COMMENTARY--It's been promised for a long time, but are we really ready for the automated home?
If, like me, you are contemplating building a new house, it's not just the colour of your carpets or kitchen tiles that you have to ponder. And if you're reading this magazine, you're probably also thinking, like me, that the new domicile must include its own local area network and automation.
I've friends who have Cat 5- and coax-cabled their entire house (one friend in particular has adapted a commercial automation system from a large inner city building to control lighting and other items around the house). There are several initiatives to promote this kind of thinking, from vendors such as C-Bus from Clipsal in South Australia, Siemens Residential Gateway, Home Audio Visual Interoperability (HAVi)â€"even Microsoft has Universal Plug and Play to -promote standards for simple seamless home networking".
Appliances are already appearing to take advantage of the -wired" home and LG appears to be taking the whole concept quite seriously (although the execution at times unfortunately misses the mark). Take LG's Internet refrigerator, for example. It has an integrated PCâ€"basically a National Semiconductor Geode x86 CPU running at around 300MHz, 128MB of RAM, a 17GB hard drive, a 15in LCD, and a cut-down version of Windows 98SE connected to the Internet via a 10Mbps connection. Almost forgot, there happens to be a 510/300-litre fridge/freezer combination tacked onto the back of this PC.
OK, the PC may be a little on the anaemic side but it only has to surf the Net, organise your life and, of course, keep track of what is in the fridge. But there's the rub: it does not include a bar code scanner. That's right, you have to manually input the items as you load up the fridge, including their use by dates so the fridge can warn you when you are about to serve pork roll à la salmonella to your guests.
What a missed opportunityâ€"it might actually have been halfway useful if it simply scanned items as you loaded the fridge. Other than an obsessive compulsive, who on Earth is going to bother keeping the fridge's database up to date manually once the novelty wears off?
And then there's the TV ad for the LG air conditioner, where the woman uses the freezing air as an alarm clock for her boyfriend. LG do appear to have this one right, you can start, stop and adjust the temperature of the unit remotely via the Internet or your phone.
So what appliance functionality would I like to see in my dream home?
The fridge with the bar code scanner is a given but who needs the integrated PC? Why not simply have it update the database on an existing PC in the house? The ability to start, stop and adjust the heating, cooling, oven, microwave, and bread maker is also highly desirable. I guess while you're at it the ability to adjust the mood lighting and music so that when you do arrive home the ambience is just so would be nice.
But on the less frivolous side being able to control your garden watering system and alarm system while on holidays or at work would be useful. In the latter case, you need not be home when a repairer comes to fix that leaking shower base. They arrive at the front door where you can view them over the Internet via your door cam, you remotely unlock the front door, disable the alarm sensors in the hall kitchen and bathroom all the time keeping a watchful eye on their progress through your house camera system.
Well, maybe not while they are actually working in the bathroom, we wouldn't want a camera in there now would we?
What features would you want in the the dream e-home? Let us know at edit@zdnet.com.au.
Steve Turvey is Lab Manager of the RMIT IT Test Labs, and can be reached at stevet@rmit.edu.au.
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