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."

internetworked.. or just more reliable/precise?

[adam]

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 [inhabitat.com] Hansa faucets [hansa.de] 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].

advertising.. the wave of the future

[macadamia_harold]

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!

What the?

[Zouden]

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.

Consider the other side too...

[bogaboga]

Well, I'd like someone to tell us about the potential drawbacks of having to depend so much on technology. I remember the time in the late eighties when cell phones were being touted as the next "big thing". Nobody knew that these cellphones, together with similar technology would contribute to the increase in our stress levels.

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.

Re:Wow

[b100dian]

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!

New DRM platform...

[corychristison]

"Sorry, sir, but you need to pay $0.99 to use the washroom."
or
"Sorry, sir, but your credit card has been maxed out. You may not enter your home."

No thanks!

Is this actually useful?

[CalSolt]

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.

Rolan fuckhead

[Fizzl]

Yeah, and if you'r not a complete tool, you can notice it's another episode of Roland's unfound fuckwit optimisismism for the fjuuuuture. He know exactly how to write an "exciting" blurp for slashdot. Every marginally intelligent person here should be able to notice Roland's annoying style before even getting at the "More"-link.
God damn asshat, I hope he dies soon. I really do.
Or atleast I want to kick him in the crotch as soon as possible. Fucking annoying bullshitter. I want these kind of fuckheads OUT. He doesn't know _anything_ about technology, but writes these exciting headlines every-god-damn-week to drive hits to his shitty blog.

Re:Is this actually useful?

[Anonymous Coward]

placing a washing machine in the bathroom will solve that problem. wouldn't it? I still don't understand why architects design houses with most heavily used bathrooms at top floor and laundry room in basement. sometimes we need a little intellect, not technology.

Re:Consider the other side too...

[deepb]

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.

Diagnosis for that sort of thing has changed quite a bit since then - it's barely an apples-to-apples comparison. That said - any legitimate increase, when you get right down to it, is just evolution at work. Trying to slow down the adoption rate of new technology will only delay the inevitable...

Standardization

[ndogg]

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.

Life-changing technology?

[Jerry Smith]

Let them invent something that will lást a decade, instead of break down after two or three years. Wait, didn't they already build fridges, washing-machines and T.V.-s that would last that long in the seventies? Gee, I wonder what happened to technology. O yes, I know, they improved it...

Re:What the?

[thelonestranger]

Absolutly. Have we gotten to the stage where we are so lazy that we need a reminder in between or during our TV programs to do our laundry? Personally I think its a lot easier/cheaper to just keep an eye on the amount of stuff in the laundry basket and the contents of your sock drawer. If you cant do that already then you probably are not the kind of person that is going to buy this kind of system in the first place.

Computer can already do this.

[majortom1981]

Why do I need my tv to do this. All you have to do is have the scheduler pop up a txt message at a certain time telling you to start the laundry. If you then have the comp connected to your tv it will then do that. The computer can do most of this anyway why do I need other devices to do the same thing. They should work on having appliances use less electricity ,I don't care if they can speak to me or anything like that.

Re:Standardization

[AaronLawrence]

Indeed. Why don't they start with something simple, like a single [ethernet?] connection for all stereo equipment to send all audio around. But in reality, the vendors will prevent anything happening as they are terrible at agreeing on standards ... even when it's critical - witness blu-ray vs Hd-dvd.

Tell your house to get up off its foundation......

[stfvon007]

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.

Re:Consider the other side too...

[regular_gonzalez]

Assuming that your numbers are accurate, how much of that is due to increased awareness of and diagnosis of mental health disorders? I doubt that the majority of diagnoses such as depression, ADHD, anorexia, Asperger's, et al are due to stressed pregnant women.

Re:What the?

[nuzak]

A message on my TV telling me the laundry is done might be nice. Me, I can hear it, but I have an apartment.

I'd like my alarm clock to start my coffee maker, myself. I'd like it to be smart enough to only do that if it knows it's been refilled (water level sensor, easy). I don't want to bother setting both. I mean, I can live without it, but if it were possible, easy, and cheap, why not?

Knowing the appliance manufacturers though, there would probably be 50 different communication protocols for this to happen, twice as many interfaces, and ten times that number of bugs in the overall system.