What's Next for Your High-Tech Home? 82
koreth asks: "You have the remote-controlled lighting. Your kitchen has speakers in the ceiling and a control panel to play your MP3s, your bedroom is wired for gigabit Ethernet, and you already record HDTV on your computer and watch it on a front-projection screen. You even have a robot to do your vacuuming. So now what? Is has all the nifty stuff been done already, or are there still some nifty homebrew projects out there? What's next on your list of high-tech home improvements? What have you had to cobble together yourself, because nobody sells it in a package yet? What gizmos and conveniences do you expect your home will have in a year or two?"
"A few years ago, there was a rush of innovation in household high-tech items for early adopter types. Hobbyists tinkered to get their PCs to act as DVD players, put their baby-cams on their private Web sites, and pieced together low-cost audio servers. But that rush seems to have largely evaporated, perhaps a victim of the .com bubble bursting. There are still lots of products coming out, but they're aimed squarely at late adopters who have yet to catch up with the latest stuff -- witness the huge number of PC media convergence products announced in the last six months, all of them with functionality that's been available in some form for years."
Music is big! (Score:2, Interesting)
I really want home automation for lights and heating. My wife actually put her foot down and said "I have enough trouble with the VCR and CD player." I let it go, cause she lets me buy gadgets and gizmos.
I will be putting in more motion sensor lights. The ones I have bought in the last five or six years are vary adjustable.
I want wifi from one end of the house to the garage to the my crappy shed/workshop. I love my wifi. I want a cell phone/palm with wifi.
I thought a heat pump would be cool. Maybe the Canadians here can fill me in on what they use for that. I have heard great things as of late.
I can heat my house on wood, and would like to pre-heat the water going to my water heater. That would save on the propane bill. I suppose the wood splitter and buck saw should be added here. Kevlar pants and gloves for chainsawing.
I need broadband, but satellite is way too much cash.
Mini-ITX platform (Score:3, Interesting)
The Via Epia [viavpsd.com] boards are almost there but are just a little short of processor horsepower to handle DivX decoding (and other processor intensive operations). The rumours [epiacenter.com] are that there will be a 1.2Ghz Via C3 processor on a new core revision (C5P) out shortly. C3's provide roughly 50% of the horsepower of a similarly clocked P3 in the current core so at 1.2 Ghz (with some potential improvements in the new version core) you are almost at the level where you have a cool, quiet platform with enough horsepower to be a serious media-center PC.
Of course, Via are rumoured to have some very cool stuff on the horizon, included a possible dual-cpu [etmag.com] board and a new processor codenamed 'Esther' to be produced in IBM's fab.
Maybe this [via.com.tw] is what I am waiting for? So perhaps this is the year when digital convergence becomes a reality for the masses?
Well... how about... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Mini-ITX platform (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Smurf tube... (Score:3, Interesting)
My "high-tech" home should include broadband internet as the first, most important thing. Next would be a KVM switch thad did something unusual--it would come with wireless adapters for the PCs that draw their transmitting power from the USB so that I don't have to have a quarter mile of KVM cabling to have all my PCs hooked up to the switch. Third would be a plasma TV in the living room and each of the two bedrooms. A digital satellite system with a builtin DVR would be nice, too. And, hell, while we're at it, a 10-disc DVD changer (for watching all three Matrix movies and the extended editions of the Lord of the Rings movies all in one long session). And forget the concept of the remote controls we have now--instead, I want touchscreen panels embedded in the arms of my couch and chairs, ala Star Trek: The Next Generation. I want a voice recognition system, too, so that I don't have to do everything by hand. And finally, two fiber and two cat5e drops one stud away from each electrical drop, in every room except the bathroom (WiFi for there :) ).
That's MY high-tech home.
Some Serious Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)
1) Full climate management on a per-room basis. If it's too hot in a room the system turns up the AC, too cold it opens a radiator valve or turns on the underfloor heating, too bright it closes the blinds/drapes.
2) Intruder detection, link individual room alarms to cameras and record the pictures digitally.
3) Voice control of all functions. Imagine walking into a room and saying 'increase lights by fifty percent and it happens.
4) A home phone system combined with an intercom.
I started my tech career reading Circuit Cellar and that gave me lots of ideas (thanks Steve), if you ever find a collection of the Circuit Cellar books then snap them up because you will be prying mine from my cold dead fingers.
Ed Almos
Budapest, Hungary
Re:Some Serious Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree with that. One of the big issues is with control - all these gadgets need to be controlled, which means loads of remotes and/or geeky interfaces which other family members aren't happy with.
I want to have *controlled* access via the Web (so I can tell the heating to be on when I get home etc). But voice control would be great:
"Computer - switch television to BBC1 please"
"Computer - heat enough water for a bath please"
"Computer - tell me the weather forecast please"
"Computer - play some Kraftwerk please"
"Computer - what's 12 times 24 please?"
All very possible - need to integrate TV/MP3/Internet streaming/HVAC/normal computing functions. The fun bit is getting the voice recognition to work sensitively enough to work from a mike in each room (rather than have to carry a wireless lapel mike around).
And for contrast, I'd like to have one room in my house with no electricity. No little gadgets with a fan whirring away. No speakers. No harsh electric light. No telephones. Candles or oil lanterns. Open fire. Books. Peace.
Bagless vacuum: No substitute for the Dyson (Score:3, Interesting)
These are poor imitations of the REAL bagless vacuum, the almighty Dyson. [dyson.com] The first time I used mine, it pulled up two full bins of filth that my old Hoover had left in the carpet.
It filters out dirt by centrifugal motion in "cyclone" tubes. Unlike all other bagless vacs, there are no filters to replace. It has seals of approval from various allergy associations for its excellence in cleaning dust and other allergens out of the house.
It is easily the most excellent gadget I bought in the past year, and that's saying something, as I am a sucker for electronic crap. Plus it looks very cool and futuristic.
Any Slashdot reader who can afford it need only try it once, and he will be a customer for life.
-ccm
Re:Brrrrrrrrr..... (Score:3, Interesting)
Speaking of which, being the incessent hacker, I'd like to optimize the heck out of my energy systems' costs.
For instance, it's 20 below zero outside, and my refrigerator is burning electricity to keep my food cold. It should be opening a vent instead.
Currently I'm burning propane (and supplemental wood) to heat the house, when I have acres of warm earth to tap (need a ground-source heat pump
I'd sure like to have some quiet-enough wind turbines that could keep my electric bills down too, and be cost-effective - I could put them up several hundred feet away if I understood electricity better, so sound isn't too much of an issue as long as the neighbors won't hear them. I have plenty of wind, some sun, and little love for OPEC.
I'm not about to rebuild my house with 12" walls and solar panels, though, the capital costs are too high. Hackers are good with coming up with cost effective solutions though, anybody have some great ideas along these lines?