Your Washer is Calling and the Dryer is on IM

netbuzz writes "Laundry Time, an eight-week pilot program from the Internet Home Alliance, begins next week with three Atlanta families and the technology and services of Microsoft, HP, Panasonic, Proctor & Gamble and Whirlpool. The idea is to allow family members to receive alerts and control certain laundry functions from their PCs, cell phones and TV sets, presumably so they can spend more time with their PCs, cell phones and TV sets." I am all for tech for the sake of tech, but I'm pretty sure this is one of the signs of the Apocalypse Nostradamus prognosticated.

Comments

Wrong name

[dereference]

Its called marketing. Put a hare-brained idea out there and get people writing articles mentioning your company name.

...Unless, that is, they get your company name wrong! It's Procter & Gamble (not Proctor & Gamble). TFA gets it wrong as well, but that's probably why the company has mostly been using just P&G lately. Not that it matters much; we've apparently degenerated into a society that doesn't value spelling anyway.

Re:Washine Machine

[Anonymous Coward]

I turn my range off at the fuse box when I go on trips. The controls are touch activated and there is a very outside chance that my one of my cats turning it on.

Also, get an alarm system like Brinks. They'll call you (and the fire dept/police) if your house is on fire or someone breaks in.

Real automation in washer/dryers

[Animats]

All that user intervention is silly. What you want is a combination washer/dryer. These were first offered in 1958, and they're still around. No need to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. The latest models even dispose of the lint down the drain.

This is way ahead of having to communicate with the thing remotely.

Another idea that seems to have disappeared from washing machines is a soap tank. You just fill one tank with Liquid Tide, another tank with fabric softener, and it does the rest. That was tried in the 1960s.

Some of the more advanced machines, like the Maytag Neptune, sense the dirt content of the drain water and the water content of the dryer exhaust air to decide automatically how much washing and drying is needed. The Neptune can deal with an out-of-balance condition by itself, too.

Another useful facility would be to have the dryer do an extra few turns every few minutes after it is done, to prevent wrinkling.

Re:Real automation in washer/dryers

[wilko11]

I have one of those LG Combined washer/dryer things and they are a great washer but a crappy dryer. Rather than use hot air like most dryers, they use water somehow - In a way this is nice because they don't exhaust humid air into the room (assuming you can't vent to the outside somehow) - but it takes about 3 hours to dry a load and uses more water than you save by using the more efficient front-loader style machine. Also you can't start washing the next load until the drying is finished. Unfortunately we didn't realise these limitations until after we had bought the machine - as a result we now have one of these sitting on top of the washer - it has the auto sensing thing and the anti-wrinkle feature too!

Re:Real innovation

[YrWrstNtmr]

You know what I'd like to see. A washing machine that, whence done washing, starts drying the clothes!!!

Here ya go. 10 sec on google...

Re:Use case: the Shared Laundry Room

[CheeseTroll]

Looks like Speed Queen has something like what you've described. Except more complicated, and very proprietary.