Slashdot Mirror
Talking Mirror, Pirate Skull Security System
junger writes "Themeaddicts, owned by a Hollywood animatronics guru famous for doing the T-rex in Jurassic Park, has created a home security system with a talking mirror (complete with floating head), talking pirate skull, and talking toucan. It informs the homeowner of things like a car coming up the driveway or the jacuzzi reaching the right temperature, and it turns into a surveillance camera."
I don't know how many times I've wondered what temperature my jacuzzi was, and wanted a parrot to deliver the news!
Yes yes yes, shiny gadgetry to do little of import.
On the other hand, it is "kewl", and could evolve into some genuinely useful stuff.
For example, a friend came home last weekend to find his live-in elderly mother, already incapacitated by a stroke, had been lying on the floor for 3 hours after a bad fall. If a house system had been able to identify someone was unmoving in a non-stationary part of the house it could have informed him, supplied images to his cellphone, tied into his intercom system to communicate with her.
(Yes, there are all sorts of other things to be done for his mother, and he has, including an emergency-call amulet - she didn't use it. The point is these technologies could move into these areas improving them)
For another example, an former boyfriend of mine has a condo in a resort area several hours from his primary residence. Setting up a webcam to monitor it visually was an obvious step towards maintaining the home, but a "smart" system that could make limited 'decisions' such as thresholds for activity before alerting him, monitoring temperature or water levels, etc. would be quite valuable. Yes one can really geek out now and do it with X-10 etc. gadgets but he's not, he's just an average fella willing to spend a few bucks on some easy to install/use package for his vacation home.
Then there's the partner-factor. If the significant other isn't comfortable having it in the home, using it, then it's a no-go. If putting a friendly interface on it makes it that much more usable then that is, as Martha would decree, "a good thing".
Personally I'd love a front door "window" that would direct package deliveries to my always-home neighbor, display to religious proselytizers an animated rendition of them (complete with inserted photos of their faces) dropping into the pits of hell, and inviting everyone else to record a video message that will be relayed to me. Allowing me to respond with unlocking the door or lawn sprinklers as appropriate would be a cherished upgrade!
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
But every *serious* switch, router, bridge or other piece of networking gear does.
Watch the videos. Also, why is there no more pictures of the technology? I have never seen any screen that looked like a perfect mirror while it was "off". It seems that this alone could be worth selling.
Is this really what people in general think of as 'great' and desirable? A house where you hardly have to move to achieve anything, with loads of electric and electronic gadgets that can do it all for you? To me it seems like what I call stupid luxury: luxurious things that you don't need, which will in the end make you less able to function on your own.
Take a thing like the microwave oven and the ready-made meals: A great thing because now you can try out a huge range of dishes that you would never ever be able to cook yourself. But the price is that you forget how to actually cook a decent meal; or if you are young, you never even learn it in the first place. And meanwhile the food companies do their utmost to find cheaper ways of producing things, mostly by replacing good ingredients with crap and additives - this is called product development and advertised as 'new, improved recipe'.
No, to me a really nice, luxurious and cool home would be something entirely different. It would a have nice, but not overworked garden, there would be floors and walls of natural stone or wood, the kitchen would be simple, with just the things you actually need. There would be no TV; there would be a good computer and good network connection. And that's it, no stupid automation, no stupid crap that tries to think and live for you so you don't have to yourself.
People with little money have just as little taste, but they can't show it, um, as flamboyantly
Or else we'd have copies of Las Vegas popping up all over the place (shudder)
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I was alive in the sixties. 1968 was the year I went into the Army. I just thought it was a good comment on the appearance of the mirror. But to imagine being stoned, and walking by that mirror, now thats spooky!
:)
Without a doubt the sixties had a profound impact on society, perhaps as much or more as the 1940's, and World War II in particular. Would I want to return to the sixties? Nope, I like it here just fine
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com