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Networking For Overconvenience
Roland Piquepaille writes "For several decades now, we've read that our homes will become smart and that we'll have many robotic slaves at our service. But it's never really worked. A recent European initiative called TEAHA (short for 'The European Application Home Alliance') wants to give another try, and it has enrolled some big industrial partners to make all our appliances interoperate seamlessly. Imagine a message on your TV telling you it's time to start the laundry! Read more for additional details and illustrations describing the concepts."
My interest isn't as much in having normal appliances that talk to each other, although that could be cool (for instance, a dishwasher and washing machine that know not to turn on when the shower is in use.. that would be pretty cool), but rather appliances that are just more accurate. I dream of the day that I won't have to posess bank-burglar safe-cracker finger dexterity to get my shower to the exact temperature I desire, but rather I can just dial in a digital thermostat to 102.5F or whatever suits me. Some fixtures are making headway in this direction.. these Hansa faucets with LEDs that tint the water red or blue (for cold or hot) have been available for a while, although they don't come cheap.. they're at least a step in the right direction, since I think most of us have occasionally stuck our hands under scalding water by accident [presuming it was instead on "cold" mode].
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
Imagine a message on your TV telling you it's time to start the laundry! Read more for additional details and illustrations describing the concepts.
Imagine, popup advertising following you around the house!
Push Button, Receive Bacon
Imagine a message on your TV telling you it's time to start the laundry!
If that's the best example they can come up with, then I don't have high hopes for this technology. Seriously guys, if you want to get consumers to buy all-new networked home appliances then at least present us with a decent reason why.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
To make matters worse, there have been studies that support the fact that pregnant women stressed by all these gadgets/technology, are more likely to have kids with severe mental or psychotic problems. Do you know that the chances of a kid getting a brain disorder are just 1 in 166? It iused to be 1 in 11000 in the late sixties.
Talk about life changing technology!
Yeah.. shopping for a microwave-oven:
-Does it have firewall embedded?
-Yes, with antispyware and phishing filters that call home, too!
gtkaml.org
I can get my girlfriend (or wife or mom) to nag me about doing the laundry. I can set alarms on my phone, PDA, computer, digital watch, even involve some loudspeakers without much difficulty. None of that means I'll actually DO the laundry. Where's the invention that will collect and automatically DO my laundry? That's what I'm waiting for. Something useful.
The problem with the idea is getting the household appliance industry to agree upon some standards, and I would bet that this would an industry particularly resistant to the idea.
// file: mice.h
#include "frickin_lasers.h"
If the TV tells you to start your laundry, then the house isn't doing its job. You should be able to toss your laundry down a chute, and have it automatically sorted, washed, dried, and returned to you, ready to wear again. I don't want a TV or house that acts like a naggy mother.
All misspellings and grammatical errors in the above post are intentional and part of my artistic expression.