Sony Outlets Control Electricity Through Authentication

itwbennett writes "Sony on Tuesday demonstrated new 'smart sockets' that 'perform authentication whenever a device is plugged in,' said Taro Tadano, a general manager in Sony's technology development division. The company also demoed a home power grid that tracks electricity use by time and appliance." This has led to speculation that the technology will be used in some places to charge consumers for the use of electricity.

Comments

Power piracy

[JWSmythe]

    Perfect. Steal some outlets (carefully) from a hotel, and put them at the house. It'll be a whole new world of piracy. Wait til they start getting cloned. I'd bet the power company may have a huge bill for their own offices.

Re:Power piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, because nobody will think of correlating where the outlet IS versus where the drain is coming from.

Your plan requires the people to be incredibly stupid. A not unreasonable belief, but it strains some credulity.

Re:Power piracy

[localman57]

Don't underestimate the power of stupid plans. There's a reason hotels used to put stickers that said "THIS REMOTE WILL NOT WORK WITH YOUR TV AT HOME" on TV remotes, and bolt them to the night stand.

Re:Power piracy

[hawguy]

Even if you could do this, why would you want to? Do you want to pay the hotel every time you use your pay-for-power enabled toaster at home?

This isn't a device to let the power company monitor your power usage, it's a way for the facility owner to do so (and possible to charge you for usage). It requires an on-premises controller to communicate with the outlets. When you bring the hotel's outlet home, it won't talk to your controller (well, probably not) and certainly won't send a bill for your usage to the hotel.

Re:Power piracy

[arth1]

Correct. For hotels, this is more likely going to make them able to charge for "extra power usage". If you use the lamps, TV, coffee maker and clock radio, they'll have plugs that identify them, so no extra charge. But if you plug in your laptop, they'll bill you for the extra usage at astronomical rates, like they do for phone calls.

Of course, I always have crocodile clips in my computer bag. If nothing else to get POTS dialup from third rate hotels. However, they can just as easily be used on electric cords. There even are outlets that can be screwed into lamp sockets, so I think this will be about as successful as the last time it was tried by hotels, with a meter in the wall socket itself. Didn't work then, won't work now. At best, some customers will say fuck it and choose a different hotel, and a manager will get a bonus before he gets fired, and the hotels will declare the experiment a success before abandoning it. I.e. your typical flop.

The only practical application I can think of is to prevent children from watching TV or playing games by deauthorizing the plug at certain hours. But even then, children as resourceful and will find ways around it. Doing actual parenting has a greater chance of success.

Re:Power piracy

[kiwimate]

I can't speak for the guy you're responding to, but I did read it all. FYI, I work in the electric/utilities industry and am a Smart Grid specialist. No, not at a Sony lookalike, I'm in the wholesale electric quadrant (WEQ).

There are a lot of people taking this very seriously. For instance, NIST is holding a conference in Chicago next month to talk about cyber physical security design at the engineering (think CAD CAM jockeys) level. That's being followed up by a two day conference at their HQ in Gaithersburg MD to talk about CPS at a more strategic level. The first day will be hearing from other industries what they do in CPS space. The second day will be discussing how it applies to the electric industry. That's being followed by another two day workshop by the Cyber Security Working Group of the SGIP to start the next revision of the NIST IR 7628. That's just off the top of my head of what's coming up in the next few weeks.

Clasma this year started a new conference in their schedule, Grid Sec (or something like that). Clasma, if you don't recognize the name, is the crowd that runs Grid Week, Grid Interop, and Connectivity Week.

If you can think about problems and vulnerabilities, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine there are a bunch of people who do this day in, day out, and are passionate about it, who are also thinking about those same problems and more issues that you wouldn't begin to think about unless you are in the WEQ or REQ.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[jhoegl]

OOohhhh ho ho!!!! I see what you did there...
You said one thing and then went all late 80s on your own sentence!

Disastrously bad idea

[Scareduck]

In the current environment, the next thing you know, this would be MANDATED, so the state could disable your computer by requiring its registration. PASS.

Next up : Toilet scanners

[unity100]

So that people can be charged for use of public restrooms depending on the excrement mass they release.

what the hell. lets just put it in streetspeak :

for charging people per ounce of shit. .............

there is no end to 'charging' in capitalism. everything is privatized so nothing will remain public, and then everything is charged so that some who control the means can make even more money.

its to the imbalance of 85% of population getting 15% of everything to 5% top of population getting 72% of everything in u.s. now.

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

reduction of 'public' and increase of 'private' will just tip it more and more towards the ......... well not medieval serfdom, for sure. medieval serfs got 33% of all produce from the land by law. whereas lord got 33%. church the rest 33%. no medieval lord could dream of getting 72% like top 5% americans did, and no medieval serf would accept less than 33%. but americans, do.

Re:Next up : Toilet scanners

[HBI]

The medieval lord performed a service to the serf - protecting him against bandits and other lords. The church performed a service for the serf: they tended to his soul and also kept records and such. The bottom line, though, was that getting enough to eat was a struggle. The lord and church were fully conscious that there were more serfs than they. While their guards were better armed, it was a matter of degree rather than a huge difference. A sword might be a better arm than a farm implement, but both can kill you. 100 men armed with farm implements are going to fare rather well against 10 who have good arms. Therefore, things were kept reasonable by fear of insurrection.

The technocrats and corporate overlords of today need to rediscover this fear.

Sony controlling my electricity, that's just great

[elrous0]

If I see a headline indicating that Apple wants to control my plumbing...that's it, I'm quitting humanity.

Re:Nothing A Screwdriver and Some Clips Can't Fix.

[Yo Grark]

...and don't get me started on the minibars!

Why.... are you a mean drunk?

Yo Grark

It will save a lot of power

[bigtrike]

With Sony DRM, your devices will fail to authenticate most of the time, saving a lot of electricity.

Other uses

[steveha]

You might have a web page where you can pull up your current electricity consumption and break it down by appliance. You might find a new refrigerator would pay for itself, or maybe that your old refrigerator is doing okay; either way you won't have to guess.

Also, I wonder if we will ever see "smart" plugs where the appliance negotiates with the socket for desired voltage and amperage. Instead of having a power brick that converts AC to 5 Volts, just have the smart plug request 5 Volts. I think not, actually, because you don't want transformers in every wall socket and DC is not efficient over longer distances (unless it's ultra-high-voltage).

Also, "smart" plugs would have a safety advantage: if a little kid sticks a butter knife into the socket, the knife wouldn't request any voltage.

But "smart" plugs are also just one more thing to break.

Given the emerging standard for small electronic devices to run on 5 Volts and use a micro-USB socket for charging, I do wonder if power-only USB sockets will become common on electrical outlets. You can already buy wall fixtures with power-only USB sockets, and some cars have USB sockets available for charging phones and GPS sat-nav boxes.

steveha

Re:Other uses

[pla]

You might have a web page where you can pull up your current electricity consumption and break it down by appliance. You might find a new refrigerator would pay for itself, or maybe that your old refrigerator is doing okay; either way you won't have to guess.

Posting this on a den-o'-geeks, you preach to the choir about the perks of a totally "smart" grid.

Most of us have no problem with envisioning the upsides. We have a problem with the massive downsides, however - Loss of privacy (search for "DEA electric bill"), loss of control over what I choose to use in my own home, loss of privacy (do you want your "personal massager" to report its usage?), the massively increased number of points of failure, loss of privacy ("So Mr. Smith, your wife would like you to explain to the court why your secretary charged her phone from an outlet in your bedroom 18 times over the past three months"), the possibility of hackers, etc.

I want an internal (to my house) pure-smart-grid with per-device consumption tracking and control. And I want my electric company to have absolutely zero visibility or control to any of that. My electric company, OTOH, wants the exact opposite - To make me pay to upgrade to their control-fetishists dream, while making me pay pay pay for even the most basic stats about my own goddamned use.

Fark 'em all. I'll pay 10x as much to go off-grid before I let anyone tell me how much of a resource I pay for I have permission to use at any given time.

Re:TL;DR

[Moheeheeko]

Of course it is. Sony made it

FTFY

Could be good for safety

[jedwidz]

Apart from better metering, I like the potential for improved safety that could come with redesigning outlets, if it means that:

• A toddler can't stick metal objects in the socket and get electrocuted.
• Power doesn't come on if it's at risk of overloading the circuit (i.e. maximum required current is negotiated against what's available).
• Power doesn't come on if it's at the wrong voltage or frequency.
• Power doesn't come on if the device requires grounding or surge/spike protection that isn't present.

Also a good opportunity to get an international standard outlet (please, not the parallel pins), and a chance to look at DC from the socket. And maybe put an end to ground loops while we're at it?

Expect to pay for the privilige to be monitored

[Anonymous Coward]

Speaking as an electrician, I cannot imagine this ever becoming widespread. The ability to control power to and from each socket has existed for years. The reason we don't use it is mostly cost (each outlet needs a dedicated line back to a relay bank or a PLC).

This new system is a little different in how it works, but cost is still going to be a huge factor involved, as well as practicallity. Most outlet boxes i've seen don't have the space to put in a GFCI let alone something as complicated as this.

Re:Pay your Sony bill

[PhxBlue]

Coming next, Sony demos batteries that charge you by the volt.

Well, at least then the price would stay fixed, because the voltage doesn't change.

Re:Nothing A Screwdriver and Some Clips Can't Fix.

[iamhassi]

I don't even understand why a company would bother. Electricity is what, about 8 cents a kw? So powering a 1000w microwave for an entire hour is only 8 cents. Laptop for an hour would probably be less than 1 cent, so why would you put in an expensive outlet when you could just let people charge their devices for a penny?

If they're worried about people stealing electricity then install locking electrical boxes that fit over the outlets.

Also... I'm not sure how this Sony outlet would work.
"a new power outlet that can identify who is connecting to it, and therefore allows for an individual to be charged for use. The key to the intelligent outlet is the inclusion of an integrated circuit which communicates over the power line connection. It can check the identity of the device, and therefore the owner of that device before deciding what to do. "

Ok it communicates... with what, exactly? It's copper wire, going into a battery... what's it talking to? It's not ethernet, it's not hacking into my iphone or laptop or whatever, how is it checking the "identity of the device", unless I own a special "smart" power cord that can communicate back.....

Ah, I understand, article is BS

There's no "magic" integrated circuit that can automatically just read anything plugged in and pass on your credit card number, according to Sony you must have a special smart AC charger to communicate with the outlet.

And how many people are going to buy these special smart AC chargers? No one. So how many outlets like this will there be? Zero. Whole idea is a bust. Add this to the long list of failed proprietary Sony formats like MemoryStick, UMD, DAT, Minidisc and ATRAC Audio Compression.

Re:Airports about to screw us, but not coffee shop

[ShakaUVM]

>>Airports however are fee crazy and may very well charge for this

Yeah, trying to find power outlets in some airports is like a game of Where's Waldo. My local airport has all of the power outlets literally locked down under plates so that you can't get at them. In San Diego, I found a single open outlet behind a bunch of benches. I had to camp out next to the bathroom in SFO to recharge my phone while on a business trip. Etc.

Some places have paid-by-ads (usually Samsung) charging stations, which are nice... when they work. Typically half the outlets on them will be broken.

In all seriousness, airports are some of the least traveler-friendly places in America.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[cayenne8]

I'm trying to see if I can come up with a reason why anyone would possible want tracking like this?!?!?

I mean, I already pay for my electricity usage...per kilowatt hour...why would I need to let the power company drill down to see what specific fucking amounts my appliances or computers is using?

Is this going to be one of those things that you might get a few cents off your rate if you let them nose into what your running, similar to that spy device that Progressing insurance is having their customers put in their car to 'monitor their driving habits'?

Seriously, what even remotely intelligent consumer out there wants this shit?

Re:TL;DR

[cayenne8]

Since it is from Sony, I hear it will require the use of Memory Sticks.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[drinkypoo]

I'm trying to see if I can come up with a reason why anyone would possible want tracking like this?!?!?

So that users can plug in their electric vehicles (from bicycles on up) while they're at work, or shopping, or whatever. Wow, that was hard to imagine.

Re:Nothing A Screwdriver and Some Clips Can't Fix.

[idontgno]

You pointed it out. Sony has a vivid imagination and a very detailed fantasy life. They routinely envision entire technical ecosystems populated entirely by their proprietary inventions. So, yes, it's entirely realistic in Sony-world to expect that Sony SmartSockets (tm) will proliferate, and that Sony SmartPlugs (tm) will be present on every electrically-powered device in the world, and Sony will operate an on-line service for authentication, billing, and service management for both power providers (owners of SmartSockets) and power consumers (owners of SmartPlugs). They'll RAKE IN THE MONEY! It'll be better than Star Wars: Galaxies! It'll be cooler than rootkitting every music CD every produced! Every "conventional" power outlet will be BANISHED by the power of SONY MARKETING! Sony SmartPower (screw trademarks) will OWN THE WORLD! And when Sony decides to press those useless nation-states to recognize its extra-territorial superiority, it has the SECRET WEAPON of threatening to turn off ALL power in those countries UNLESS THEY CAPITULATE! (Mwahaha!)

This is how it works in the minds of Sony. Out here in boring-conventional-reality-land, only a few clueless suckers will buy into it, and come to regret it almost instantly.

Re:Much More Important -- Smart Socket can save li

[Animats]

Yeah, right. Arc fault circuit interrupters have been required in new construction the US since 2005. These circuit breakers detect not just current leakage to ground like a GFCI, but noisy current draw that indicates arcing. No need for an Internet connection.

Re:What could possibly go wrong?

[JeanCroix]

Maybe not hotel rooms, but I could certainly see them deploying these in airport terminals and coffee shops to eke a few extra bucks out of people desperate to recharge their gadgets.

*Facepalm*

[lightknight]

*Facepalms*...*Facepalms more*...I really need to know who thought that this was a good idea. Seriously, you have an incredibly large corporation with a fairly ridiculous amount of resources, and instead of investing time and research looking for a better 3D TV (one without glasses) or trying to move in on the data storage market by inventing a more capable SSD / HD, you come up with an electrical outlet that charges people for their usage of electricity? From a small-brained, shake-the-customer-down-like-he's-having-a-seizure for petty cash, perspective, that's positively brilliant! People will begin installing them everywhere (streets, the wilderness, who cares?), to try and get on the "energy outlet rent" train to easy street! And it's going to be awesome for the United States and select portions of Europe currently undergoing an energy crisis -> I'm sure their populaces will greet this idea with open arms and banners proclaiming the sheer glory of not only paying out the ass for oil & being on the hook (taxpayer-wise) for various failed green-power initiatives, but also for being nickle-and-dimed when they use their hotel room's outlets to charge their laptops. They should go right ahead, and install these kinds of outlets in public places, with set rates and what not, not unlike the private ATM machine craze that swept the nation a few years ago.

And why not charge people for the toilet paper they use as well? You could install toilet paper dispensers in the restrooms, right next to the toilets, and charge people a quarter / square (why not also put a slot for a credit card on there, right? Minimum charge $2.00). Think of all the money that could be made! And let's be honest, it's not like someone's going to get up and leave without wiping their ass! You've got the marketplace cornered! Bonuses for everyone!

It's like rubbing salt into someone's wounds. Might as well bring up a family death during a birthday party. It's odd, but I remember a time when Sony would actually create products that didn't leave the populace cowering in terror.