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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."
Talk about life changing technology!
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
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
It sounds like a great idea, but think of awkwardness it could come up with once it's fully implimented...
"BEEP BEEP! Time to walk the... oh, I see you're a little busy... I'll remind you in a couple minutes or so... (that IS all you'll need, right?)"
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.
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"
Well that took much less time than anticipated.
http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/5738
No more roland piquipaki! Thanks to Brendan Donahue, script author.
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
Here's a technical PDF on the system. Guess what? This is a Trusted Computing system!
It specifies devices to contain security module / security component. It specifies that this security component contains a crypto key and that the owner is forbidden to know or read his own keys (that is what they mean when the PDF says "non cloneable"). It specifies using public key cryptography for chips to exchange communication keys in a manner secure against the owner, and specifies Confidentiality as establishing communication links which are secure against the owner "eavesdropping" on his own data. It specifies Authenticity capabilites, meaning that neither the owner nor any competitor can produce a device that can be substituted in your own network in place of a given device. Any attempt at an interoperable substitution will lack the required manufacturer's cryptographic key and signature to authenticate the device, and other devices can reject the substitute and reject its connections and prohibit it from operating in the original device's place.
Every time the PDF uses the word secure or security, it is used in the sense of securing the system against the owner. The PDF literally classifies the owner as an "intruder" at one point, and to be secure against him.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
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.