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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.
I can think of one, and only one case where this would be more useful than a simple audio alarm: the shared laundry room.
If you've ever lived in a college dorm, or in an apartment complex that provides a communal laundry room (and extracts cash from you, either in the form of quarters or a reloadable card), SOP is to put your clothes in the washer, go back to your room/apartment/etc., then come back when they're done. Chances are you've encountered the fatal flaw: When your laundry is ready to go into the dryer, someone else's clothes have often been sitting there, dry, for 10 minutes, and it'll be another half hour before they remember to pop in and take them out.
The low-tech solution for the one with clothes in the dryer is this: Check your watch when you start the dryer, do a little math, and come back in 45 minutes. If you're really worried you'll forget, set an alarm. You've probably got a kitchen timer at worst, and if you're reading Slashdot, chances are your watch has 25 alarm settings anyway.
The low-tech solution for the one waiting to use the dryer is to open it up and move the other person's clothes out of the way. Ironically, the solution to lack of consideration by one person is... lack of consideration by the other. Which can escalate into a cycle of anger, and neighbor feuds, and next thing you know there'll be a neutral zone and Jimmy Carter will be coming in to make sure that your complex doesn't break into open warfare. *ahem* Sorry about that...
Anyway, something like this could work as a remote "Your laundry's done, doofus, get it the hell out of the way" alert. You could use single-use pagers like restaurants do for reservations, but this way you don't have to worry about range, or (since people are using their own phones) someone walking off with the pager after they're done.
Pity that the one place it would be useful is also the least likely place for it to be implemented.
Whenever I go on a long trip, I am always somewhat nervous that I'm going to return and find my house burned to the ground because I left the oven on or something silly like that. My appliances emailing me every so often to let me know they're still in working order but turned off might be useful. Or maybe I should just see a psychiatrist.
Back in the late 80's or early 90's a friend of mine was seeking out home appliances which had some sort of network ability already. They were pretty hard to find, but the one which amazed me was a toaster. These were probably sometihng meant for an early theme of home network and information and control of appliances, but IIRC these had an EIA or sommat specification already worked out and manufacturers had bought into, believing the world would beat a path to their doors.
Apparently not many people went for that level of sophistication so, as I said, they were hard to find and didn't hang around for long.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar