The ‘Intelligent’ House of the Future
It will make life easier
Welcome to the future. The “smart” home is now a reality. There are prototypes of automated homes, plagued by electrical and electronic equipment capable of communicating with each other and controlled by a PC or a PBX: devices that raise and lower the blinds according to the weather outside; appliances, air conditioning and heating, which are programmed according to the customs of the inhabitants of the house; ovens and coffeemakers sending e-mails; microwave where you can watch TV or refrigerators with Internet access. One example of the modern house is that of Bill Gates, which incorporates the latest advances automation.
The automated home will allow us to have everything under control while we are out. Our homes will make us life easier. The idea is to connect network devices to servers with sufficient bandwidth and storage capacity to distribute messages, music and movies to every room of the house.
The House of Bill Gates
It is one of the most modern houses and cost something like $ 53 million. It is built in the middle of a forest, on the shores of Lake Washington, and has a pate for better adaptation to the natural environment and also facilitate energy saving, as temperature variations are minor.
The main part of the house has four bedrooms plus theater, office, pier, garage for 14 cars, swimming pool, guest house, conference hall and an artificial estuary in which Bill Gates is dedicated to raising salmon.
The building sits on a seismic zone, so the concrete structure is greatly enhanced. The rest of the house is made of natural wood and stainless steel.
Technologically, the house is fully wired optical fiber connecting the PCs in the house on NT. Each room features touch screens to control lighting, music and air conditioning. Visitors will have small electronic pins to control where they are at all times.
A Georgia family lives surrounded by sensors
A study is testing a family of Georgia (USA), who is living in a house, laboratory testing, surrounded by cameras, microphones and thousands of sensors. Residential Broadband Laboratory Institute, part of the Georgia Institute of Technology and directed by Nikil Jayant, is a 3-story, 500 square meters.
Sensors placed on the ground and able to distinguish the different inhabitants of the house, detect the status of each and their movements, they know what each touch objects, what equipment to use and how, when and with whom to talk, what use It makes the media (television, the internet, telephone, etc.) or feeds.
Sensors and automatic systems will detect changes in their behavior, they will monitor your vital signs and perform medical tests automatically, they will advise the doctor in case of crisis, will perform housework, supplied all kinds of possible entertainment and to give conversation. These systems will be able to learn the tastes of its owner.
The goal is to design smart homes, where technology allows all listeners walls and execute orders given by the owner, systems that detect the presence and set up air conditioners or light, a host computer as a butler governs the house, call the plumber or the electrician when needed, etc. These and many other possibilities are now a reality.
Examples of remote homes in London
Cisco has promoted the idea of a computerized home building, outside London, a dozen of houses apparently normal, but who allow the purchase to enjoy the benefits of a home network.
The center of the network is a Cisco router that bridges the Internet. Beside him, a Compaq computer equipped with Windows NT server software is located. It is the web portal to the house, which controls the various home systems from any external machine equipped with a browser.
The control can also be made from computers located in two of the bedrooms of the house, from the placed in the office, from the laptop in the kitchen or from the wireless pad which can be worn under the armor store next to the living room couch.
The network integrates the surveillance of the exterior and interior of the house with three Axis cameras. A fourth camera in the smallest room can be aware of the baby’s movements while performing any task at home or abroad. The house is equipped with a power management system Honeywell controlling the lighting and temperature of different environments.
Smart Appliances
The third millennium is joining the world of household appliances with new technologies and communication. Knowledge Lab has designed a microwave oven, with a color screen where you can watch TV, surf the Internet or read our e-mails.
But the most practical is its ability to manage our kitchen: he can order by e-commerce products that are about to end, just show the barcode or store the most used and look at the store that are more discount. Its touch screen also incorporates voice recognition. This amazing microwave may be in our homes in a couple of years.
LG Electronics refrigerator transformed into a tool for family entertainment and communications. A approximately four thousand dollars, the new Internet Digital Refrigerator, known as GOD, integrated into the right door screen liquid crystal display (LCD) of 15.1 inches, and its own port to connect to the network.
The “smart fridge” will allow the user to not only buy the food they need online, but also engage in video conferencing with friends and family, share video messages or take pictures, using a small digital camera located on the screen.
You can also see regular TV channels on the monitor and even listen to MP3 music through the internal computer integrated player.
The display provides all relevant to administer the refrigerator since the temperature inside to advice on food, recipes, dates, nutritional information and cooking methods stored product information.
The new Internet Turbo Drum Washing Machine LG, priced between 600 and 700 dollars, is smart enough to wash download programs from the Internet for different loads of laundry.
LG Electronics invested nearly four million dollars in research and development of its new Internet Air Conditioner, a product of home network that uses remote control technology to allow users to control the unit from outside the home through Internet.
Motorola has designed digital converters, definitely transformed our perception of the television making it a “digital TV” multiple amounts of profits.
This new digital television offers a wide variety of interactive applications. One is the ability to access the Internet through the TV. Browsing the Web can be done comfortably in the living room of the home, watching television without a PC.
The “video store on demand” (video on demand) is another option available with this new technology. The user can rent the movie you want without leaving your home, or pick up the phone. It can be seen at the time preferred, be handled in the same way as a traditional video, only the remote control to operate a digital set top box.
The “e-commerce home” (home shopping) allow endless possibilities ranging from purchasing traditional business with an Internet presence, to managing bank accounts from the couch with the remote control of the set-top box.
The vision of the future house also includes smart aprons, which allow remote control of appliances, libraries with Internet connection to download interactive books, a system to control lighting, temperature and music from home or a coffee machine Italian company Lavazza, operated with coins you can send and receive emails, via a touch screen, while coffee is being prepared. You can also save information for consumers, eg on the weather and traffic conditions.
Towards a digital life with Hewlett-Packard Cooldown
Hewlett-Packard is developing in the English town of Wokingham, his Cooltown project, with the aim of investigating new Internet applications to everyday life. It is designed to display digital equipment, adapted to the requirements of the urban world. It is divided into areas such as home, office, and trade.
Inside the center, for example, one of these teams is a mirror with a baroque frame, which dissolves and becomes a list of things to do and urgent video emails to be answered. The cooldown technology uses barcode, radio receivers, infrared and Bluetooth wireless technology to transmit information to cellular and portable phones.
The X-10 protocol
At present, there is no universal protocol. Still lacking a common language with which you can build both appliances and other home appliances such as the computer programs that control and even how to convey all these links.
One of the most widespread protocols is the X-10, and its birth dates back to the first steps of the project of “smart” houses. Through this language, you can give instructions through the cable carrying electricity. Today, information can already travel wirelessly, and have appeared no less than 22 more protocols around the world.
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By: EsamPim
