Read more - Tux Love

#
Tr.l*,:$*r'F""$
ilI W-*;"
f+n.1;,ig -
ir--!-="
16
February 2015
The.world's first internet-connected fridge went live in June 1998 in the town
of Apeldoorn in the Netherlands. After 17 years and almost 70,000 door
/
By Geoff Palmer
openings, it's still going.
The 1Oo-year-old house ln which it sits
-
d
private residence owned by systems analyst
Alex van Es - has had many of its operations
connected to the internet, from doorbells to
mail deliveries. You can read a log of the latest
happenings on his website www.icepick.com.
"Garage door opened. Back door closed.
Toilet flushed. Alex's computer switched off..."
Hardly riveting reading, but you'll start to see
the poiential of a wired home when you look
at the pot plant page.
lmagine a heating system that knows you're
heading home from the GPS in your phone.
By the time you arrive
the place is cosy and
you
walk
warm. As
up the path, the security
you
system recognises
and unlocks the door.
Room lights switch on and off as you move
about. Blinds close automatically as the sun
goes down. The music system knows what
you like at this time of day, and concealed
speakers deliver it at the level you prefer
in every room you go to. Meanwhile the
fridge monitors its contents and sends
"The plants in the toilet and bathroom are
a
weekly shopping Iist to the supermarket for
equipped with a soil moisture and temperature
scheduled delivery...
sensor. Every 90 seconds the data is sent
wirelessly to the computer and logged... When
the humidity goes below 30% an alert is sent
out by email and voice on the iPad."
Research firm Gartner reckons that by 2020
there'll be 26 billion devices connected to
the Internet of Things - almost four for every
person on the planet.
Conceptual 'homes ofthe future' have been
around since the early 20th century, but only
since the advent of the internet
-
and more
recently the widespread uptake of powerful,
portdble personal computers :n the form of
smartphones - has it become possible to
realise many of those ideas. Alex van Es's
simple'Water the plants!' reminder system
Home automation systems consist of
and controllers io coordinate what happens
and when. But underlying all that is the key
element of wiring - devices need to talk to
each other and wires-in-the-walls remains
the best way for them to do so.
-
Yes, you can use Wi-Fi, but the problem
only the beginning.
The idea of home automation, or'domotics'
One area where home automation makes
particuiar sense is in a speciality called
'assistive domotics'. The aim is to make
three elements: sensors to detect things.
actuators to operate valves and switches.
is
a term coined in the '90s combining the Latin
word for house, domus, wiih inf,crrnotlcs - is
closely tied to dnother '90s concept. the
so-called 'lnternet of Things'. By giving
previously'dumb' appliances the ability to
communicate, all sorts of 'smart' possibilities
open up.
with wireless is limited bandwidth. ln
New Zealand we're restricted to 14'domestic'
channels. In order to avoid interference,
nearby users should space them at least
Elder care
it possible for the elderly and disabled
to remain at home, safe and comfortable,
rather than move to healthcare facilities.
Features range from automatic reminder
systems to lighting and motion sensors.
environmental controls, embedded health
monitoring systems and devices to track an
individual's location. Emergency assistance
can be summoned lf an anomaly is spotted,
and family members are able to monitor
their loved ones remotely.
five channels apart, but as more Wi-Fi
devices are added to a neighbourhood,
overlap is inevitable. lf two networks share
Too many smarts?
The term 'watching TV'takes on a sinister
double meaning with some of the latest
sets, according to So/on columnist Michael
Price. Amongst a plethora of new features,
Price's set has facial recognition and a voiceactivated remote control, but for them to
work they must be'always on', which means
they're always listening, always watching.
Indeed. the 46-page privacy policy that
comes with the set warns, "Please be aware
that if your spoken words include personal or
other sensitive information, that information
will be among the data captured ancl
transmitted to a third party".
Mo
re at biI.ly / 1zj4bdo.
On MAS
tne maqazine for MAS Members
-
The snap-in solution?
Retrofitting older homes is tricky and
expensive, but a lot of work is going
into using existing wiring and snap-in
replacements. One promising system was
demonstrated at last year's Demo 2014 fair
Umbrela (www.umbrela.co) offers a plugin replacement to manage your heating,
lighting, security and media systems but,
like much in the home dutomation arend,
it's still 'in the pipeline'. At the time of
writing, the company was at the 'pre-order
stage, so whether the final system delivers
on what's promised remains to be seen.
bandwidth, performance drops, as they can't
both talk simultaneously. lf you're building or
renovating, it's worth adding the necessary
wiring even if you have no immediate plans to
use smart home tech.
The advent of smartphones and
touchscreens has solved at least part ofthe
interfacing-with-humans problem, but ds
yet there are no open industry standards
for devices to talk to each other. Nest Lab's
programmable thermostats and smoke
detectors can chat with Dropcam's cameras
because both companies are owned by
Google, but they won't talk to your Apple
multimedia devices or your Samsung fridge.
For smart homes to really kick off, devices
must be free to interact.
Local options
Many of the latest home automation
devices aren't yet available Down Under.
Dropcam's simple monitors are only
for North America. although Nest Lab s
thermostats and smoke detectors recently
reached the United Kingdom. You can bet
when Umbrela is finally unfurled (see fhe
snop-in solution? above) it'll be aimed at
the United States market too. So what's a
local smart fan to do?
You could try local company lLl
(www.ilionetouch.co.nz). lt offers
residential, commercial and marine
solutions with a number of pre-designed
packages. The entertainment system
package costs around $22,000, add in
security for another $15,000, or the full
entertainment dnd automation package
cosrs arouno $bb,uuu.
The DIY solution
For the DIY enthusiast, you can't beat
LittleBits' Smart Home Kit, with its snaptogether Lego-like features. The US$249
starter kit will allow you to turn any object
into dn internet-connected device. You can
make a temperature sensor for your fridge,
automate the curtains to open at sunrise,
build a remote-controlled pet feeder or
send a message to your smartphone if the
dog barks more than 20 times.
No local agents yet, but d number in
Australia. See www.littlebits.cc.
February 2015
Over-equipping appliances with marginally
useful extras Just because you can'
is another problem. The world's first
commercially available internet fridge, LG's
Internet Digital DIOS released in June 2000,
had a TV screen, MP3 player, electronic
pen, data memo pad, video messaging and
scheduler built into its double doors. To
use it properly, every item added to the
fridge had to have its barcode scanned or,
in the case of uncoded items like fruit and
vegetables, entered manually. Suddenly a
basic appliance became something that had
to be programmed. Still, you could always
stand and watch TV on it.
Sensible 'smarts' should do three basic
things: monitor a device's status, send
out a warning if something is amiss, and
engage external resources to improve
or extend the device. I don't care how
many times the fridge door has been
opened, but if the compressor that keeps
my freezer freezing goes on the bllnk,
I want to know right away. A heating
and ventilation system connected to
thermostats, windows, blinds, vents and
shutters makes a lot of sense, but I really
don't need to know how many times I've
played that Ron Sexsmith album or let
some foreign corporation know what Bluray disc I'm currently watching. (See loo
many smorts? on the previous page.)
The sheer complexity of modern devices
baffles many people, and that's another
hurdle that sensible smart homes must
overcome. At the moment the field is techhead territory with lots of interesting but not
very useful information - rather like Alex van
E's website. With a plethora of settings and
features, ("What colour temperature shall
we try for the lights tonight?"), it's easy to
overlook the important stuff.
In a study published in 2014, Proofpoint
researchers uncovered a botnet that contained
over 100,000 internet-connected gadgets
-
routers, multimedia centres, televisions and at
least one refrigerator. Hackers had been able
to access them because people hadn't
set them up correctly or had forgotten to
change their default passwords. Until smart
becomes a little simpler, l'll stick with that
plant-watering reminder. t
Geoff Polmer is o freelonce technology writer,
outhor and publisher bosed in Wellington. He
blogs reguldrly on www.tuxlove.co.nz ond
www.geoffpolmer.co.nz. You con follow him
on Twitter @geoffpo I mer.