautiful women, natch.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Obviously.... it would have to have a secret passage and a bat cave!
I'm with you! That's exactly what I'm talking about.
The only thing that has me a little hesitant about solar is that you have to cut down enough trees so that enough sunlight can hit the panels on your roof. I like having the trees close to the house to shade the sun (especially during Summer) to help keep the house cool. There are trees that have plenty of leaves during the Summer to shade the house and they defoliate for the Winter letting the Sun in for the heat. But, what's the effect on the panels? Or is it a moot point?
Saturday is April 1. Slashdot will be shut down. Sorry for the inconvenience.
I'm sorry, that trademark was registered by me in 1980. please desist from using it, or under DRM, I'll have to take possession of your dream home and have you pay for my lawyer to replace it with a substandard lot on a garbage dump.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
I'm in Alberta Canada. My heating bill (natural gas) is $200-$300 month in the Winter and I live in a relatively new, well insulated (I've checked) home. It's no wonder I need a high wage to keep alive compared to people living in more temperate climes :-)
If I could live on $10,000 per year, I would (Simple living)...but I can't mainly because of the high cost of keeping warm. (my single family house property taxes are also $2,000/year to pay for all the city services in a much-too-huge, much-too-spread-out city.
Get rid of all garages too so that we can get rid of cars. People have to take either public transit, bike, or walk.
If I had enough time to rebuild and do it right... Triple pane glass, better furnace "zones", and insulation up the wazoo.
Thomas
As EVERY good geek shold know Alton Brown shold design the kitchen to be mulitasked, and well hacked.
There are lots of things I could do today that I can't afford to. For instance, I'd love to be able to put a bunch of wireless cameras throughout the house that can be remotely activated and viewed on a handheld. That would allow my wife to keep an eye on our kids without having to search through the house every time. But even though a cheapo webcam is $40, such a configuration would cost thousands with the products that are available on the market.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
1) The entire house being a Faraday Cage would be very nice. I'm not sure how hard it would be to build it perfectly without doing silly things like getting rid of windows, but it shoud be possible to get one that is substantially intact. With the prevalance of wireless *everything* nowdays, I enjoy being able to keep it all on the outside. Probably do good things for my risk of getting cancer and whatnot too. (and becomes an eternal cellphone black-out zone as an added bonus...)
2) Shielded power supply that keeps electronic stuff from interfering with each other.
2b) UPS protected power supply wired in for a small range of "essential" stuff, and for those things that really shouldn't be at the mercy of power fluctuations and what not. Along the lines of a single pair of plugs per room (using different colored plugins to differentiate)
2c) Alternate power supplies: Whether it be solar panels, a small wind turbine, or whatever, something would be good. Understandably, it might not be able to keep the entire house running, but it'd be good to have *something*, anyway.
3) Phone and network jacks in every room. Standard phone jack, and whatever one desires as a network interface for that. But one port for each in every room, and all wired into a nice spot for a router. In my case, I'd want it on a shelf out of the way in my comp area where I could still see it/acces it, but it'd never get in the way.
4) Alternate heating: If at all possible, solar water heater tank, maybe even full scale solar heating. If local terrain permits, geothermal heating/cooling. The fridge could be tied directly into the later, making the kitchen quiter and reducing inefficiencies in the system. (heat inside the fridge isn't stuck into the area immidiadly surrounding it to warm it up again)
5) Good, variable, lighting: Sometimes I like to have bright lights illuminating everything, sometimes I don't want anything more than indirect gentle lighting. Likewise, the option to let good large amouts of natural light in would be a deffinite plus, although the blinds or covers would also be desired. I'm not a fan of those big glass houses with zero-privacy.
6) At least two exterior doors, on opposite sides of the house from each other. Not that I feel the need to always have escape options, but sometimes I may just need to leave the house in the opposite direction of the front door, for whatever reason. That, and I like having equally easy access to both front and back yards.
6b) That being said, having at least one door being wheelchair accessible would be nice. I don't have very many friends in wheelchairs, but should I invite them over, I'd like at least the public part of my house (aka living room, dining room, entryway, and a bathroom) to be accessible. Note that doesn't necesarily require that the house have each of those as seperate rooms (depending on budget and design, the first three could very well be a single room). And as far as that goes, if chance should happen that I am in a wheelchair for some reason, I'd like to be able to live in at least part of my house without problem.
7) Garages: A garage is optional, I don't really see much need for one, unless I'm located out of town a long ways or need to comute long distances for some other reason. But a half-sized garage would be nice, about the right size for a couple bicycles or a motorcycle... Regardless, though, the garage should NOT be a central feature in the house. All those houses that look like someone designed a garage and stuck a house on the back look, quite honestly, extre
Z
Moonbase Alpha
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
I've spent quite a lot of time thinking about this recently, as I'm getting ready to move out of a condo, into a house.
I'd like a house which is relatively self-sufficent: grid connected is fine, but I want solar/wind/hydro backup power, and a good battery bank so when the power lines go out, I can keep reading without having to dig out the candles. Something that's cheap to heat would be a plus, too: either high insulation values, or good passive-solar heating, or, more ideally, both. Sustainable heating would be a tremendous plus: either wood, or a multi-fuel furnace.
Built in conduit for running whatever the networking preference of the week is would be nice, as well as an electrical system that can handle a few additions to the house.
Oh, and one other thing: it needs to look like a HOUSE. Not a flying saucer. Not a pile of concrete. Not a space-ship, a dinosaur, or a giant fuzzy pumpkin. A house.
If you're in the market for a futuristic dream home, you should probably take a look at Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion House:
http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/opening.html
(It's a shame they never went into large-scale production)
-PHr3N371K
I programmed one of my servers to notice if I'm logged on to the computer at work. If I am then it relaxes the temperature setpoint. When it sees me log off it returns the setpoint to normal so that the house is comfortable when I get home.
I don't have to do anything special; it simply notices whether I'm online at work or not and reacts accordingly.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
All other considerations are secondary. Crew expendable.
It's not even rubble anymore. It took them a day to bulldoze it, and another two to cart the trash (i.e. the entire house). If you've ever seen one of these sad, fibreglass visions of the future, you will thank the powers that be they never caught on. I think the guy made a few bucks touting them to the tourists as something to see but, couldn't have been much.
"If you had access to an unlimited budget, what would you spend money on to make your home stand out? "
Everything in my power to make it NOT stand out. I want the benefits of high-tech with the clean living of low-tech. One of my favorites are the speakers that you install in your walls, and then pain over the fronting when you paint your walls. Totally invisible, and great for playing pranks on unsuspecting houseguests.
The only constraint on everything being hidden would be that everything needs to be easily accessible for tinkering/servicing.
My biggest pet peeve, however, is the control systems for a lot of home electronics setups. I don't want to have to access my PC to change the thermostat setting, nor do I want to have a ridiculous remote or set of remotes. I would like to be able to control everything via my cell phone or PDA, locally or remotely.
Finally, I want an army of fembots at my disposal, along with a place to store them.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
One where the mortgage has a stamp on it that reads, "Paid in Full".
(28 years and 3 months from now, I'm gonna tell the bank to KMA!)
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
would be designed by someone who knows what she is doing.
(The link is safe to click. T'was the first hit at google.)
"All you have to do is be fragile and grateful. So stay the underdog." Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
Damn I left 'Year's Best SF 2' in my locker at work, but I owe this vision to the one of the writers, author of 'Bicycle Repairman':
It'll be like a trailer/cargo van, suspended from the ceiling of an abandoned skyscraper/abandoned hi-rise with cables, but you can raise or lower the box at will if you want to accept visitors, by means of a button (or throw switch). THe residence was hoisted by this group of urban climbers called the City Spiders. A hole was blasted on the side of the building, to let it through.
Inside I will have all the tech I need. One room will look like Tank's control center, with cables and articulated swingarms, not just for monitors but for assorted beverages/snacks. Another will be nice and clean with a work center having a skylight. Think IonStorm's cubicle in that Dallas tower.
Once in a while Jessica Alba would show up. But then the batteries for the holographic image would sputter and fizz.
A company named Hidden Passageway recently came to my attention/
The integrated house always comes down to "lots of televisions, audio and remote controls."
I always wonder why people don't shoot for hi-tech that is truly integrated, mostly hidden and mostly about efficiency, not bling. Say, smart, zoned HVAC, super-efficient insulation and windows (say, even the LCD dimmable variety)--and to that effect, just a general attention to using advanced materials, design and techniques in the construction of the building itself, not just more gizmos in a standard sheetrocked McMansion.
It would be simple and not overcomplicated, with no actual automation, but with consideration toward future improvement. Initially, it would have:
Later on:
From wikipedia's Slashdot article
* Article summaries with typos, mis-leading titles, or errors. * The presence of articles that many consider to be thinly veiled advertisements. These articles usually receive a large number of trolling comments, including insults towards the editors. * The posting of articles which report trivial research, long established facts, popular gossip, or blatant pseudo-science. Experts on the topic often criticize such stories with lengthy, insightful tirades.Suudsu, that stuff is G-E-W-D.
I'd want my home completely off the grid. That way I can keep my meat refrigerated after Armageddon.
--b
How about a video distribution system where you carry an RFID "key" with you and as you move from room to room, the TV/stereo in the one you just left turns on and the one in the room you entered into turns on and tunes itself to the station/dvd/whatever you were watching in the other location - so you can keep watching as you move about doing other things.
I'd love to have a system which would turn lights on/off ahead/behind me that's smart enough to know that if I was just in my bed to keep things dim, but could be overridden at any lightswitch.
-V
... "I read part of it all the way through." -- Movie Mogul Sam Goldwyn (and some slashdot readers)
Realtor: This is the Hot Chicks Room. The breakfast table's just over this way...
Wife: Excuse me? What was that room again?
Realtor: Oh, this is the Hot Chicks Room. It's filled with assorted hot chicks, who party in here 24 hours a day. But you'd be more interested in the kitchen.
Wife: You know what? We're not going to need a sexy chicks room.
Realtor: Well, actually it's a Hot Chicks Room.
Wife: Well, whatever it is, we don't need it.
Husband: You said the same thing about the microwave, and we use that darned thing all the time.
[to realtor]
Husband: So, a Hot Chicks Room, huh?
Realtor: Yeah. The previous owner installed the room in the 80's, and I'll be honest with you, some of the chicks aren't all that hot anymore. However, they are replacable.
Ethernet to every room.
Spare cables to every room.
Triple coax from the roof to the living room, for satellite dish and local antenna. (I had to arrange extra coax myself, and it was a pain.)
Hookups in the bathrooms for Toto washlets.
Passive motion / IR sensors in every room to switch lights off after a while if there's nobody in the room, and turn down the heating or AC.
Bath with thermostatic control and fill sensor. Set temperature, it fills itself and then chimes when it's ready.
Panel in house that indicates outdoor temperature, weather forecast for the day, whether there's something in the mailbox and whether the mailbox flag is up. Option to have the mailbox chime.
Server closet with good ventilation.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
I would love to have some sort of integrated control center. I want to be able to turn off the bathroom's plug-in in case my girlfriend left her curling iron on. I want to see the state of the oven and how long that turkey has been cooking. As devices get smarter, it would be nice to have some sort of standardized plug-in protocol where each device exposed certain, adjustable properties. -- Jim http://www.runfatboy.net/
In all seriousness, the biggest things in an automated home for me are (mostly existing technologies):
Rooms that dimly light when I come in the room if it is night outside the home.
Comfort zones of a home that are not hard to manage (something like each room is thermostatically controlled, and is allowed to have priority/override concerns).
Extremely flexible and easy to alter/maintain networking throughout the house (means: wired networking, not wifi (necessarily))
A household door that can be opened with a key fob (or maybe with some secure hardware thing) (with a physical override from within the house);
All seriousness aside, I do want a new-age garage that makes {safely!} parking my floating and flying car a breeze (this is the future, right?)
A Passionate Independent Musician
I was thinking about how much water is wasted each morning waiting for the shower to get to the right temperature, and it occurred to me that much of that water could be saved if the temperature could be set before turning on the water. The interface could be as simple as 4 buttons: (On/Off, C/F, Warmer, Colder) and a display just large enough for a 2 digit number representing the temperature. After the first time you set it, you know what temperature you like your shower to be at, and on each subsequent shower, you only need to press any button to activate the display, then the up/down arrow to adjust the temperature, and the On button to turn on the water once you have confirm that its at the correct temperature. I know nothing about plumbing, so I'm not sure how it would actually work, but you would at least be able to get rid of those unsightly knobs and have a flat wall there. Am I dreaming, or is this possible?
Reality has a liberal bias
some of the things I would like to have in my techno-house:
:)
Dimmable windows (LCD panels with varying opacity). This would be king in the summer, if you could regulate the amount of sunshine entering the room, thus cutting solar heating in summer.
E-ink wallpaper. This is something I don't think will be aviable for a while, but this is an idea I really like. This need not be high-res picture wallpaper, simply blocks of "screens" that can change color depending on mood/lighting/etc.
Media that follow me around the house. This is already implemented in some smart-home solutions (Pluto, Where you can use your bluetooth enabled pda/cell as a "locator" that tracks you through the house, making your light/climate/media follow you around the house.)
"smart" sharing between computers. This is probably where upnp-av is supposed to be, but it's not there yet. I would like to have all media (movies/pictures/music etc) on all the trusted computers on my lan aviable throug one single interface, not having to mess with interoperability between oses and so on. Just push a "Show all movies on network" should show all the movies on the network. You could make some kind of tagging system to mark movies private/public and the like (smart move for pr0n collection
The one and most important thing - compatibility. I love it when things simply works. Some times it great to tinker, some times it's great for things just to work as they are intended.
Doolittle :
Bomb no.20 : To explode of course.
At first glance, I thought the title was "What Would Be Your Ideal Funeral Home?"
In an instant, I thought, Well, I guess I would start by making sure there are no medical chop shops hidden in the walls...
This sig, aah-ah, is comin' like a ghost-sig...
comfortable :-)
lots of light
energy efficient
quiet
easy to run wires between rooms and under floors (speaker wire, ethernet, etc.)
multiple outputs on every wall for ethernet and power
ability to change the reflectivity or transmissiveness of windows to block out excess sunlight
lots of plants, inside and outside. Outside plants should be old growth - don't cut down all the trees on the property to build it.
sound proof, cool room for servers and other electronics
lots of storage
lots of closet and shelf space
runway landing lights in the garage
RFID house key
multi-zone climate control
rooms with good acoustics for home theatre equipment
large kitchen with granite counters
open, spacious floorplan
unobtrusive displays in every room
I want my home to feel like a home, not some crazy science experiment or an office building offshoot.
As such I am already in the process of buying my next home.
the most advanced features, multiple zones for my heating and cooling. Sure I will have the atypical security system and such and a bunch of florescent (sp?) lighting in place of incandescents. The point being, I go home to escape the technology of my day to day life. It is my refuge from reality.
As such, my TV is confined to a room I rarely go to. Same for my PC. The biggest reason I use my PC now is to play DVDs while I exercise.
Honestly, too many people are wasting their lives on tech outside of work. My favorite tech is having a nice easy to maintain house and landscape. It is seeing what will grow outside to provide year round color. I get all the tech I need at work. It can stay there too.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I want to be able to turn a knob and set how much light gets through the windows. I want this per window, with a master for each wall, a master for each room, and a master for the house.
I *don't* want my appliances to talk to me. Save that for Disneyland. Or blind people. Or people much geekier than me.
A greenhouse style back porch with variable tint windows as above, plus the ability to push a button to open or close the windows, preferably directionally (like vertical blinds) to either catch or block breezes. Full climate control for when the weather's lousy. I'd actually like a small one of these off the master BR, and a larger one that goes the full back of the house. Hot tubs in each, at floor level, with retractable lids that look like the floor and are sturdy enough to jump or dance on.
How about an indoor lap pool?
Everything else I thought of off the top of my head has been mentioned (audio/video/data everywhere, etc).
Except...
If you can get me a positronic core to run the house, complete with holgram that follows me around when I want to talk with it, but that *won't* end up with a misguided savior complex, so much the better.
regardless of how they intrude - phone calls, at the door, or thru ./
I had another sig before, but this one is better
If you think the Stewart screens are a rip off, but you still want something with a higher gain than white paint, check out Screen Goo. Judging from the DIY slant of rest of your post, I think it would be right up your alley.
I want a condo that shares a wall with the Playboy mansion, with glory holes for each floor.
Rather than assume it's a "futuristic" home, I'd approach it from "how technology can enhance your lifestyle."
:-)
:-)
I live on a small hobby farm and I like the "low tech" feeling of living here, even though the entire house is wired for Cat5e. So...
- Excellent cordless phone/intercom system. Cell reception sucks out here and in summer we'll be outside a lot. Nice to be able to control external lights from the phone.
- Good audio that's also unobtrusive. I want quality speakers that I can put in the wall in the game room, or at least blend into the wall color. A music server is a must (gotta finish building mine!).
- Nice sized plasma monitors: 42" is about the largest that will fit my living room without looking clunky. I like the idea of putting it in a frame.
- Windows that can dim electronically (LCD?): my living room has huge east-facing windows and the sun streams in during the morning (good). But it shines directly on the best spot for a TV (bad) and since we love the view, we have no intention of covering the windows with drapery.
- Remote lighting control. I use X-10 and all its annoyances. I want something better.
- Security system: nah, got two large dogs
- Driveway lighting that detects *our* vehicles coming and turns on at night.
Good topic! It reminds me I have a lot of stuff to get done
If my car has it why not my house - after all - the house cost 10 times more than my car!
an Orgasmatron!!!!
Doors. I want doors that do not take up square footage.
Something so blindingly obvious that architects and builders are completely oblivious to it...
Doors that slide into the walls. No, they don't have to make the whooshy sound like Star Trek, nor do they have to be automatic.
They just need to NOT take up MY space.
Additional benefits:
-Security. You think a measly little lock can keep a door shut? Try using 6 to 8 inches of door still inside the wall on both sides of the transom as security. Much better.
-Flexibility. Hey, we've got room inside the wall for more than one door! Why not have 2? A 'secure' door, and a 'pretty' door?
-Functionality. I don't want to have to design the interior of my home (furnishings, etc.) around the space that is occasionally occupied by open doors. The doors don't pay rent. I do.
Hemingway design. Less is sometimes a lot more.
(Now that I have your attention, feel free to joke about shotguns.)
Jefferies Tubes!
(I've always wanted to build a designer home out of things like shipping containers, all buried in a hill and with Jefferies tubes throughout.)
One with a fully functional fem-bot!
I'm actually building a house at this very moment. It has almost no tech stuff in it. I'm relying totally on wireless for all the internet stuff and I'm not wiring it for speakers... airtunes can handle that. It will have a generator power back up and I will probably put in wind power at some point as we're right on the top of a hill. The problem with most tech infrastructure is that it outdates reeeeeally fast.
I'm not wrong. You haven't thought about it hard enough.
What I'd like to see in a home is interoperability between "smart appliances".
If my fridge has the ability to tell me its internal temperature, I'd like to have a way to query it. And ideally, I'd like something similar to query my home's thermostat, water heater, etc.
The problem with these "smart homes" is that they often seem to rely on a single vendor having a "home automation solution" rather than a system I can plug into.
What I want is something akin to Wi-Fi or bluetooth + XML-RPC
1) you always grow out of your home until you have kids and they leave for college.
2) home values go up, mostly.
so, buy the biggest house you can afford, a little ways from the edge of surberbia. You will grow into it, and you will make more money over the long run.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I am impressed with the replies to this thread. I thought it would be all tech ideas and home entertainment filled homes, but there are lots of small, simple, and lo-tech type homes on peoples' wish lists.
In the past, I lived aboard my "own" sailboat like someone mentioned wanting to do. Living on the water is a good way to live, I think everyone needs to experience this at least once in their lifetime. Living close to the water keeps one more in contact with nature. The purchase of a sailboat is way cheaper than buying a home or even a new car for that matter.
I have no desire to "own" a home. I do not rent. Perhaps this not for everyone but when I need to sleep, I sleep in one of these: http://www.hennessyhammock.com/
My futuristic house would be a wikiup, teepee or hobbit hole, or a mix of the three. So nice would it be to not have to worry about pagers and cell phone.
Now, if only Kashmir could solve its political problems...
Pining for the fjords
I want a house like Bilbo Baggins or the Teletubbies.
(Would feel just like Moms basement too)
Much of this is possible now if you get a good wireless router. The ones that or like 108mbps or above or the pre n stuff. I saw this wireless speaker in a store that is much like the sharper image that is wireless and sounds better then a lot of the more expensive ones and it only $150 dollars. You can get wireless video cameras for under $100 dollars and now you can get fast wireless cards for your desktop witch are pretty fast too. I have a laptop and thats all I need besides my desktop. i can go anywhere in the house with full speed on my 15/2 cable conenction. all I want is solar panels or a generator , a wood stove, and wireless speakers. the one I mentioned has a handle on it and can be bought with you.
The Monsanto House of the Future from once upon a time at Disneyland is the place I've always wanted to live -- even if not at Disneyland itself. To this day I still think about trying to get someone to recreate the showers with all the water jets in the walls.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
There are a lot of interesting tips for up-and-comers. The site could be anywhere from a missile silo to a private island.
A hybrid system consisting of solar and power lines, the roof and exterior walls as solar panels (that actually look like siding and shingles) which can provide energy to batteries in the attic in turn powers built-in home stuff like air/heat exchangers, hot water boilers etc... and maybe heat coils under the driveway and steps to keep the ice down in the winter. Any extra sun power is fed back into the grid and discounted on your power bill. Genetically modded grass/turf that is resilient to common pests and grows to a certain height house windows which can display information about the rooms, such as current temp, optimal lighting and has touch "window" controls for room settings...and an off switch. ability to hang and adjust artwork without having to puncture the wall or use adhesive a good alternative to concrete foundations that resist shifting and cracking over time
The location is very much up for grabs, but that's another issue. In terms of our "dream home", which is what we hope to build, It will have a good southern exposure. The southern side will have a glazed area for heating the home in the winter and helping with an indoor garden. The rest of the house will be hyperinsulated - R50 or better. A full basement with a solar powered fan to pull cool air out of it and dump it on top of the ground floor to cool during the summer.
The roof will be covered with PV hooked up to the grid, so we can sell juice to the utility during the day, and then make some "withdrawals" in the evening. Central heat would be largely unnecessary, but on VERY cold days, we'd have one of those super effficient wood stoves. The lot would be wooded, and we would replace any trees we cut for heat. The well water would have its own solar powered pump that would fill a tank when necessary. It doesn't have to pull huge amounts at once - jsut a little bit, constantly, to fill the tank.
And that's what we want to build.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Lots of good ideas here that I would like to integrate, but what I REALLY want is verbal integration with the house network.
"Computer, lights 50%"
"Computer, play album, Pink Floyd - Wish You were here"
"Computer, make phone call, number: 808 555 1234"
"Computer, start expersso machine"
"Computer, find web site, wikipedia dot org, search term : geek"
R.
1) I don't work for Insteon but I appreciate their support. 2) I'm tired of X10 and their lack of support 3) so far Insteon works better than X10 I've started using Insteon and Insteon products. I still need to do a lot of work on the code to make it work under Misterhouse but I'm much more comfortable with the quality of the products than I am with X10's products.
Neil Cherry - Linux Smart Homes For Dummies
I was afraid you might have meant THIS Xanadu.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Who needs technology anyway.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
..."efficiency" isn't about cheap. I just find it funny that people spend so much energy thinking about where else they can shove some more A/V equipment, rather than think about broader aesthetics.
So, save the unfounded socioeconomic bluster.
The home I would like to see would have minimal dependency. That's right. A home that runs by itself without the need for a large infrastructure to maintain it. This would mean that it gathers its own energy from the sun and wind and geothermal. Electronic dependency would be minimized. I recently installed motion detector switches in the upstairs hall way which is convenient but really are superfluous. Wireless internet connection for communication would minimize the need for cables and connection services. BUT increases one's dependency upon chip manufacturers and and sofware designers. In my opinion less is more. We need to do more walking.
there were no republicans or democrates or religous fanatics trying to force their views on me!
1. A ubiquitous sensor network that feeds a pattern analysis engine. It would be able to identify who is doing what and under what context. It would differentiate between smoke from the fireplace as you were trying to start a fire and smoke from an unoccupied room. It would see that you forgot to turn on your alarm clock on a Wednesday night, and that the following day is not scheduled as a day off, and arm the alarm clock for you. There wouldn't be a distinct security system, but a overall sensor system that performs security functions as well as domestic management functions.
2. Energy usage optimizing systems. It would know that certain rooms are less frequently occupied and tune HVAC to keep these areas comfortable during periods of expected activity. It would automatically power low-level nighttime lighting when kids wake up in the middle of the night so they can see where they're walking without throwing on full-power illumination. HVAC, lighting and other infrastructure would give you only what you need, only when you need it, and only where you need it.
3. Integrated information management. It would keep a family schedule and keep forgetful husbands from screwing up planning. It would let me know when I'm about to blow a milestone for getting airfare booked. It would track all the precursor requirements for an event and help me stay on track. It would adjust automatically to an email from my mother saying she got sick and we should postpone a visit before I have the chance to check my email myself. It should handle dinnertime phone calls for me and not let the phone ring. If it looks like I'm going to forget to take out the garbage, I'd appreciate a gentle reminder.
4. Alert differentiation. If the dog gets in the garbage and no one happens to notice, fido should get a little jolt from his collar. If the baby exits the crib on her own power, I should get woken up. If there's some knucklehead teenager putting a ladder against my daughter's windowsill, I should get a different warning than if there's a knucklehead trying to get himself shot by breaking in through the back door. Not everything warrants a screaming siren, and when that screaming siren goes off I need to tell me what the problem is.
5. Integrated Context-sensitive Intelligent Agents. I don't have the time to watch everything. Keep an eye on things and give me a summary, or let me know sooner if it's impact is more than informational.
I think I'd most like a house with an A.I. system that I can just speak to in any room to have any feature of the house activated. That would be sweet!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I don't know why so few homes do this. Simple changes that quickly pay off in energy savings are often overlooked. Heck, even turning our house 90 degrees would have made it a more efficient layout. Proper window sizing and placement, awnings designed for the proper winter/summer shading angle like you suggest, insulation and attic vents are all things that any home should have-- leaving them out of the design is just lazy.
Other than that, I just want a simple, clean design with a layout that has some flexibility left for future demands. (wiring conduits, etc...)
The real problem with what you want is that the water sits in the pipes, so you have to wait for older water to be flushed out by the warm water behind it.
So in order to have hot water truly on demand, the old water has to go somewhere - why not back to the water heater? You could design all your heated plumbing to be able to be looped back to the hot water heater and a pump to circulate it, so you could have a constant warm flow to tap into.
That would require more insulation and even then be less efficient, so you'd probably still want to combine that with a timer for shower uses. A side effect is that you could also have the loopback pipes run under your bathroom floor and heat the floor for you while it was warming up the system, or possibly chill it in the summer by having it circulate cold water instead.
Basically the system just involves a lot of extra pipes, and possibly a somewhat larger water heater to handle the extra load of heating the returned water.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
What is the purpose of asking questions like these when a simple house (you know, walls made of GP pressed paper product, wall-to-wall shag carpet and all) takes 50% or more of one's income in most places to pay for.
First I'd like the basic infrastructure set up so that I can add/upgrade/remove technology as I see fit to any room. I think two network connections, and audio/video in every room should do it. Though I would like audio speakers in every room also. This would all need to be tied into a central wiring closet.
Second is that I would love to have the house inteligent enough to know who and where I am. A small wireless handset that I could carry around would do the trick. I would want that handheld to run everything such as the stero in one room, and the TV/Tivo in the next, to the satalite radio set up. Also all of the extra things like lights.
This would allow the unit to turn on the lights as I enter the living room, turn on the TV, and change it to the same channel I was just watching in my bedroom.
From there, the handheld should have a host of features. Start the oven, and let me know when it's ready. Ring me when someone's at the front door, and let me see who it is by the wireless camera. Double as a phone whould be nice. Move music from room to room as I walk around would be nice. At as an intercom if I need to speak to someone when I'm upstairs and their in the basement. And several other things i can't think of right off the top of my head.
I like simple tech that integrates seamlessly into my home's environment. Wires running around all over the place, complex systems which require engineers to support, stuff like that doesn't get me going.
I think I'm a bit more tech savvy than most of the people I associate with, and even I look for simplicity of use and seamlessness of integration as a first priority. There was a time when I craved power and sacrificed reliability - no longer. I don't bother overclocking my computers these days, or throwing superchargers in my cars, or modifiying anything for a small performance boost over long term reliability.
I also think it's important to understand that personal taste plays a significant role. I think home integrators might want to start looking at incorporating design elements into their installs and moving a step beyond just installing the tech - to designing the furnishings and selecting the decor style as well.
Furthermore, simple package deals involving simple easily comprehendable compnents offered by a integrator will go a long way to resolve some of the confusion consumers have when looking at home integration - and likely help supress the ambivalence associated with 'can my wife make it work?'
Any home not in Florida. My state sucks.
Any home which cost less than $2,000,000 would be my ideal futuristic home.
Two Words:
Bender's Closet
A hot tub with a weatherproof 30" Cinema HD Display and a waterproof keyboard and mouse sitting on top of a little mini-desk, that works, so I can sit in my hot tub and hack out some code.
cat
Dude.
Adopt me.
i am mostly done, having remodeled my house, and made it as "ultimate nerdly" as i could afford...so here is what i did 1. an alarm system, with X10 and remote administration and monitored over the POTS phone...(make sure you put the phone line in a hardened steel pipe, to your demarc) 2. the POTS, cable, cameras, and ethernet are all terminated in a structured wire panel, where the 66 blocks, and cable splitters reside...the ethernet passes through a box, to my office, and thusly equipment racks and a 48-port panel for the ethernet...additionally, the camera wires goto a PVR 3. most if not all of the intergration of systems happens in my office, and on a rack, so routers and access points, switches/hubs, patch panel, asterisk server, etc. is all in the same place.... 4. every room has multiple ethernet, and CAT5E even for the phone jacks, as well as cable TV (DO NOT do a "house wrap" like the cable company lazily loves to do...garbage!) so the rooms have access to cable TV, the POTS line AND/OR a SIP phone, internet ETC 5. every room has alarm sensors, and more important rooms have infrared sensors...the gun safe has a sensor, as well as a 600lb magnet, to keep it closed without a code 6. the computer room aka office has 240volt twist lock circuits, and batterys galore 7. the media computers are touchscreen driven...sure you could stream it over the ethernet, but hard drives are cheap, and multiple backups are a good thing (dont wanna lose, that which was "stolen" from the RIAA) the master bedroom, as well back patio, family room, living room, and offices (his and hers) have audio wired for surround sound via bose speakers, and the main media stereo can pump music in several rooms... 8. the main TV as well as the master bedroom have coaxial to the security cameras, to watch the outside world...everywhere else can use the network 9. ceiling fans have remote controls, thermostats and X10...and the lightswitches are X10 that is about it? maybe im forgetting something...but, you get the idea? well, that is all that comes to mind?
What kind of engineer makes a house of nothing but curved rooms?
What are you supposed to put your furniture up against?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
the cleaning and cooking is done by my Stepford wife.
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
You store the fembots in the Hot Chicks Room.
g ade
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Upright_Citizens_Bri
Eloi are stupid, throw morlocks at them!
This 1952 Popular Mechanics article shows science fiction author Robert Heinlein's house of the future. He designed it himself, and it had such futuristic accoutrements as a hifi that could be piped to any room in the house. There was also a bomb shelter.
Find free books.
this -- with an OC-3 line...
Just junk food for thought...
Automatic lights on/off. If I'm in a room, I want to see what I'm doing, otherwise, save some power, dammit.
All my books digitized, and detachable reading screens everywhere, so I can read any book I own in any room of the house.
Automated laundry. I drop clothes down a chute. A scanner (or possibly RFID reader) determines color and compositon, and as soon as there's enough of one type to was and dry them, does so.
Voice-controlled grocery list. I look in the fridge. I notice we're out of carrots. I say "We need carrots!", and it's added to a list. I push a button to get a hardcopy. (I don't want it to order groceries for me, because then I'd never discover this week's new flavor of Doritos...)
It will be constructed either under the ocean or inside a live volcano. And of course there will be a pit containing sharks with FREAKIN LASERS!!
I would like all kinds of security, but discreet. Motion sensors all over the place, window and door sensors. My favorite extra would be some kind of status on open or closed doors and locks. We have five exterior doors in our house, and I would love to know at a glance if the bolts have been locked on all of them.
The funny thing is I'm not paranoid, and until I had kids, I couldn't have cared less. Stuff is stuff.
Remote monitoring and control of the house systems - temperature, blinds, lights - would be super cool.
And of course, network throughout the house, and even though I wired ours, we're using wireless almost exclusively. I'll think of something to do with all that Cat 5 cabling...
And all this should be as unobtrusive as possible - if not invisible.
Laugh while you can, monkey-boy.
I'd want a home that can live off the grid first and foremost. It should have a clean water supply nearby that doesn't depend on a utility provider. It should have a septic system that can use a "mound" to filter the untreated sewage water back into the ground. It would have appliances that are very energy efficient, and can run off of wind and solar power generators. The insulation would be natural fibres, with fireproofing protecting them. There would be hardwood floors to reduce dust collection in carpets, and reduce static discharges too. I need an obsrvatory in an unobstructed backyard, or on the "3rd" floor attic, with a power outlet for my red light and telescope motor and laptop. The house would be wired so I don't need to use wireless for anything but my laptop or wifi camera. There's a phone on every floor wired to the wall so they can't go missing or drain of power. The heat from drain water is reclaimed, and the heating and cooling system is a heat pump, shuttered windows, and large deciduous trees in the south yard behind a firebreak. There are CO detectors, especially beside the grain stove and attached garage. The living room has retractable exercise mats, and a large TV which can display my computer's screen by wireless remote and keyboard/mouse. The radio equipment is also extensive, and is broadcast capable on most bands for an emergency. The kitchen still has a dinner table, and the stove and oven both work on electricity and natural gas depending on which commodity is available for less money. There is a Star Trek-esq intercom system in the kitchen and on each floor, but not in the bathrooms or bedrooms, so that you can announce you want the intercom to connect to X room, and not have to press a start button. To reply, the other person says a keyword and then their reply. There are no computer terminals in the bedrooms, since a laptop can be used on a desk that is in each room for special occasions. This keeps kids who are too young, from using the Internet without parental supervision. Likewise with TV, there is a portable wireless TV that can be moved around, but the only one is in the living room, or on the laptop which can be used for TV too. There's a weapons cabinet locked up by biometrics for emergencies, and there are no weapons that can be fired by a child or stranger. The biometric sensor also guages the person's mood before unlocking, so that suicidal moods delay opening until a third party responds. [The whole weapons locker thing is a new idea that needs work to prevent suicides, but also provides protection in emergencies.] There are two bathrooms, one lit by a light pipe in the daytime. And there is a network jack in the bathroom [for future expansion], but no place to set the laptop, so it doesn't join the user in the tub or on the toilet.
Oh You POS
A starship. Where else would a nerd/technophile/sf fan want to live?
Easy, a holodeck. Infinitely customizable, any furniture style I want, and I can conjure up any er, 'entertainment' I might desire.
The days of the digital watch are numbered.
In general, my experience is that once the walls go up, you're stuck with whatever you got. That sucks.
As it turns out, #2 is a pain in the butt to build, but hey, while we're dreaming, right?
I am actually close to starting on this house after several years of getting land, preparations, designing, and planning. The objective is to provide a comfortable house for the next 40-50 years at the lowest reasonable cost. This design differs considerably from most home design in which building code minimums or cost justifications based on current energy costs are used. Here are some of the assumptions that led to this design:
:-)
1. Due to far northern US location and global warming, one to two week power outages due to winter ice/snow and summer storms require preparation.
2. Energy costs will continue to rise to truly unreasonable levels during the design life of the house.
3. Media and entertainment costs will likely increase considerably as that portion of the economy grows and DRM takes over.
4. Location is too far away from civilization to assume that cable/DSL will be available - and that satellite internet will remain costly.
5. House exterior maintenance is a costly nuisance so long life products (metal roof, vinyl siding, clad windows) are justified.
1100 Square Feet with extensive glass on the southern exposure for heat/light
EPA rated wood stove to release the stored solar energy stored in dead wood on my 5 acres. Propane backup for when I am unable to tend the stove. Super Insulation (6" foam) so I don't need to spend my whole life splitting wood.
2 bedrooms, 1 computer room, LR, Kitchen, Utility Room, basement
12 volt DC lighting (mostly daylight color temperature fluorescent to maintain winter mental health) for economy while on grid and quiet battery (250 AH) operation when the power is down. Fans to run on inverters or 12VDC. Computers to run on inverter from 12 volts for uninterruptible power. Small engine / alternator for charging during outages. Line operated charger while on grid. Modest 120 VAC generator for large loads as intermittently required when power is down. Propane for cooking fuel.
12-volt DC powered stereo with in-wall speakers, large mp3 music library on flash, TV/DVD amd maybe satellite
56K modem with caching proxy for inexpensive internet connectivity (fiber is 800 feet away if I need and can justify cost for it)
Screened porch on the north side (cool), deck on the south (warm) to exploit the seasons --Far north location in forest to avoid excessive heat in the summer (expected to be more important with global warming)
Metal roof for low maintenance and possible freedom from satellite surveillance (the whole house has a tinfoil hat
Greenhouse to provide a spaghetti garden (tomatoes, onions, peppers, salad greens) in the short growing season
Items still in consideration -
Buried copper tubing heat exchanger under the basement floor for use as a cold sink for air conditioning and refrigeration efficiency. Also could use for water cooled CPUs but hard to justify for that use alone. Also could be used as a warm sink for a heat pump.
Wood Chip/pellet/wood burner as a heat source for greenhouse.
I want my house to be quiet from all the noises of the neighboorhood such as barking dogs. If it were possible I would put sound canceling speakers along the perimeter of my house. Neighboorhood noises would come into a microphone and the sound canceling speakers would play back the neighboorhood noises only inverted to create destructive interference and cancel the sound out.
All this rock moving required years of heavy equipment operations. The construction site looked like a mall was going in. All this rock had to be not only placed, but anchored; the house is near the San Andreas fault.
The house is on Mountain Home Road in Woodside, recognizable by the gatehouse that looks like a Japanese teahouse. In the end, it looks rather modest; it just has a landscape that belongs to a rockier area.
So that's a real dream house, built for someone with a mania for big rocks.
Yes! My biggest pet peeve is that I pay the electric co. to heat hot water in the summer and cool my food in the winter.
First off efficiency and comfort should be #1. And honestly a Dome home meets that easily as well as gives you gobs and gobs of natural light with a bunch of skylights.
My dome costs $45.00 a winter (Mchigan) to heat. Lights do not come on until late and the automation with my super cheap ADICON Ocelot + 2 Leopards and related modules and alarm coupled to a linux box makes things really nice. The only thing I would want to add is a high strength RF tag that idenentifies my car so when I pull in the driveway the garage door opens, the alarm is disabled and my lighting scheme of the day is on as well as other things like my mp3 playlist for friday evening is started playing. (all extremely easy to do with less than $3000.00 worth of hardware)
I have extremely low costs for heat and electricity because of the dome as well as enjoy a 2500sq foot home for the price of a 1400sq foot home.
I really want a quiet Jacuzzi tub. Every one I've ever tried was louder then a leaf blower. And a cable TV drop next to said tub for the flat screen on the wall. And would it kill home designers to take into account pets? Make all the window sills a little deeper for the cat to sit on. Leave room in one of the bathrooms or laundry room for a catbox. Especially my catbox which is twice the footprint of a regular box.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
But who cares about that - what I want in a home is a home designed for the enviroment it is in. I live in Phoenix, AZ and I can't believe the number of houses that are built every day with no regards for "desert living". It is like the builders just assume there will always be groundwater and electricity available for everyone for whatever needs, with no thought at all to the rest. No new houses have integrated solar water heating, for instance, despite the fact that we get so much damn sun and it would cut electricity or gas usage easily. No options, it seems, for installing solar electric panels on rooftops (unless you are going custom - read that as a lot of $$$$, not worth it to many people). What about the design of the house itself? None of them are designed "solar friendly", which if done right could pay off in cooling and heating. None of this stuff is "revolutionary". I am talking about things like rammed-earth construction, or monolithic domes (why all the square sides which expose more surface area to sunlight and heating in the summertime than a dome?).
This type of thinking is what we need for "future housing construction". We need the idea in people's heads that using energy as efficiently as possible for their houses, for the area being lived in, is best - for the environment, for the country, and yes, for the pocketbook as well! Unfortunately, none of the ideas allow builders to simply throw up a cheap stick frame house (using illegal labor, to boot!) with stucco on cardboard, styrofoam, and chicken wire (though the chicken wire is going away, too), then sell the POS to some schmuck for 10x or more what it is probably worth. In other words, like everything else, they build it as cheaply as possible, as quickly as possible, using the cheapest labor possible, then turn around and sell it as quickly as possible to the first Joe willing to cough the dough up, and pocket the return on investment.
I can't say I blame them - after all, that is pure business and capitalism at its base. But ultimately, it is going to run the world (well, us humans at least) into the ground - and most of us are too stupid or greedy to admit it, or see that it is happenning. Every one of us - including me.
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Some nice extras:
Other useful "future home" ideas:
Most of the other "future" features I've seen amount to gimmicks.
So, make a sweet media room and you will be proud of yourself.
Unlimited budget, eh?
Glass and metal pyramid with no wood in its construction whatsoever. Maybe three floors, plus a basement. Auto tinting windows. Bluetooth (or future equivalent) locks and remote controls. All lights, locks and appliances should be controllable from my cell/handheld AND from a Web application. The house would know when I came home, and it would turn on the lights and unlock the front door.
Metal and glass furniture. Large LCD screens and surround sound in every room (except rooms like storage, bathroom, server room etc...) Dedicated guest room. Server room in the basement so the heat and the noise aren't felt in the house. A library of classic literature. Green house garden.
Self sustaining utilities. Hydroelectric AND wind AND solar power. Or a (small) nuclear reactor if The Man lets me have one. My own sewer system. Satellite connectivity.
Astronomical observatory at the very top of the pyramid. Radio towers/antennas next to the house. (I've always wanted to try radio astronomy.)
My own runway for small general aviation aircraft, with a taxiway right up to the house. Runway doesn't have to be very long. I want to say a helo pad too, but I'm a fixed wing pilot.
The house should be at least 10 miles away from the nearest neighbor.
Reminds me a little of this discussion.
It's a vast circle meta-criticism, of which the output is mainly trolling.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Things that I would like to see:
1) Wired network in all rooms for video, backups, browsing. Wireless network for laptops.
2) Centralized data space (i.e., small data center) with good ventilation, external heat exhaust, good power. I'm not talking a separate room, but a designated area near the wiring closet instead of something rigged into the home-office closet.
3) Media server accessible from all video/audio devices. There must be options to have broadcasts to all devices so all rooms can have the same audio. Ideally, sensors in each room could track RFID devices to that music/video can (optionally) follow a person from room to room. You could also walk up to a terminal and have a central workspace automatically appear. I.e., work on a word processing document in the bedroom, walk to the office without saving, and have the identical workspace appear in the office.
4) Conference capability from every room.
5) The garage would automatically synchronize the car media with the house media.
6) Terminals would be available in all rooms, but are hidden from view when not in use.
7) The intrusion detection system would be accessible from selected terminals in the bedroom.
8) Integration with the environmental controls to allow the A/C and heat to be automatically adjusted via software and on a room to room basis. This is useful because my office is often several degrees warmer than the rest of the house.
9) Lighting presets for all rooms. I.e., be able to activate by voice/keyboard/remote control settings such as "movie theatre, bright, dungeons and dragons game in progress".
I want it quite and sound proof, i mean with all the HI TECH in it i wouldn't like to have more noise and at night all i want is to don't have to hear my neightbors partying, arguing, having love or even shooting each other ... i want just to be able to sleep :)
I'm just a geek, not a home-automation expert, but the house I've been designing (for when I'm rich and/or famous) will have quite a bit of (in my opinion) useful automation (In no particular order):
... And so it comes to this.
a holodeck.
So, some sort of EMP weapon?
... I hate to see what happens to burglars. :)
I'm not sure if your guests will come over more than once.
In fact, if that's what happens to a guest
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Any new built home should be ultra insulated and be self powered. The concept is called "zero energy homes". By using "superinsulation" techniques, combined with intelligently purchased home appliances, and then adding in such things as active and passive solar heating, hotwater, and garnering your own electrical supply with PV or wind, etc, you can get down to about zilch for "energy bills" and always have your home be powered and heated and cooled.
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In addition, they should be built to be storm proof as much as possible, ice, wind, even fire can be dealt with using more advanced construction techniques like earthships, cordwood masonry, concrete domes, earth bermed,etc, plenty of different styles and techniques. There's no one size fits all, it really depends on geographical location and budget.
here are a some useful links to get you started
http://www.eere.energy.gov/solar_decathlon/ (check the homepages of last years entries to see the completed structures, the homes even run the car!)
http://www.google.com/search?q=zero+energy+homes&
http://www.google.com/search?q=earthships&start=0
Basically, ANYTHING but normal energy hog and fragile square stick built framed housing. That is so 20th century. Oil is not two dollars a barrel anymore, yet most homes are built about the same way they were back when that was true. You got to ask yourself, is that just plain nuts, or what? I vote "plain nuts". There are better ways to do things now...
I'd make a glass house in the middle of a garden that is surrounded by a two-storey high white concrete enclosure with a geodesic (sp?) dome room so I can project stars in all directions and go stargazing at 12 noon. It's also handy because I can just take an LCD projector and play video games against a two-storey high screen. Now, if only I could get the money for it...
Let's see, quake proof, hurricane/tornado proof, Glacier proof (in case "The Day After Tomorrow" scenario comes true).
Radiation proof, EMP proof, with air filters in case of Atomic/Biological/Chemical war.
Bomb and meteor resistant, in case a big one goes off a mile or two away.
A deep tap for geothermal heat, also to be used as a power source, year round.
Advanced waste/water/air recycling; hydroponic and/or equivalent vats for growing plant and meat cells for food.
A copy of the Library of Congress.
A nice workshop, starting with a big mass spectro-sorter to extract silicon, iron, aluminum, titanium, etc. from dirt, to processing equipment to make crystals and ingots and sheet, not to mention plastics, to machining equipment to convert raw materials into anything else.
Debt-free ownership of the above.
And last but not least, a fast Internet connection.
I'm in the midst of fixing up an old run-down beach cottage that we recently bought. The single most important thing from my perspective is lots of conduit. We loaded smurf tube in the walls (after we ripped down the rotten sheet rock). We figured that would give us flexibility to add low voltage wire later for adding surround sound, home automation systems, whatever. We also left pull boxes in strategic locations for adding electric service in unexpected locations later.
By the way, our plan is to skip POTS at this house and stick to IP connectivity. We're going to use the Visonics (http://www.visonic.com/)alarm system for basic home automation (and security). We'll back that up with standard X-10 style stuff.
Of course, in the end we'll probably do everything wireless anyway.
What we really wanted was cool Abbot and Costello features like swinging bookcases, secret rooms and the like. But that's stuff is surprisingly expensive to create.
We are also looking seriously at geothermal heating and a/c. In our case it would be an open loop system which requires two wells.
The first thing I would like, is large screens in every room that basically become part of the wall (or possibly art) when not in use. But who doesn't want that?
In conjunction with that I would like an input pad the house would track and display activity on whatever screen visible from where the device was. As other input devices wandered into the same room the display would scale to accomidate both.
Also LED track lighting that could be autmatically adjusted to different colors and roatation/repositionable programatically.
You know what one feature I want is though - manual light control. I still like light switches because I don't always want a light to come on when I go in a room. I have no need for automatic control of lights myself, except perhaps to make it look like someone is home while I am away. But even then I guess I'd just prefer some really security security robots that would dissuade anyone entering the house from staying. Something modeled after a Dalek I think, one per floor...
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...in my ideal home. Those Arabs knew a thing or two when they came up with this concept: a harem. Fully populated of course. But this is /. so I need to make my comment pertinent. A harem running Linux.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
I'd like a secret passage that can be accessed through a rotating bookshelf. That and a painting with eyes that can be removed so I can watch my guests from seclusion.
The house should recognize the behavior patterns of the occupants and act accordingly. If the patterns change, the house should learn and adapt to the new patterns. If there are 4 people in the house and they're all in one room, turn off the lights and reduce the heat in other parts of the house. Bring bedrooms to comfortable temperatures (heat them up or cool them down, depending on the season) just prior to bedtime. Don't bother making/keeping hot water available during times of day it's not needed. Bring lights on automatically when someone enters a room, but at a low level. If the person stays in the room, gradually bring the lights up to full strength.
I want a web interface that would let me customize these features also. I'd like to be able to set max and min brightness on automatic lighting, appropriate heat levels, and I want to be able to customize each power outlet, so appliances, TVs and computers can be automatically shut off when not in use (i.e. the entertainment center's outlets are disabled between 11pm and 6am unless someone is detected in the room).
I would like all the appropriate wiring/infrastructure in place in case I wanted to add green energy sources like solar panels, solar hot water and/or a wind turbine.
I already have a media room for video games and DVDs but a dream media room would be one that could be used to play anything (DVD, HDDVD, HDTV, home network content, web based content, etc.) all magically tied together with an amazing UI that even my wife could use.
A greenhouse would be nice, too.
"Can I finish? Can I finish?
Here's a list of the things I would like/am installing in my home:
- Full audio distribution system
- Wireless video of all entrances (integrated with home security system)
- Biometric doorlocks (fingerprint, but must have numeric keypad as well)
- Motion-sensitive lights in all bathrooms (steady on feature when the shower is running)
- Solar and/or wind power for pool system
- High-speed (wired) networking, digital video, analog video & analog phone accessible from each room
- Smart air circulation/conditioning with individual settings for each room
- Home management system (monitor security, adjust environments, etc)
All of this must be integrated into an energy-effecient design without loosing functionality, space or design.
Exactly! I attended a speech here not to long ago by someone who had built their own earthship. Essentially the idea is to pack sand in tires for thick mass around 3 walls and then face the sun with a wall of windows and the house regulates its own temperatures. They built their home (somewhere in the 2000-3000 sqrft size range) for $40,000 CDN. The house regulates its own temperature from outdoor conditions of -40C to +30C here in Ontario. They use a composting toilet, well water with a waste water system using plants, woodstove and solar power (including computers). For $40k (they say they could do it for $30K knowing what they know now) they are completely off the grid and as a bonus financially independent other than property taxes. As an interesting aside in some municipalities your property taxes are based on the amount of greenspace your house takes up and since the roof of the house is actually earth and grass you loose no greenspace....
Anyway, this my new dream home. As it is completely self-sufficient, low cost, and there have been many projects to show that you don't have to sacrifice luxery (including running many computers and HDTVs and the like) when living in this sort of home. About the only trouble seems to be getting building permits (did I meantion they are certified earthquake safe in california?) Many of them are very gorgeous as well. I would recommend checking out earthship.org for examples.
I'm quite the bibliophile, so i'd have a large library with very tall windows to let in as much light as possible. Large quantities of empty space for people/friends to congregate during parties and BBQs (go figure, there's pretty long summers here in Vegas). The TV screens and computers would all be hidden except for some well-placed iMacs/iBooks. Maybe some nice hardware in the kitchen. Got to love a powerful stove/oven and an oversized fridge. Not much else.
On the whole I prefer simplicity to showing off. That doesn't necessarily mean that there's no technology in there, just that it's so well integrated that you don't even notice it (e.g. something like door locks that are activated by the proximity of a special key ala shielded RFID).
"Hey Johnny Johnny ..." ..." ..." ...
..." ... Check for new programs" ...
...
..."
"Yeah boss
"Fire up the TV"
"Turning on the TV
"Is it all reruns?"
"Hey Johnny Johnny
"Yeah boss"
"Anything new on?"
"Excuse me?"
"uhhh
"New programs onscreen"
"What time is it?"
"You talkin' ta me?"
"Yeah"
"Ten twenty"
"Hey boss?"
"Yeah?"
"You just got email from Susan"
"Hey Johnny Johnny
"Yeah boss"
"What's that song?"
"Title is 'Sumthin', artist is Greenday"
"Buy it and send it to the car"
"What's the password?"
"Password? How much is it?"
"Ten dollars"
"Nevermind"
I also have no great desire anymore to be entertained. I find most everything offered for my entertainment in these times to be vile, stupid or both. I loathe TeeVee. I'd much rather have a couple rooms lined with bookshelves.
I don't need much in the way of automation and fancy electronics.
Moat, drawbridge, stone walls, towers at all four corners. Range cards at the windows of the towers. Vehicle barriers at the entrance of the drive.
Double fencing with razor wire on top. Razor wire on the ground between the fences.
Day and night video surveillance of the perimeter fence would be nice.
Yeah, that's really all I want... A holodeck. And maybe one of those neat food-making-doodads.
Can't get much more ideal than that!
;-)
Oh, and dark fibre.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
I live in a climate with some big temperature swings, and I'd like to see an automatic way to do something that I have to do manually currently: "bank" some extra heat or cold in anticipation of the next change, usually day/night but sometimes a change in the weather too.
I'm talking about things like opening the windows on a warm day to let in a lot of heat (for free) then the furnace doesn't have to work as hard to maintain temp at night. Similar for cooling: open the house up at night so that the a/c doesn't have to work all day. Also take into account the side the sun is hitting from and set up fans to draw in or exhaust as appropriate to the thermal direction you're trying to take the house.
Not every climate has large enough temp swings to take advantage of throughout the year, but a lot can do this in the late spring and early fall.
Every day as I fumble for my keys to get in the house, but just turn around and, *Beep*, my car is locked/unlocked I wish I could get keyless entry for my home.
Are there existing systems out there? How hard are they to retro fit to existing doors? How do they supply reliable power to the locking mechanism? Or is someone going to go out and get rich off of this post?
"Seven years of college down the drain. Might as well join the f-ing Peace Corps." - John 'Bluto' Blutarsky
. . .the Monsanto House of the Future; it's time.
I decided that behaving ethically was the most nihilistic thing I could do. - Paul Pavel
Never design a house around it being "cool" because that wears off. Instead, make the "cool" factor easily swapped out and replaced with the latest style. The rest of the home should utilize tech that benefits it's occupants in efficiency and ergonomics.
My ideal home specs are thus:
* Every room has it's own air return and heat/cool zone with their own thermostats. That way you can "turn off" unused rooms to save energy.
* Insulated interior doors that are weather-stripped like exterior doors to make the previous suggestion work better as well as provide soundproofing.
* Utilize the geography of the home to ease the energy burden. If you're building in a hot, sunny environment, install solar-powered water heating. If you're in a cool, dry environment, build the home into the ground to utilize natural insulation. You get the idea.
* Utilize sunlight-piping to light hallways and non-open rooms during the day.
* Use fiber-optics to provide accent lighting in the living areas.
* Install insulated vents so that hot air can be utilized in the summer to aid the water heater and cold air can be utilized in the winter to aid the refrigerator/freezer.
I have a lot more, but I've run out of time.
-Riskable
http://www.riskable.com/
"I have a license to kill -9"
-Riskable
"Those who choose proprietary software will pay for their decision!"
Jesus [and at that price point, Mary and Joseph as well]! I spent about $30k on my college education (BSc chem from a department in the top 10 nationally).
So, what did you have to type into google maps to get directions to the Money Forest? ;) Inquiring minds and all that...
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Wow, am I out of touch, I thought everyone meant the Xanadu.
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
My wish list: I want a button on my tv remote that will control the lights. I want a button on the tv that makes the remote chirp. I want an automated system that will lock all windows and doors at 10pm everynight so I don't have to lie in bed wondering if the door is unlocked. I want a switch that will open/close all the curtains in the house because I hate walking to each individual one. And make those insulated curtains. Better yet, put it on a timer linked to sunrise/sunset. Finally, I want motion-activated lights in hallways and storage rooms because my husband keeps leaving the lights on.
You want pluto, a free and open source linux-bsed home automation toolkit.
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
I recently built a house and thought a lot about this stuff. I decided that I wanted efficiency, flexibility, safety and comfort as my highest priorities. Some of the things I got, some I didn't since I didn't have unlimited budget, and my builder declined to do a few things. But here they are:
... the wife had some input on the timing of doing most of that stuff, so I just had them built with future projects in mind on most of real toy stuff :)
- data wiring everywhere, and all data wires should be placed in conduit for easy upgrade/replacement in the future.
- patch based wiring control
- amplified video distribution throughout the house, with multiple inputs including camera mounts outside, etc
- multizone HVAC (minimum 3 zones for basement/main/upstairs) with heat/cool, humidity control.
- fire protection: spun basalt insulation in all walls/floors, minimize combustible material where possible
- sound proofing: why should i have to choose to have the tv volume where I want it vs wake up the kid? Spun basalt acoustic batt in all walls/floors/ceilings, metal stud construction walls with double-layer gypsum board, ceilings hung on acoustic flex rails and only connected to walls by acoustic sealant, solid core doors with self-sealing accoustic sweeps and seals, possibly super-dense acoustic sheeting included in the walls/ceilings.
- continuous, on-demand hot water (no hot water tank)
- super-efficiency low-e windows
From there there were some toy requests:
- multizone whole house audio
- lighting automation
- snazzy appliances
- place to construct infinite-baffle subwoofer
- server and wiring closet
- tv in the ensuite so I can watch in the jacuzzi
Reading all the highly modded comments (over 20 now), not one mentioned lighting. When we did our very extensive remodel, the most important feature to us was the lighting. Scene based lighting is wonderful on its own - sets the mood, saves energy and generally works with your lifestyle. Some of my favorite features include:
- Built-in clocks that can slowly bring up lights as the sun sets and turn on appropriate outdoor lights
- Integrate with security systesm, turning on lights when motion sensors are activated and only bring it up to 35% when it is after 9 pm.
- Flash all the lights in the house on and off when an alarm is triggered.
- Flash lights in the room or zone a fire alarm is set off in if it ever happens.
- Turn off all the lights in the house when we leave and arm the alarm (no more forgetting the light in the kids closet).
- Random scenes based on historical usage patterns when we're travelling.
- Really set the home theater feel with slow ramp-down dimming timed to work with the start of the show.
These are just some of the reasons we wanted the system and I don't think we'd ever buy another house that didn't have a similar system. It really becomes part of what you expect from your house (it's like the going back to tv without tivo.)
For the record here, I'm not talking about x-10 and a PC. I'm talking about a reliable system. See companies such as Lutron (homeworks), Centralite (Elegance) and Vantage. There are plenty more good hardwired systems that work with home automation controllers. This isn't to say there aren't some lower cost solutions (ALC comes to mind) but I wanted something that was 100% stand alone and just did one thing very well. Easier to integrate that into a controller in my opinion.
Oh, and the "crazy" thought of starting a bubble bath isn't so crazy. I've heard plenty of women who are aware of home automation ask if it can be done. We don't have it, but are still looking for a solution. Kohler used to made a slick system for this, but no longer does...
If you looking for the cream of the cool then it's integration. I can buy lots of different gadgets that do lots of different things but the more integrated it is into the home the better.
;-)
My dream was having everything integrated into a voice activated system. The FOSS version would be Mr.House but the more integration the better.
For sanity sake I think you'd have to look at an integration design like a script engine that ties things together and check if they are ontrack.
Nice touches that integration allows:
The muting/pausing of audio/video when you receive a call to the house.
Doorbells or other notifications pausing/silencing or overlaying on video.
UPS/FedEx delivery option where it will open the door to allow them to deliver a package and lock it behind them based on your cellphone ok.
Lights that activate and deactivate based on where you are or what you are doing.
My personal dream touch would be handing guests a badge (star trek esque if you must) that gives them guest level access to the house and what it provides. No keys, no codes, just a small comm unit with an interactive help system.
But all of that integration comes at high cost. But I debug equipment all the time. Running my home like a server room with maintenance and logging just seems natural to me.
Right now my design architecture is older PC's, ubiquitous networking (WiFi or cabled) eventually migrating to mini-itx systems strategically stashed in different places. Primary focus is media (audio and video) for now but I may expand that as time goes on. Getting a reliable Linbox rescue server up and running has become a priority
To each their own.
"Don't fear death... fear not living..." -me
So, basically ... what you're telling me is that you want to live in a cave.
I think that's been done.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Integrated south facing algae solar bioreactor, feeding algae grazing fish like tilapia in a huge aquarium and using the water as heat/cool storage.
Seastead this.
Gadgetry is just the start. Above ground, I want a south facing (I live in MN) pre-stressed poured concrete home, dyed and stamped. In floor liquid radiant heat. Large open spaces. Large windows on the south side of the house. The east/west walls should be modular fin-style walls that, using a mechanical system, open to let air flow through the house. Kitchen with a brick-oven. Greentech. Blackwater system, water pillars for heating/cooling. The house should be located on a stream (in MN we have plenty) and should use a small hydroplant for energy, as well as solar and a diesel backup generator. The usual electronic gadgetry. Biometric/proximity security options. Cameras to monitor the property as well as interior. Motion activated recording. small (~7") screens in the kitchen/bathrooms to access a local server with access to things like "Recipes" and "Inventory request forms" (Like, being in the bathroom, realizing you are getting low on toilet paper, so you access a map of the house, tap on the bathroom, tap 'inventory request' and select toilet paper). Home automation. Computer control of home events. Touch panel control of certain biometric 'environmental conditions'. Low lighting and rose scented aromatherapy air treatment for a nice relaxing evening, or bright lighting and iincreased volume for parties... That type of thing.
Now comes the gradeschool fantasy stuff. Hidden passages to underground locations. My server room, a vault, a wine cellar, the garage etc.
Yeah, very James Bond, very 'fantasy' but the request was 'given an unlimited budget'
-=+=-=+=-=+=-=+=-
following my instincts not a trend...
No, seriously, I've often wanted to live in a place like that disused military underground deal they have in europe, you know the one that was for sale for a while for like $5 million euro or something.
A technology that I saw in the movie "The Island" that I think was neat is the toilet that detects imbalances in your..whatever it is you put in the toilet at that moment.
Let's try this by attacking things that annoy us or make life more difficult.
I don't know if I'd go as far as bubble baths that run for you, but I would like to see something like a fingerprint reader that hooks to a computer that controls the bath / shower, and can automatically set the temperature of the water to your personal taste. Beats fighting with the knobs when you're half asleep, and it's completely possible with today's technology.
How about beds that make themselves? Come on! completely possible with today's technology.
How about a phone system / answering machine that only answers the phone when you are not in the house, or when you are asleep, answers in 1 ring if you are gone, doesn't ring at all if you are asleep (or it smells your dinner cooking), unless the caller is on a pre-determined list. Think of all the assinine calls you could avoid.
Ok, were done with shit that CAN be done, now lets move onto something a little more esoteric.
How about having wall colors that run electronically, tied to a computer that can sense the thoughts of the person who enters the room, and automatically changes the wall color to that person's favorite color. Furniture as well.
How about a sophisticated stove that uses smell to determine a food type, quantity, etc that automatically cooks it perfectly, with predetermined heat and time. Hey, this one is just about possible with current tech, only we would have to use x-rays for density..unless we used MRI, which would make it impossible to use metal cookery...anyway, you get the idea. The stove says "10 inch skillet detected, 3 medium eggs. Setting appropriate 160 degree temperature for 4 minutes."
I dunno, I can't give away all my good ideas, lmao.
Windows has more viruses because linux has more virus coders.
Either don't approve the messages or at least strip the links to their site. Sheesh.
stops the local dogs and burglars. I've wanted one for years...
Not a little weenie gun either - a full on gatlin gun of the 1000 RPM kind. Should track anything with a temp differential +- 10 degrees of the surrounding 10ft circle of ground.
and yes - it won't shoot the fam - should know us by the chips in our heads and avoid its usual gut spattering behavior.
Please, please offer this as a home integration option.
I could care less about anything more then an 8000 cubic foot Holodeck with a Replicator. Include full environmental controls (includes gravity) and I'd be in absolute heaven. Just think; You get tired of the current furniture so decided to go with something entirely different and change things in the blink of an eye. Want fine Dining? God's I'd love to be able to get what every I wanted in the way of a meal without cleanup.
Combine this with Quantum Fibre Optic (pterrabyte bandwidth) and you'd have enough trouble just getting me to leave my house.
I'm in the process of designing a house to be used part of the year in a remote, weather-intensive area. What I would really like is a house that has UPS/hybrid technology so it can survive weeklong power outages, that I can call/telnet into before I get there and have it turn on the house power, heat, and water heater. (Probably using a very low power computer running off solar cells -- at almost 4 km altitude, we get more solar than we can consume. So having the mains power switched off when we're not there makes sense.) In an ideal world, it would also be able to prime, clear, and start the well and close the water system drains, since the house sees -20C for months at a time (when nobody is there) so we drain it down at the end of the warm season. If I had reliable (and reporting) solenoids on the water system, it could close them, pressurize the water system, and fire up the water heater and the house would be habitable when I got there. I'd just have to strip off the shutters over the windows rather than spending an hour or two in the crawl space and wellhouse getting the water system up and checking and tightening valve packing from the temperature-oscillation-induced leakages.
Temperature sensors and a webcam, so I could see what the weather was like before setting out on a rather long drive and get some idea of how long it was going to take, would also be nice.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
I want one device that controls everything. Case in point: My Toshiba HDTV remote can't control my Toshiba DVR, even though both models were manufactured at approximately the same time (and I'm talking about just channel up/down, not the DVR-specific stuff. So I need two remotes handy. Then there's my garage door opener. And my cell phone. And my furnace controls. And my alarm system control pad. And my water softener controls. And my...
These are wildly different systems, but there's no reason they can't all be controlled from a single interface unit.
Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. - John 14:6 NLT
I'd gladly pay the percentage premiums I've occasionally seen cited, in return for a home that has both interior and exterior soundproofing. From your perspective, this would provide the ability to enjoy media without disturbing your cohabitants or your neighbors, and without them disturbing you.
I don't mean necessarily an extreme set up so that Junior's band can practice in the basement / garage without a peep. But, perhaps a brick exterior; 2x6 or better framing (especially exterior); cement board or similar in place of drywall; extra insulation and interior insulation; designs that interrupt conductive transference; triple-pane windows. I don't know a lot about such things, but those items come to mind. Perhaps also a ranch layout, so that cohabitants aren't literally "on top of each other" and where different activities can take place at different ends.
In my case, if I could, I would pay what I could for extreme measures. Not only is silence golden, it is bliss. I'm probably not the majority, but I'd pay a pretty penny to ensure I can have some when I want.
I have been thinking about the "dream house" ever since I read a National Geographic article about energy-efficient homes as a little kid during the 70's energy crisis. Necessity, the mother of invention and all that.
And so I'd love to have a house with most if not all of the floors underground, with sunlight piped in via mirrors or fiber optics or skylights. The surrounding earth would make a fantastic insulator/buffer in the summer and winter. Some greenery, lots of wiring and wireless, cozy furniture. A massive media server (check!). Four-poster queen-size bed. Hot tub.
Trees up top, with a swimming pool, and a big slide and diving board. A trail nearby to run or cycle down, which goes by the water. A beach nearby would be very nice. With my future catamaran moored nearby.
I just like the idea of having an unconventional home that just so happens to be more energy-efficient. I still have an old Apple poster somewhere based on the Life is Hell characters (Groening's other work) that illustrates the "ideal dorm". I loved reading about those abandoned missile silos in the midwest that were resold as semi-furnished residences.
Lights - Dimable in all living area's and / or lots of them if they are CF or similar. I want motion sence and some sane defaults so I come home at night the correct levels of lights are brought up slowly.
:)
Security - A keyfob or similar for entry with key backup for power outages / system failures. Work with the motion sensors from lighting. Permiter camera's are allways nice along with some internal ones (babys rooms) basic DVR should go along with this. I should be able to bring up any camera on any TV / computer I should also get a display of the motion detector zones on the same. Tie in garage door opening (with a realy secure remote) to turn off applicable sensors, things like opening a window should never be an issue from the inside (look at motion detector inputs) and should just work.
Video - Any source to any display I want to eb able to pause my tivo in the LR go up stairs to bed and start right where I left off. HD is the way to go here for my money dont try and give me plasma or LCD for main TV's maybe for the nitch bathroom or kitchen TV's. Video should include being able to video conference at least around the house and view house sources. A big server should store all the possible content (rip it off the DVD's losslessly perferably from DVD's located around the house) Tivo to Tivo MRV and server to Tivo MRV are not that hard to deal with. Perfect house might be mythtv with digital ins to deal with all the conflict resolution and on the fly up/down sampling (money isn't an object
Audio - Should just work and I should be able to get at least stereo in every room. 5.1 or better in heavy TV watching rooms. All audio should be in sync so I dont notice slight timing differences room to room when I have the whole house plaing one thing. While your at it acusting insulation should be installed on all new work to keep the noise down between rooms and floors nothing worse than not being able to use your home theater because it's going to wake the kids wife etc.
Remotes - Rules one buttons fancy diplay remotes are nice but buttons give you that touch feel. They need ot control everything, think presets and on screen controls (a picture in picture remote popup would be nice and easy) RF is a must. Touchpads that are normaly dark are a good idea as well as blinking lights are bothersome.
Power - Lots of it with a nice backup gen and UPS for the house.
HVAC - Lots of zones with some AI learning or similar so unused rooms are not heated / cooled as much until they are needed. The TV room should also try and keep the noise down when in movie mode. Tie in with wake up calls etc.
PBX - Tie ins with modes so the phone does not ring during dinner / movie etc.
Thats it for now.
No sir I dont like it.
If you really want a "futuristic" home that won't become an anachronism eventually, there is one (and only one) option: make the house as flexible and updatable as possible.
That means you can't just run wires in the walls; you need low AND high-voltage conduit that runs places you don't think you need cables right now, and with lots of extra capacity -- and, ideally, that allows you to break through the wall and "punch into" the conduit at any point within the wall that it runs.
That means you need to allow for reconfiguration of ducting, gas and water lines at will.
That means you need some walls to be more than just non-structural -- they should be freely reconfigurable.
You get the idea. The future is DIFFERENT, and your house needs to be able to accommodate that.
The house of tomorrow looks an awful lot like the house of yesterday. I'm a homeowner, so I can pass along some of my own observations about how I would change my house if I had the chance:
1. Insulate, insulate, insulate. You can never insulate too well. Even if you think you've insulated well enough for thermal control, extra insulation is also sound deadening, which is nice. While you're at it, seal up the house really well. BUT if you do that, make sure you install a heat-exchanger venting system to replace the house air. This isn't so much a health issue as much as it is an aesthetic one. When you drop a deuce in the master bath, a well sealed house will help make the, uh, memories linger unless you are changing out the air. And leaving the bathroom window open on a cold, rainy night is never a great plan.
2. Put the laundry "room" (alcove, closet, whatever) near the master bedroom. It takes some extra work and some extra space, but you'll thank me. Especially if you have a two story house. You didn't install the dishwasher in the garage, did you?
3. Nice big conduits to every room for low voltage / communications wiring. Yes, for today I want 2 cat 5 and 2 RG6, but what about tomorrow?
4. Oversize the utility inputs as much as you can. We swapped out our stove/oven for a gas model. This required bringing a second gas line in through the garage - a fairly ugly hack. It would have been much better to future-proof this up front.
5. Tankless water heater. More reliable and longer lasting, more energy efficient, more graceful failure mode. Who can argue with that?
6. A basement. Obviously in some places this is actually required to insure the foundation is below the frost line, but even in Silicon Valley I'd like to have one for storage and to make repairs and improvements easier. We have a crawl space. It's not so nice. If you have a basement and a single story, then you probably can strike out #3 above.
7. Attic stairs / finished attic. The trend nowadays in making your house bigger is to replace the attic with a 2nd story. The 2nd story winds up with rooms with angled ceilings and the like, and you don't get to have an attic at all. We don't have a big family, so we don't really need that. But we are storage-poor, so it would be really helpful to be able to conveniently use the giant, cavernous triangle above the ceiling to store stuff.
8. If you go with 2 stories, try and arrange to have a pair of closets vertically lined up. If your health declines as you get older (a house is a long term investment, mind you), you can convert them into an elevator.
9. Every (non Amish) modern house in America has a home theater. The only difference is how nice it is. A 23" TV in the den is the home theater if that's where you watch TV. I'm not saying you should plan your house around home theater, but if you know some of the rules of good theater design, you can decide how many of them you can try and incorporate in the place where the TV goes:
A. Sunlight is the enemy of your TV. The room doesn't have to be windowless, but try and avoid large picture windows facing West or South.
B. The distance between the screen and your eyes ideally should be about 2-3 times the height of the screen (at least, if we're talking about high definition TV. Sit further away, and you'll lose all of the extra detail you paid for when you bought an HD set).
10. Let nature help your HVAC situation. Plant deciduous trees to the south. In the summer, they'll shade the house. In the winter, they'll drop their leaves and let the sun through to warm you. Plant evergreens between your house and the prevailing winter wind (usually from the North).
Viva la revolución!
I'd like every electrical device in my home to be networked and controllable by multiple interfaces, lets say, voice, wall panels, computer/TV, and AI (scheduled/pre-programmed). For that matter, there are a handful of non-electrical furnishings which could benefit from my Home.net(TM), such as doors, windows, and blinds. Aside from living in a holo-deck, where every particle could be restuctured, configured, programmed at the slightest whim, having every item I iteract with in my home "smart" would be interesting. Scary, but interesting... and probably quite convenient.
There is one chore I love not, and I am not alone. That is cleaning a house. The less of a chore this is (enter stuff like Roomba, dishwasher etc) the better. I think that would be selling point no.1
No.2. would be automatic energy conservation (lights off automatically when noone in room etc.)
Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.
My ldeal house would do everything as perfectly as possible. It would water the lawn only as much as it need and at a time of day that made the most of the water used.
My house would learn my habits. It would only heat or cool the rooms I am expected to be in if that was the most energy efficient way to do it, if it were more efficient to heat or cool the whole house it would do that.
It would let me know if the mail came or if they USPS trucks were ever equipped with GPS, it would let me know the mailman is just down the street so I should get the mail out.
It would make sure I never missed a show I wanted to see or listen to on the radio. My media would be available anywhere, anytime, any place.
Everything I want a house to do could be done today if it were not so expensive. So I guess the biggest thing I would want my house to do is to do it cheaply!
How about a shower "pod" that cleans itself and a toilet that cleans itself. I don't mind sweeping and mopping, or even vacuuming, but I detest cleaning bathrooms!
There are so many possibilities to have a perfect, electronic house. Just look at the opening of Back To The Future. How many things did Doc have hooked to the morning alarm? Granted they were simplistic and quite basic looking, but they each did a job. The only thing that scares me is those Sci-Fi movies about the house short-circuting and going nuts. Some things would be nice amenities to have, as long as they weren't all hooked to a central "brain" computer. Good morning Dave.
=*^.^*=
I think a similar loopback system even with a more local point-source might be a good idea, it eliminates lag time in getting water heated and you could then also get a very small amount of heated water from the facuets in the bathroom since the recirulation could always have a high enough flow rate to activate the system.
I have to say that I hate low-flow heads though. I always feel like I have to take twice the shower I would otherwise to properly rinse so I don't think they really save much water and just frustrate you while bathing.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm a huge gadget freak, but the most important thing to me in considering is a home is efficiency...in all areas. A friend told me about a home a couple of guys built with off-the-shelf technology. The total utility costs for HVAC, electricity, and water was about $40/month. I can't find the link, but THAT's a home worth having.
:-)
I'd like to see builders focus on new construction methods like precast insulated concrete sandwich, or thermal mass walls; using tankless water heaters used in conjunction with geothermal; and radiant-heating floor systems.
For you guys, solar lighting and LED lighting are things that I would love to see in a new build.
Oh, in-wall fiber or cat-6 running to a head-end closet too.
Hey, you guys are in my backyard! Maybe I'll look you up if I do a new build. Grandview rules, but the property taxes suck!
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
This is not for everyone, but the Dilbert Ultimate House has some good ideas in some areas that apply for non-geeks.
2bits.com, Inc: Drupal, WordPress, and LAMP performance tuning.
unlimited budget? Robot security guards, armed with machine guns, rockets, and flamethrowers. I think 4 ED-209 (the big one from robocop) units should handle it.
I like the idea of developing sensors that monitor small things like when an appliance has been turned on or off, or when a room is entered/exited. Lots sensors with simple states. These sensors would regularly broadcast their data to a central home server where the data would be stored. From this data the system might be able to deduce patterns that could be useful in forming a pattern of behavior which matches particular occupants or the collective group of occupants. The system gets to "know" its occupants based on innocuous things like current drain at particular outlet locations, or based on the length of time between a room entered/exited event. Assuming that trends exist, what could be done with this data? Well maybe for starters it could alert residents on vacation that someone other than the normal occupants are likely to be in the house. Or maybe it could notify a family member of an elderly resident that they are not as active as normal, and it may be worth checking in on them. The key I think is that the sensors are farily low-profile and easy to install, like a standard wall outlet that replaces existing wall outlets.
Heated floors, via hot water pipes. If we've got the boiler, anyway, maybe a hot tub. Is it possible to heat waterbeds from the same boiler?
Solar wherever it's feasible. The roof could be either photovoltaics, or a mirror and black pipe water heating system (should be a natural match to the heated floors). If the mirrored concave dishes that capture sunlight into fiber optics (there was a Slashdot article on them a few months ago) are ready yet, put one or two next to the house, where they won't interfere with what's on the roof. Big windows and/or sliding glass doors on the south side, into rooms with black carpet.
Good soundproofing and good insulation.
Floors that are attached by screws, so they don't squeak.
Lots of conduit, as long as it doesn't interfere with the soundproofing.
Kitchen: Butcher block island. Fairly low ceiling with an exposed beam style, so that pots and pans can be hung from the beams. Dishwasher and double sink. Long counters with plenty of outlets and lighting under the cabinets, for things like bread makers, deep fryers, mixers, etc. Walk-in pantry. Filtered water hot enough to make tea, on-tap (my in-laws have this -- I think there's an electric pass-through heater under the sink).
A theater room: hardwood floors and no windows. Don't build the TV and stereo in, but leave room for a big TV and various speakers, with plenty of power. Built-in bookshelves on the sides and back of the room would be nice.
A bathtub with walls on both sides that you enter from the end opposite the shower. I saw one of those on Queer Eye, and the comment that it would be good for sex was dead-on. Decent sized-ledges in the shower for shampoo, razor, etc.
Misc: trees, courtyard, ceiling fans in most rooms and all bedrooms, attic fan (can you make something like that leading out of the kitchen?), built-in shelving wherever feasible, somewhere to exercise with fans and music, bathrooms off every bedroom, a half-bath somewhere near the entrance, brick exterior, something that doesn't burn well for the main structure (concrete or cinder-block?), a small workshop suitable to both woodworking and computer work.
Self cleaning.
I don't really care about details of how it's accomplished. Nano-treated surfaces and micro-robots? Sweet, whatever. Just so long as I never have to clean the tub or mop the kitchen by hand again.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
It should be invisible. You should never really know it is there.
The house should be almost like a living thing. It should know what the weather is like and adapt.
The real trick is for it to as Apple says "just work". No fiddling with setting. It should make your life simpler and happyier not more hectic.
My dream home would include a large shop or barn. Rooms that open to the outdoors. Lots of windows with views of forested mountains. But that is just me.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I would have my home set up so that I could access any media from any room in the house. The place would be full of flat panel screens that could be used for viewing videos, movies, or art. I would have ceiling mounted screens or projection systems so that the ceilings of my rooms could display sunny skies on rainy days, star fields, or alien sunsets. I would have a security system that could recognize people and animals that should be there by biometrics or movement. I would also have a kitchen that was wired for easy retrieval of my recipes as well as one that could help me start meals before I was home. Lastly, I would ensure that I could access all of my home settings and data remotely via wireless device.
Swisssushi - When the going gets tough, get some tenderizer
My ideal furture home would be a tent I could carry on my back, with complete air temp control, that kept itself and me clean, (included a self-cleaning toilet and shower), and that took water out of the air or reused the water I drank, with small, powerful computer with lifetime satellite access to broadband internet, output through high resolution glasses, and maybe a bicycle to go wherever I wanted. Who needs a house, then?
The only problem is that the house was built and wired up in 1947, and the programmes are audio programmes. I'm sure it never occurred to them that a house would ever need more than one telephone point, or more than one video screen, or that home computers would come into existence, or that automated appliances would come into existence...
Paid Q&A/Research
My perfect home would be the most technologically advanced home on Earth. I would start with:
1.) A 60" HDTV in every room,
2.) PC Based Digital Video Recorder / Gaming Station hooked to every TV.
3.) I would have a smart fridge, stove, oven, microwave, bathroom(s), lighting, locks, alarms, HVAC Controls, etc.
4.) Every floor in the house would be pressure sensitive to within 3 pounds and would be able to distinguish each person from another.
5.) The outside of the house would be completely surrounded by an intelligent security system capable of recognizing AUTHORIZED PEOPLE based on Height, Weight, Facial Features and Voice.
6.) I would have floor bots that automatically vacuum carpeted floors and others to automatically mop and wax tile, linolium or hardwood floors.
7.) I would have a more life sized robot capable of communicating wirelessly with all kitchen appliances. It would store a meal plan and be able to prepare meals automatically based on either a preset time, a phone call telling it to start dinner or the family's arrival at home.
8.) The house would be equipped with an intelligent defense system that would include hidden storm/intrusion shutters, automatic notification to authorities, redundant power back up using a sub-terranian power generator with at least a month's supply of fuel and sub-terranian redundant phone/cable/internet connections.
9.) The ability to hydralically lower the entire home into a sub-terranian shelter capable of with standing a direct nuclear impact. The sub-terranian shelter would be equipped with ample food, water and power generation for pro-longed sustainability. It would also be equipped with Intelligent Artificial Lighting.
10.) It would be equipped with Intelligent Artificial Lighting capable of mimicing Sunlight during part of the day and a moonlight, star filled sky part of the day.
Now for a walk thru and more detailed explanation. Assume I have a family of 5, Myself, a wife, two kids and a dog.
The morning comes my wife and I get out of bed. As we get each get out of bed the house asks if we are ready for our morning bath. We say yes! The bath/shower is started to our own individual preference. While taking a our shower/bath the kids are woken and their baths/showers are started automatically and the dog is let out for his morning potty and romp around the yard. While we are in the showers, the house brings our pre-selected outfit for that day to the bathroom we are in, automatically defogs the bathroom mirror and opens the intelligent medicine cabinet with the shaving items, deoderant, perfume, etc we normally use in the morning in the front. Once all of us are dressed and ready for the day we go down stairs, just as our pre-selected morning meal is being set on the table. While we are eating the house reminds us of our agenda, schedule for the day and tells us where our keys, purse, school books, etc are so we dont forget anything.
Once we all leave the house in the morning, the dog is let back in, the closes all the medicine cabinets (after robots put everything back in place), then the house cleans itself (bathrooms and kitchen included) so that when we get home everything is perfect. The house then goes into a standby mode where the lights are all adjusted, doors and windows are locked and temperature adjusted. The house monitors for intruders and for our return home using the external surveillance system.
Now at 3:15 PM the house observes two kids getting off the school bus, after a quick analysis it determines that they belong and automatically unlocks the front door, adjusts the lighting to their preferences, and welcomes them home. It then feeds them a pre-selected snack and monitors them to ensure they are doing there homework which was sent over from the school earlier in the day. Once they complete their homework it is placed in a scanner and checked by the house. If it is satisfactory the house then turns on the tv/radio/computers/gaming systems to their preset choice and allows them to entertain th
I'll keep my 5th wheel in the bush thanks. I can see no other humans and very little evidence that they exist.
... Standards and Practices !
Idylic really, and very low overhead. So I don't have to make more than about $500 a month to live quite well. Now I can make a lot more if I apply myself so it's really how I feel about what I need that drives my non-amusement effort. I don't like to spend more than about 45 min a day on non amusement things so I stay pretty poor most of the time, it suits me. My amusement mostly involves hacking computers so I don't need much.
Oh yeah, my Opty 165 box with all da fixings does give me pretty well everything I need. DSL helps and I will prolly sell my satellite dish and card setup as 800+ channels of free TV leaves me pretty well cold.
I'm 60 this year, can just curl a 45# dumbell and I have several girlfriends. The best revenge is to live well.
PenGun
Do What Now ???
Flexibility would be key for me. All electronics would need to be easily accessible for easy upgrading. And I include all of the wiring in this. The problem with most integrated home designs incorporating substantial electronics that I've seen is that upgrading the electronics becomes extremely costly. And over the 20+ years one might own that house, what might seem as cutting edge during the purchase will not only be outdated but completely obsolete. So like a typical geek I'd like to continuously upgrade the electronics, and I don't want to have to tear down a dry wall to have to access the wiring.
Hidden video screens?
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of video screens?
Which is worse: ignorance or apathy? Who knows? Who cares?
It would fly.
And not be limited to this planet.
I'm thinking a small computer (like a Via based something) should be keeping an eye on all of that lot, via a whole mish-mash of flow meters, volt meters, power meters, and who knows what else. Obviously, every light switch needs to be relay based so that "ship's computer" can control them at will. Obviously, all this is going to need a touch screen to report what the hell's going on with everything. It might be "important" to know that I've been using 10 litres of water for every kw/h of mains power or something ;-)
Audio-wise, I've got a couple of Squeeze Boxes, which work nicely from 12V. Of course they'll need some sort of amp, so probably something designed for a car would do well. Seeing as power consumption is an issue, the squeeze box will have to switch the amp on and off too.
Video wise, I'm not a big TV/movie watcher, so I figure that "ship's computer" just needs to be a file server so that I can plumb in some sort of diskless media machine later on. I'll have to flood-wire (pardon the nautical pun) cat5 or something for all that to work nicely.
Since most marinas have Wifi access, and since there are bound to be a few open access points along rivers, I figure the boat needs it's own access point, plus a 'roving' connection snooping out all those other Wifi APs. It'll need a 'preference list' so that it tunes into the right AP when there's a choice (and doesn't tune into the boat's local AP!).
Obviously, I'll have to spend months writing suitable software so that if the pontoon mains power fails (because I haven't paid the bills, or just because...) that the computer turns off lights, mains, and ultimately the domestic 12V so that it doesn't screw the batteries. I'll have to think about some sort of 'critical supply' for the computer and the fridge too.
Similarly, I suspect I'll tinker with the touch-screen UI for far too long too. I haven't really got much idea how it'll all work, but it'll be fun finding out.
I was also thinking along the lines of a couple of cameras. With all this automation, it seems that it's almost obligatory to have a way of seeing who's at the door long before getting off the sofa.
It'd be really cool to have some photovoltaics on the roof too. Not sure about the practicalities of that, given that the roof is a walking surface. Maybe a little windmill somewhere too, just for completeness ;-)
There's got to be some fun involved too. There needs to be a 'Barry White Button' somewhere that dims a load of lights, switches on the Squeeze Box (and amp), selects a suitable volume and plays some Barry White.
Okay, back to reality: I'm just about making the rent at the moment, so the prospect of buying such a boat and then doing all the work on it is quite a few years away. Everyone should go buy something from my company so I can get it all underway.
We know for what you need this house, Bruce...
Cell phones, bleepers (passe now), Wireless Everywhere. Always in touch. Frantic, frantic, frantic, but we can't give it up.
Half of me says my ideal house doesn't have a thing in it that was invented after, say August 6, 1945 -- an arbitrary day, the day Hiroshima ceased to exist and the Atomic Age began. Maybe a Butler, Maid and Chauffeur. I'd tear down several houses from a city block for my Mansion. The only high tech thing I would install would be signal interference so cell phones and wireless wouldn't work. Rotary phones and no microwave (if you like cooking a good pre-war stove is much better than anything made today short of the very high end).
The more practical half of me wants a unique and large space with private courtyards (just like the other place) hidden in the midst of a city. But with technology discreetly all over the place. With robotic servants. If computers must be ubiquitous in my life (I'm severely addicted) let them hide in the furniture. Let all the multimedia be centrally integrated. If I'm listening to music let it follow me around the house. I'd like the lights to turn themselves out when no-one is in the room (but more sophisticated than simple motion sensors that think no one is in the room when you're sitting still).
minds, get scrambled like eggs, abused and erased. Hard Hearted Alice is who you want to see.
A data bus that is. All electronic devices should plug into the home's "net" as easily as they jack into power, through a unified connector, or through the power line itself. A gateway appliance could allow permitted components within the home's net talk over the internet, but the home net wouldn't have to be super fast, just reliable.
I know similar ideas exist, like X10, but X10 is not very sophisticated. The whole business of getting compatible appliances to talk to each other automatically is also a sticky mess as I've seen it laid out, even if they understand XML and can exchange metadata. For example, how does the TiVo know if the cable box it is talking to is the one it is sitting under, and not the one upstairs? I suppose you could list all the cable boxes present at the home in the TiVo menu, but there are a couple problems with this. Not every device that will use the home net will have a screen, and those that do will present different interfaces for each user to figure out.
One solution would be to have a handheld device that "marries" one device to another. Light switch over here, meet light fixture from over there. This would also add some security to the system, and could avoid excess broadcasts from relying soley on a discovery protocol. An XML based discovery protocol could be optional, with a simplified but limited binary protocol for "dumb" devices like switches and fixtures. Ideally, devices should be required to talk first to the handheld before being recognized on the network.
Now most people will likely question the utility of such a setup, brushing it aside as an unneeded complexity, but it can make things easier through little usability enhancements that come with information sharing.
Examples -
-a home phone can show missed calls or who left messages, to your computer or cell phone
-climate control systems can adjust output based on occupancy, by adjusting the thermostat directly
-without wiring a sensor back to the original zone controller
-your A/V components can recognize each other
-auto-select inputs on the TV and receiver if you play a DVD
-output the right resolution and format
-DVR + cable box can work together to schedule recordings
-flash the lights if the phone rings and the radio is cranked
-page your phone when the wash is done, same for the oven timer
-start your coffee maker from bed, be notified when it is done
It seems every major appliance is going to have at least a microcontoller in it in the long term, so we might as well provide a generic way to interface to those appliances so they can be controlled and provide status information. The infrastructure for a device to integrate information from different devices and then to use that intelligence to programatically control itself and others, should ultimately reduce the effort we ourselves put into programmatic tasks (like changing a/v inputs) and allow forms of control that are now impractical because they require expensive custom infrastructure. Integration between devices will also mean better usability and better decision making, as in the case of a heating system that updates the thermostat to a lower temperature setting rather than cutting power to the valve for an unnoccupied zone. It is only a matter of time.
But to build such a system is a bit of a chicken and the egg problem. You aren't going to get a good selection of products that use this until there is a market for it, and vice versa. The commercial rewards are a long shot at present, since there are no standards.
Maybe someone with EE experience could create an open source platform for this, one that works over power lines for simplicity's sake. First off create reference schematics for simple X10 like outlets, switches, and lighting controllers, while adding the metadata these devices use to identify
If the walls are down, do what I did, run a 2" conduit into every room so that when you decide you want to change the wiring, you just pull it through the pipe.
I think that at its core a lot of home automation/integration is mostly a toy. Sure I can turn off the bedroom lights from any wall switch or remote in the house, but why would I? Yeah its neat to have preprogramming "Romantic" lighting scenes, but only the largest homes have more than one or two lights per room.
Instead focus on how the home can work for its occupants. Energy management is a good area. Zoned heating systems or variable drive heat/cool are still pretty rare, instead we have fancy programmable thermostats running 1930's on off control technologies. Temp and occupancy sensors in each room can manage climate loads, directing energy to where you need it, and anticipating where it will be needed next. Instead of a user setting a thermostat to a numerical temp they are give a simple thumbs up/down style too cool/too hot. The climate system can then goal seek over time. Many people's comfort temp changes with time of day, and the season and other factors like humidity and sun exposure.
A security system is a good choice for making the hub, it knows who's home and when they are likely to return. Keypads are the standard here, but maybe something simple like a row of keylocks. When you arrive home you put your key into your lock (one for each member of the family), and the system makes choices based on that (plus you can't lose keys). A simple button interface for "I"ll return in: 1,2,3,4,8 hours" will help the system choose how much to setback the thermostat.
I'd like to see my DVR work a little more for me.. a TV in the shower/mirror could run the last 30 minutes of Headline news, or compile other interesting data. (Adverts for todays tv programs with a simple. "Oh record that.." interface, Sport highlights, tech news read by supermodels... whatever.) In the morning all that bathroom time is wide open for productivity enhancements. Definately a hollywood toy... but it would make me "feel" more productive.
The kitchen is another place.. nobody has really hit the sweet spot on a kitchen management system. All it would need to be is a receipe file on acid.... It offers suggestions on things I might like to eat, makes shopping lists, and entertains me while I cook. Maybe scafing data from my DVR. (If I see something on a cooking show that seems good I'd like to zap the receipe and the show straight to my kitchen.) Ingredents tracking would be nice but barcode integration is too labor intensive.. I think RFID might break that barrier.
Maybe a way to sell home managment services.. a central panel that will offer to send over a handyman to change my furnace filters, offer convienient access to a maid service.... hotel for guests. If the manufacturer/seller doesn't get too greedy this might be really helpful.
Just some ideas..but the gist is, technology is often rigid, and seldom makes life easier... the occupants need to come first. Remember how few "labor saving" devices have actually saved us. We used to beat carpets once or twice a year.. now we are expected to vacuum weekly.
Mark
Forget the rest of the house for a moment. What I want is a bathroom made entirely of seamless, stainless steel. With steam jets, a floor drain, and an airlock-style door. Need to clean the tub? Close the door, and press the giant red _autoclave_ button.
I just really want to know how much a nice ad like this costs on slashdot?
Really, I have a small business that would like this kind of direct exposure without having it look like an ad.
I am a person that would if I could & plan in the future to have a futuristic home with no keys to it because it will be front door retina scans & or other biometric scans like thumb print and maybe palm or maybe dna(saliva) Yeh I know crazy hunh? but it would be a very fun house to me. I want a computer in every room, surround sound in everyroom, cameras all around the outside of the home, Laser heat seaking body heat motion sensors. Robotic cleaners, the famous mirror that has the internet and tv inside of the bathroom mirror, a toilet that can check your sugar, temperture, vitals, also if you have been eating right like the doctor told you to and so on or use a mat for that and the toilet would test your urine for other things like blood and stuff and then email the results to your doctor everyday. If my plumbing catches a leak it will call or email my plumber, My front door would have video voice mail recording for people that stop by and when I am not there, then the system will record why or when they stopped by and there face and a video message saying what ever they want & there face will be mapped & scanned & put in the home facial recognition database at that very moment ,so the next time the home would greet the visitor by name & would put there face & info in the database & on my friends list. I want to be off of the grid as far as paying the electric ripoff company anything, so I want to have the most state of the art solar system with rechargable batteries, heated copper piped heated floors solar shingles on the roof along side the new wind power technolgy spinning on the roof. An electric car not a hybrid where we still have to pay these already ripping us off government anything, All I would have to do is plug in my car everyday, thats it or use a compressed air vehicle with a pressed air fill-up machine in my garage. I want everyone in the house to wear a smart button either inside of there watch,glasses or pendent or what ever because it would be kinda cool, just say your children got away from you & you have a pool in the yard & as they were going out of the back door the house would let out a audible warning that little cindy is going out of the back door & her heat signatures shows she is headed towards the pool and then the house voice says someone come & get little cindy and then let's out aloud signal of some kind and that would help on little children falling in pools when there parents sometimes taking there eyes off of them for that 1 second, but there is never anything better then a body watching there own children I know that, but this would be just a safety tool, also the smart buttons would have gps and locating elements inside of them also , so you also can not only see where every person was on a local in room termial if you have that administrators privliges by being the adult of the house, but also be able to talk to them and see them using the in room video cameras, but the video cams could also be turned off by any adult that matched the dna signature for privacy. I would like to have a voice that greets me when I enter my house and say like high neo, How was your day? then I say My day was fine, How has your day been hal(the computer) he or she says fine,nothing major. I have 3 video & voice door messages & 30 emails & 9 voicemail messages for you, Would you like me to play them for you? And I would say yes hal, play them for me. Also other things like automated walls & tiles on the floor that changed as I walked on them, hidden secure safe room, flat screens everywhere in everyroom even in the bathroom and kitchen and I am not talking about small screens I am talking about smart wrap 42 to 100 inch touchscreens. The future is hours, screw the old politicians & outdated tech companies not to mention boreing nasa with no imaginations. Let's live life & not let life stay in one spot & time. etc I have so many ideas for a future home that I can taste it. I do not and never want to live in tha
Me Traditional never. ME futuristic forever. Geek Power!
One design paradigm.
Rather then a hodge-podge of radically different systems, I'd like to see a minimum of functional modules that could be:
All systems Electromagnetic interference hardened.
Systems to have local distributed UPS functionality.
Low bandwidth X-10(tm) style environmental control for:
Failover to a manual default on loss of function and communication.
Smart Human Interface Devices that identify which room they are in, and configure to that rooms functionality.
Lightweight bandwidth requirements, power line operation, and easy to navigate and use.
(say while injured, or functionally impaired when sick, suffering allergy attacks, or less then sober).
Failover protection to a safe state on malfunction.
Data taps for high bandwidth requirements: computer, video, audio communication feeds.
Redundant router/switches with failover behavior.
Modular construction.
User transparent so that it looks/acts like current power and telco technologies so user doesn't need a major paradigm shift to use it.
Learning system behavior with constant predictor/corrector behavior.
Ideal integrated home acts transparently.Replication of design elements for economy of scale and low cost.
Very little that makes it stand out.
Whole-house audio? Hidden video screens? Expandable at will.
Automatic locks? ok
Is the technology ready for prime time? No.
This is progress?
Which is sunlit whenever the sun is up and yet my computer monitor do not reflect sunlight, ever. I do not know whether it's even possible. But I would _love_ it.
Yea, this is close to my pre-empted post - though I would want low-pro 'plumbing' throughout the house to run to plants. Each water port should have its flow individually controlled. A wiring system should be able to receive data from a moisture sensor in each pot, to adaptvely water plants per their need.
Kind of like what I'm tinking together slowly - but I'd buy it from someone =)
.
-shpoffo
Invisible technology is the best and simple and function is crutial to that. What does that mean?
I'd like to be able to call on a phone and using voice commands have the porch lights on, the house warmed up. I'd like electronic door locks so I can easily set the combination so I can let friends enter in advance. I'd like to play music stored on my computer anywhere in the house. I'd like to watch video stored on my computers on any television in the house. I'd like to have a single remote control that doesn't require a millions steps so a casual visitor can understand how to use it in moments - a non-techie visitor, say someone in their 70s. I'd like to be able to control most of this from my laptop over the internet using a trivial human interface. I'd like to use small distributed controllers to do this that don't have a lot of smarts but enough to work well on their own so the household system can sleep and not use a lot of energy. Obviously all computer connections are wireless except for those serving high-speed video/internet which uses fiber.
Most of this would be most useful in our vacation home where I'd like to monitor inside and outside temperatures, maybe a bit of video but not continuous.
Failure modes should fail SAFE and should tell me if there's a problem either over the net or via a telephone call.
I don't want automated appliances. I do want SIMPLICITY.
My ideal home would be one that was paid off.
If something as complex and integrated as a home which currently needs lots of on site assembly could be made so cheap to produce and efficient to reprocess that they could be set up, redone, or got rid of at will then that would be cool. It might also help with the sustainability thing as long as the process doesn't take too much energy.
every switch, every bulb, every fixture on a custom circuit that can be bound together in interesting and usefull ways
each room has a distinct sound system with connection to the media center for mp3/radio as well as telephony and internet through a touch screen that includes reprograming as well as TV and controls for the media center
touch screen flat panel in the kitchen for recipies and all that
voice activate the whole thing with access to any circuit from any room, "computer, turn on the lights in the basement and the garage" spoken from the car or the family room, for example. Or, "computer, dial ma fifedrum at 4pm on July 2nd if we're home" or "computer, call 911" or "computer, find Sarah Connor."
stuff like that
It's zar DOE, no mister, accent on the DOE.
http://www.missilebases.com/new/
I wish there was a equivilent to LEGO for building a home... when you get bored of a room, you just take it apart, or say you now have 3 kids instead of two, you could create a third kids room, or carve out a third room from other areas of the house.
Though my main thing is moving outlets and light switches. Gawd damn how I hate every place I ever lived that I wind up losing half the outlets to book cases.
In addition to all of the 'normal' options, ie, streaming media and a functional computer access in every room, home theater, blah, blah, blah, for many years I have had this idea in my mind of a home that is fully automated and keyed to voice command.
Want to make a phone call, run a bath, make coffee, look up information on the internet, purchase theater tickets? Simply speak your access keyword, and full command of any and all options are available upon request in an interactive voice format that parses normal conversational requests.
Conceptually the keyword would be patterned along the pseudo name of your automated valet. Mine was always going to be "McTavish".
Not quite Star Trek, but undoubtedly still beyond the scope of today's technology, even with unlimited funds.
But who knows? Maybe someday soon we'll see this as a Sourceforge project in the works!
DaveJ45
Differences between how you act when some one is watching, and how you act when no one is watching, define who you are
1.Cat5 UTP everywhere for data .au)
2.Coax cable everywhere for entertainment (video/audio/etc)
3.Phone cables for those places where you want telephones (VOIP just isnt quite here yet in
4.Conduits for everything so you can replace it later (e.g. when it becomes cost effective to run 1000baseFX or something)
5.Automatic locks with keyfobs everywhere so that the house is as secure as it can possibly be. One press of the keyfob would unlock the front door, the front deadbolt AND the front screen door (the kind with those extra deadbolts). Once inside, one press of the keyfob would lock all 3 locks again so that burglers cant get in.
6.As many gadgets to help keep the house clean as possible (robot vaccuum cleaner, steam mop, robot lawn-mower etc)
7.Nice fast internet connection for sucking down large downloads
8.Good burglar alarm (with smoke detectors etc)
9.Storage area to put the linux box I keep meaning to obtain and setup
10.Dedicated room for my LEGO building
11.Home theater room (and kit) to watch DVDs on
12.Everything possible to save energy
Why is it so hard to find a builder that will actually put cables like networking and audio-visual in as part of the plan? If you want it done, generally its very difficult to get the builder to let you do it plus the builder can/will ruin your work later. I want a house where networking and audio-visual cabling has been drawn into the plans alongside the power and water and where its installed as part of the construction
* Rainwater catchment system feeds into landscape irrigation system.
* Solarium/greenhouse, passive solar, with hot tub (tankless hot water heater). Hot tub water recycles to plants after chlorine evaps.
* CCTV -> webcam/floodlights for outside of house (motion detector) and cat cam inside (motion detector) for peace of mind when traveling.
* Smart heat/air exchanger in bathroom with timer.
* Timers on simple control panel for various lights.
... is a pornographic holodeck. I'd never have to leave the house again.
I would like * a built-in carwash * instant hot water everwhere. * a washing machine that can wash lots of clothes, and does not mix colors with the whites, and dry them too.
1. BIG kitchen. I love to cook and I've found anything short of a commercial kitchen inevitably is too small or doesn't have enough counter space.
2. Atrium or other plant space. I spend a lot of time inside the house and am not much of a gardener, but love having plants nearby.
3. Voice control of most functions. I'd like to be able to say (from the sofa) "Open the downstairs windows and start the attic fan." or "Lower the lights 50%." But keep it simple with a dedicated computer system so it's responsive, not busy doing a defrag or other task and mistaking my comment on the current movie of "It's bloody wonderful" for "Clean the blood from the hall."
4. Sufficient infrastructure for cabling and wiring without having to punch holes in walls.
5. Energy efficiency and alternate forms of heating/cooling so I'm not entirely dependent on the Light and Power (and Gas) companies. I'm willing to put solar panels on the roof or a windmill in the backyard.
6. ARCHITECTURE! Please, please, please, design something that is beautiful too, not a faux Tudor-style or anything kitschy. Design something from the ground up that fits it's environment and has some real beautiful touches. (See Frank Lloyd Wright) Stay away from "styles" that are used in subdivisions (YUK) and the 21st century "office building" trend of going all glass and steel.
Nitewing '98
Everything works...in theory.
I want a shower with heads on either side of the tub, so two can shower at once without one hogging the only stream.
No, I will not work for your startup
I would have a 2 foot thick brick wall built around my yard. Near the corners there would be 3 storey tall watch towers, also made of brick. I would have a 2 lot wide castle. No technology other than good old fazshioned castle building. Perhaps I would have security cameras or alarms with motion tracking spotlights.
Structured cabling. My house is several hundred years old in places, there are three-foot thick stone walls which wifi will never penetrate (cellphones scarely get signal.)
"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." -- Goethe
... an interest-only, option-ARM, negative amortization mortgage.
Unlike about 70-80% of the stupid, stupid schmucks buying homes in southern California these days.
My apartment is 1100sq', 2 bedrooms, large living room, kitchen, full bath. Not cramped at all, but i cant say ive ever been in a house that size...
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Good, i can tell my fiance that so shell feel better about me spending $1k on a home theater for our college apartment.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I'd like a house whose 1/3 is in the ground, basement poured out of CEMENT, the other 2/3 made out of REAL brick blocks actually supporting the house and bound with mortar, the roof made out of terra cota, and I want that house to be heated by water pipes embedded into the cement floors, in short, centrally water heated system.
Also, I'd like every floor to be poured out of reinforced concrete instead of plywood planks, and I'd like mortar insulation both on the inside and on the outside, as well as a white facade on the outside.
And, I want solar panels with both water pipes and cells in them, so that they generate both heated water and electricity. This implies batteries for storage. While we're on the subject, I'd also want a diesel or a gas generator with a distribution panel, so it'd automatically kick in if the power goes out.
In short, I'd like to have a typical environemnt-friendly, energy conserving, european family house. Which doesn't get blown away when the hurricane or a tornado strike.
Really simple.
I like the Earthship concept, but I also like the geodesic dome and a pyramid.
In the event that I ever win the Powerball, I'll be building one of them.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
'nuff said
I hate to say it, but that's terrible advice.
1) As a builder, I can tell you that the McMansions going up on the edge of town, out in the boonies, or on tiny plots where they replace little ranch houses, are generally terrible. They're built as investments by speculators, on the cheap, with Home Depot windows and no architect. Not only do you get shoddy workmanship, but they are 20-70% uglier than average. There is no telling if the market will continue to support the real-estate boom, and these things will be the first to loose value. Not to mention the fact that re-doing, for instance, the entire heating system ten years down the road might prove somewhat expensive.
2) They're sucking up otherwise useful forest and meadow. Seriously, if you're thinking about children, why not consider their well-being and leave them a little enviornment. Buy a house in the middle of town, and take them for a walk in the country.
It was all laid out in Bradbury's "The Veldt," 56 years ago. Forget those weird people, though (the Hadleys and that McClean guy).
The technology needs to be simple for the user - highly automated and highly reliable, so it won't require a complex UI. Very close to a ubiquitous vision then.
On the other hand it should be highly configurable by the user/OEM vendor. This would mean open platforms, in practice Linux, and/or highly developed UIs for 'power users'.
For home power users, a wireless pad like the Nokia 770 would could be the ideal control interface - you could control and configure anything from anywhere in your home!
Varis
Check my blog at http://icct.blogspot.com/ for more ideas on the pads
Just really neat.
First of all - the idea of having a toilet in the same room as a shower/bath? Scrap that! I don't want to sit in a bath, soaking for an hour to the stench of whomever just visited! Toilets in a room for themselves, please! And add LOTS of exhaust venting to that room. While I can see it as a fun thing to have people hair getting sucked towards the ceiling, that might be a bit much, but I'm sure you get the idea.
Secondly - all bathroom mirrors should have anti-fogging whatever on them.
Third - all bathroom walls and floors should have heating. Nothing worse than relaxing in a warm bath and then having to scamper to find tiles that aren't 10 C!
Fourth - kitchen tables shouldn't be fixed. I want ones that I can lower or lift easily like office furniture. I'm 193 cm (6'4"), which makes my perfect work height about 25 cm higher than my girlfriend's work height. If they could also be pulled away from the walls, that'd be just perfect - that way I can clean behind them and get rid of the gunk.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
More than anything American's have achieved everything but substance in their lives. Building homes that reward them with substance, value and meaning drives the market in the upper end. Home theater is just riding the coat tails of this substance trend until it too is thrown off.
My futuristic house harks back to the days when building was done with stone masons and huge timber beams. Homes in Europe, France, Italy, Spain continue to service their occupants hundreds of years beyond constuction.
Medical science has made us outlast our electronics, automobiles, 2x4 stick houses, even the 30 year roof. I like clay tiles which don't require reroofing. Who'd a thought sewer pipe cut in half used as roof tiles would ever catch-on?
All the lights in my house could easily run by solar battery system. For christ's sake solar powered battery chargers can light your walkway in your garden, why not your house? Bye, bye grid. Battery + Solar charging is doable.
It would be self-sufficient; it would turn on the lights and the TV when I went through the door. It would also have DNA verification as the key, perhaps fingerprinting. I would have a fallout shelter below the surface (not just for paranoia; the peace and tranquility are an extra good plus), and probably some good solar backup would be cool. I would also have the house solar heated; and in every room in the house, I would like flip-down TV's - all of which mechanically flip down whenever a weather warning is issued (as they often are in Michigan).
It would also be cool to have one computer room in the house that contained all the computers that I own. They would be hooked up to every TV in the house. By each TV there would be a keyboard/mouse, and at a few 'stations', I'd have some peripherial hook ups (USB ports in the wall) so I could add stuff to certain computers on the fly. I would also have in the computer room a temperature monitoring device and a few Tivo's to distribute signals accross the house to the other TVs.
And if I somehow was able to afford all this, I would also probably be able to afford a room with a big skylight that could be opened or closed at my discretion.
If only, If Only...
I'll say this much for X10. It allowed me to see what is possible, I just don't use it for much more than a remote control for the floor lamp behind my desk.
Fortunately there are better things out there than X10. Universal Powerline Bus (UPB) would be the one I would like to give a try if it wasn't so expensive. What's better than X10? It's faster, the devices acknowlege the transfer, and the devices can let the rest of the system know when they are manually changed. It isn't just a slave to the computer.
As far as prices go, $75 for a light switch/control $95 for a serial to UPB for computer control, $85 to $95 for an inline relay or outlet. To replace a house worth of outlets and light switches would be very expensive.
What I would like to know is if their relays are any quieter than the X10 ones. I tried having X10 turn on a light for me in the morning, but waking up to a loud THUNK wasn't what I had in mind.
Here where I live, everyone has a snow shovel and bag of ice by the door in winter - why not a small closet by the do or to store them in?
Most toilets have a plunger next to them- why not a small door or niche in the sink pedestal to store it?
Some people like to take their shoes off at the door - why not drawers to store them in?
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
What Would Be Your Ideal Futuristic Home?
Enterprise-D
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
>The distance between the screen and your eyes ideally should be about 2-3 times the height of the screen (at least, if we're talking about high definition TV. Sit further away, and you'll lose all of the extra detail you paid for when you bought an HD set).
Parent is correct. Regardless of format, I typically tend to prefer viewing at 2600-3200 pixel-heights away. For HDTV, that means 2600/1080 = ~2.4 screen heights, but for 720p on a DLP projector, I prefer 2600/720 = ~3.6 (i.e. 15' from a 100" diagonal 16:9 screen), and on my 36" sony wega xbr in 16:9 mode, I prefer to sit about 9' away, which is 6.7 letterboxed screen heights. 6.7x480 = ~3200; the upsampling to 960 isn't 'real' information, so it doesn't count, but it does help explain why I sit farther away. For computer monitors, I typically work at 3200/768 = ~4.2 screen heights to reduce eyestrain from focusing too closely (i.e. I sit 40" away from my 16" monitor).
Assuming 2600/resolution and knowing that the typical American living room allows for 8' viewing distance, we can compute optimal screen sizes for each resolution. Widescreen formats: 1080 = ~81", 720 = ~54", and 480 = ~36". Standard 4:3 NTSC at 480 lines = ~30".
p.s. 20/20 vision is defined as 2.5' of arc / 60 = 0.04167 degrees for 3 pixels (black/white/black). So assuming you wanted to be able to see black/white/black or white/black/white full-contrast pixels, the typical person will need to sit within 4125 pixel-heights of the screen. For 1080i/p that's 3.8x, 720i/p = 5.7x, and 480i/p = 8.6x. However, if you don't want to be able to see pixels, you'll want to sit farther away. hehe.
p.p.s I can clearly see the lines between the pixels on a 100" 16:9 screen with a 720p DLP projector up until about 10' away. Given that 90% of the DLP pixel reflects light, that means only 5% of the pixel width is "line". That means I resolve about 35000 x line height, or about about 8.5x finer detail than than 20/20 vision predicts (granted, it's a repeated pattern, which is much easier to detect than a single 'E', which is the true definition of 20/20 vision).
One that cleans itself & has enough outlets for our geek things, along with some good storage space!