The Next Wave in Home Control Systems

Original Article: http://www.denguru.com/2006/12/13/ [...] page2.html

I wasn't sure where to post this, but home control is sweet!

However, I've had the following idea for years. One central hub that includes the "thinking" part of appliances. Why should your toaster have a brain when it can share one "off-site" with other appliances? In time, I'd love to see every home in the world have one of these centralized systems. This should reduce costs of manufacturing, energy, and landfill waste. ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME! This home control center and the media center PC may come together eventually. Why can't they integrate a communications network into your power grid in your home and at your business? Your fax machine could literally be just a scanning light, your home computer could just be periphrals, and your iron could just be a hot plate with a steamer. Forget about the electronic components, they're in your basement! They only kick on when you access an appliance. (much like CPU's run minimal processes when it's in not in use, or your computer when it's in standby mode). If we want and NEED to reduce energy costs, why not start with the basics and restructure the tools we already use everyday to be far more efficient?

Global warming, is it too late? It's not a hoax. Every climatologist and scientist that studies CO2 levels, temperatures, and FACTS will tell you we're about to face the biggest crisis that humankind has ever faced. It's time to start using our heads.

This thread is now open to opinions and discussions! Add your two cents or trillion dollars. Communication = learning, and learning is awareness. We all need more of that. A lack of understanding leads to things like prejudice and racism, splitting us. Ignorance causes boundaries, but the more we all know, the more we'll see eye to eye and reach certain needed conclusions. I love to help people understand themselves and open their minds, sorry. Umm, post away!

Help on discussion: Do you think a central computer for all the electronics in their home is a good idea? Do you think we'll see it come to be in the next decade? What is keeping it from happening? What effects might this have on the economy?

The reason why I'd avoid this is the same reason that I avoid cars like the M3 and go with Supra's instead. The computer exerts too much control over engine management functions, and will adjust settings that I have running especially when it feels something is counterproductive to the course. If I'm driving, I want to be in control.

Likewise, anyone who's driven enough American muscle cars can tell you about what happens when you accelerator sticks. Now imagine in a car where the throttle is computer managed. What happens if you have a bug in the system? You'll be pole vaulting cars in no time, without you express consent.

I really don't want the same happening in my house. Microsoft has enough control over things in my home. I don't want them to actually control the home too.

Wow exactly what I was thinking! And it's especially infuriating for me because I just got a new(ish) Oldsmobile about a month ago and it's pissing me off so bad now because I can't even turn off my lights! No option at all! Ever! The accelerator sticks sometimes, and the computer overrides my heat/AC options when it thinks it knows better than I do. Blargh, don't get me started on my car (or any new cars that have crap like this).

Getting back to the Home Control System: I think it would be a good idea, but I WANT CONTROL OVER EVERY OPTION, not like the new cars these days. I don't want my home to turn off my TV because it thinks I've watched enough, or locks me out of my bathroom until I jog half a mile on my treadmill (or orders low-fat yogurt instead of hamburgers because I'm not exercising enough). I honestly don't think anything that is ever released will be this poorly designed. People (most Americans anyway) are pretty lazy, and nobody can tell them to change, so a company selling a useless product like that won't get far.

However, I think I'm more paranoid than most. My system would not only need to be totally customizable, but also completely non-wireless. I don't trust people to not steal my stuff, or wreck havoc, when I send stuff through the air. I don't even like using a cell phone! But that's just me. Since everything hard-wired is too costly, and defeats the purpose of customization, perhaps there is a better solution out there. Like hard-wire each room, and then place several weak wireless transmitters that won't be able to transmit much of anything beyond the range of that room. Seems like that would work pretty well for me, because everything in each room could still get the wireless signals, but if I go outside and test the signal leakage, there's nearly nothing out there. Peace of mind for me.

I'm sorry, but I fail to see how the everyday appliances would need less components and less power to use. From where I'm sitting everything would need more hardware (for the drivers and interfaces to communicate with the master control computer, or whatever it is). And the power requirements would go up as well to run the drivers and to keep packet switching to keep synched with the master computer. After all, everything will need to be turned on all the time (in some sort of standby mode) to await messages from the central computer. They probably wouldn't use much more power, but even in standby they'll be using a little bit.

Just as your CPU idles down, your computer would idle down. Communication can be done on a near molecular scale now days at very low power. Imagine coming home, your home senses your car as it pulls in the driveway and asks you if you'd like it to open the garage door. You pull right in, saving gas, and you have both hands on the wheel too, which is safer. (No pressing the garage door opener or searching for it). It can even ask you if you'd like it to close the garage door once you power down your car and before you get out. Thus, keeping you safe from everyone outside, and even giving your garage a chance to exhaust carbon monoxide before you open your car door. More health and safety.

Once you enter your house, you put on your personalized wrist watch, which gives you total access. Your house can sense you moving from room to room, turning on "running lights" along the floor. You want to take a shower, so you go in the bathroom, take off your clothes, and open the shower curtain or door. You are immediately asked by the computer if you'd like it to turn the shower on, at your pre-selected settings. (temperature and PSI, perhaps you have a head that auto-swivels to different waterstream outputs as well) There's no handle in your shower, so when you answer "no" to the "want me to turn on the shower" question and choose to clean the shower, it's one less aperture you have to scrub. You could also answer, "no, I'd like to take a bath" and it would fill the bathtub instead.

You people act as though you can't trust a computer, yet you trust the internet and PEOPLE you've never met to handle your financial information, government to handle your taxes, roadways, civil disputes, etc...
We buy crap online, trust computers and people for backup and security, (security in our homes too) and we even let them navigate our vehicles and airplanes along with a co-pilot. I guess I'M failing to see how this is a simple extension of what we already do. It's a proven fact that humans make more errors than pre-programmed computers. I'd sooner trust a computer to turn on the bath water for my baby than the babysitter. At least then I know the temp is set right and my baby won't get burned.

And if you mount a loofah on a robotic arm that's another one less aperture you have to scrub.

Please don't hijack the thread. We're talking about HOME computer systems, not your old car. I mean, you could drive around on a basic old Farmall tractor, two pistons sitting on a rod with wheels seems pretty basic to me. It's easy to fix and you always know what's wrong with it. But that doesn't mean it's better. Naturally, the more parts you have the more likely something might go wrong. But I'll take a bit of redundancy over buying a second car. I think that's the point of your wife having her own car, and of both cars having a spare is it not?

To answer other questions, no, you don't need a chip in your lamp if your lamp power line is connected to your power grid down in the basement. The computer tells it how much power to get at the source. A simple little chip would barely use any electricity anyway. If it can tell nobody is in the room and dim the lights to zero...wouldn't that save money/energy? Plus, I think we'd be using ambient LEDs for lighting by then anyway.

If you build a high quality component computer and have a secondary backup, I highly doubt that you won't be saving money by not having to throw out as much appliance when other parts go bad. Appliances are made to be cheap and disposable. This computer wouldn't be.

I have the HTPC case. I was just looking over Blu-Ray disk drives, and seeing if they had HD-DVD ones out yet. I've been researching water-cooling more lately, I want SILENCE. I have the X1900 AIW card and I think I'd like to perhaps find a new silencer for it (unless I WC).

I was checking out sound cards tonight, and speakers. I already have the Fatality card and the Z-5300's but I wanted digital optical I/O. Right now, if I had to choose I'd buy the following for sound (for tv/htpc/or just PC):

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Cre [...] __28092685

http://www.pricegrabber.com/p__Cre [...] __21989620 (this is for the optical i/o, as the SC doesn't have a port)

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search [...] id=4117156

As far as the system, it doesn't matter as long as it's quiet and affordable. A pentium D would work fine with a silent cooling solution, although I might as well splurge for Core2Duo. Right now I have an FX-55 system w/ 2 gigs of Corsair XMS mem and a 4200+ system with 3500LL Pro and an upgrade would be great, I'd kick this A8N32-SLI Dlx board over to the HTPC and put the Core2 here. It's a nice quiet board anyway, and has an extra PCI-E slot if I want to use it for something in the future.

The last thing to address is a big silent HDD. :-D My 150gig raptors are far too loud to plop in there.