Slashdot Mirror
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."
For hot water we've got one of these. They have temperature control that you "dial in" via a remote control pad. We've only got one in the kitchen but you can install more than one per unit.
Personally I want home appliances that simply *work*. I don't really care how fast the internet is on my fridge, if it stops cooling my food within 5 years I'd be very dissapointed. We went through several dishwashers before getting a Bosch which is fairly featureless, but is very reliable.
In terms of the television diary-like-system mentioned in the summary, it's probably usefull for a house-husband, but it's been my experience that women simply don't have trouble with this sort of thing. Not meaning to be sexist, but women handle the multitasking nature of housework *much* better than men. If they're not they're either in the statistical minority, or too stressed by career responsibilites etc.
*sigh* Maybe I'm just too traditional for "modern life"...I'll crawl back to my hippy commune now.
I have some ideas that would make this worth while...
Someone mentioned dial-a-temperature showers. Definitely good, but not really 'networked'... and can definitely be done without it.
TV/DVR/Game Console/etc that work -together-. Why does my TV only have 4 inputs, and why doesn't it -know- what's on each one? With a usb-type system, components could be chained together and the TV could simply display a list of all the components that are connected. It could even turn the unit on, if it's off when you switch to it. A game console could automatically pause, if you switch displays to another unit. The PC could automatically password-lock if you switch away. Too many ideas here.
TV is also connected to the house network for monitoring purposes. The burglar alarm says someone is approaching the front door. It shows them on the display. It's mom, so you use the remote to unlock the front door. (Not wireless, so it can't be exploited.)
Home Monitor also notices that you finished cooking, but left the stove on. Or that the stove has been on for 5 minutes, but you haven't set a timer yet, so it warns you in case you forgot about it. (This would save me constantly.) Timer is on the network so that it can warn you that the lasagna's done and get you to stop playing the Game Console long enough to get it out. Or the laundry is done, or... Too many ideas here.
Alarm clocks on a per-person, per-day schedule. It can even track you in case you end up sleeping on the couch that night, and be sure to wake only the right person up.
The remote control is actually part of the network, instead of being attached to a certain device. You can select what device you want to access and the remote's LCD is reconfigured for that.
Kids got the stereo too loud? Turn it down for them. Remotely.
Kids watching TV after bed time? Turn it off for them. Remotely. Or send them a video message telling them how upset you are.
Stuck in the bathroom with no toilet paper? Tell your significant other remotely, voice only. No more shouting.
I'm not done, these are just off the top of my head. They seem like minor annoyances, until you've had the tech to do that. And then they are huge assets to life. But notice that nowhere did I say all of these apps should be on the internet. No, with the ability of hackers to get into ANYTHING, I completely recommend that the internet is not even hooked into this system at all. That should be a completely seperate network. Closed circuit, as it were.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
This is a rule I sort of made up for purchasing these sorts of things. People sell home automation on things you want a few times a year. How many times have you wanted to change the temp of your house from work? Yeah, every now and then you may be leaving early/late etc and want the house to be warm/cold when you get home. To me this is about 5 times a year, I have a programmable thermostat that turns the heat on and off at preset times that are set broadly enough to cover most days. Also for laundry dishes etc, I don't care when they are done. Maybe if I was in an apt sharing washers with several other people, but my clothes can sit there for a while, even overnight if I forget, no biggie. Agian, this would be useful about 5 times a year. Now if you made some home automation that folded clothes and put them away, I would use that 52 times a year or more. I'd be willing to pay Big Bucks(tm) for this. Basicly I want rosie the robot to do my chores. I have a roomba for the floors and it's pretty nice, although it doesn't clean as well as a full sized vacuum I feel that it lets me vacuum by hand about half as often. I await you home automation overloads.