Japanese Firms Create Home (Appliance) Network 175
JOstrow writes "The Japanese companies Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Sanyo are teaming up to create a standard for home appliances communicating over a network. Usage examples cited are ovens that download recipes and heating systems that can be adjusted remotely with a cell phone. The first products adhering to the standard, called iReady, are expected to be available by next year. The iReady adapter will be ready for use '...not only with commercialized Bluetooth and low powered wireless appliances but also wireless LAN and future transmission media.'"
Possible uses (Score:2, Informative)
You finish the orange juice, and scan the SKU. OJ is added to your shopping list, which your spouse can sync to their palm at work and use at the market on the way home.
Upon returning from shopping, you scan stuff as you put it away, or punch in produce codes (we all get jobskills as checkers as a side-effect). If you're like me, you buy some tomatoes, throw them in the crisper, and discover them three months later. A nice alert could be handy.
You plan out a couple meals, and the ingredients are added to your shopping list and you're alerted when mealtime comes what you had planned. On some random morning, you ask what you can have for breakfast and based on a recipe list and your current stock, you're given a set of choice. Choosing one, your fridge tells you to take out the milk and four eggs, and the cabinet tells you to take out the bread. (I'm not a cook-- we're making french toast). The stove tells you to turn it on medium and put battered bread on a skillet.
Obviously, for simple recipes this is useless and for complicated ones it doesn't save you anything more than looking back at a recipe, but if anything, we're a lazy population. More importanly, this could all be done with one standalone appliance with a barcode reader (kitchen pc, anyone?) But just because there's another way doesn't mean it can't catch on. People have powered toothbrushes and use the full-service pump at gas stations. We pay for others to wash our cars and change our oil, and buy lap dances rather than trying to pick up women and take them home. There may be a market for automating your grocery stock.