Japanese Firms Create Home (Appliance) Network

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.'"

Recipe Networks?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, soon I can cook meals controlled by my bluetooth enabled phone! Wow! How useful. The aspect of downloading recipes seems kind of interesting, however. Just make sure when you are downloading a recipe you don't get tricked into hitting the recipe link that is the equivilant of a goatse redirect *shudder*.

Seriously though, perhaps we could use peer-to-peer networks to share recipes, with a rating system kind of like what Shareaza uses. I have a cookie recipe [snopes.com] that I can share... It would be kind of interesting to join a network of like-minded recipe people and have recipes downloaded each day.

Good Thing

[Phroggy]

I have difficulty imagining the usefulness of this, but I'm really glad they're working together to develop a common standard instead of each company doing their own thing. I suspect someone will find something really cool to do with this technology that nobody's thought of yet, now that the framework exists.

A/V network

[myov]

I think some form of A/V network would be more useful than linking appliances. Why can't I just link my TV, VCR, Digital Tuner, DVD, Receiver, etc with a single cable and let them figure themselves out?

Play on DVD tunes the TV to the right input, sets the receiver surround mode, knows to control the receiver's volume instead of TV's, etc. Watching TV, press record and the VCR knows what to do. Let me walk over to the kitchen and continue watching my DVD there. Etc.

A universal remote doesn't really make things that much simpler (constant mode switching, two different volume modes depending on where audio is routed, needing to know what plugs into what, etc). The alternative is an extremely complex/expensive crestron-type system.

Of course, under the DMCA/etc, you'll probably see this as a "what we're allowing you to do" connection instead. :(

Oh, Brave New Crap.

[servasius_jr]

The future, as supplied by mega-corporations: More and more of what you need less and less.

Do you really want your toaster to be twice as expensive, half as reliable, licenced instead of owned, and subject to planned obsolescence?

Yet another standard among many?

[akc]

There already is a whole raft of standards for home interconnection, and then home to outside world.

How does this new standard add to that?

Look at OSGi [osgi.org], uPnP [upnp.org] and LonWorks [lonmark.org] just to show a few of them

This will add to already complex appliances

[Qweezle]

Most new "modern" appliances with features that are anything near digital are already too difficult for the run-of-the-mill house caretaker, whether that be a woman or a man.

People want something simple that WORKS....I doubt there will be a widespread acceptance of this until the technology generation, the kids of the 90s, grow old enough to have to use household appliances(and take care of a house/apartment), which won't be for another 10 to 15 years.

Until then, therefore, I predict these things won't catch on too well. But you can never really predict consumer acceptance of a radical new idea, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Old folks

[presearch]

One of the best things that this technology could do is
to standardize on how devices talk to their control panels.
This implies that the control panel is separate and distinct
from the device it controls. A washing machine's panel
for example isn't necessarily hard-coded and hard-wired
to the washer itself. Now, it would be possible for grandma,
who can hardly see, to have just three big buttons for the
washer, with loud audio feedback. But the slashgeek could
have the mega-LCARS interface that sets the washer based
on the rfid tags on the clothes that are tossed in, along with
woolen-color vs. cotton-whites incompatibility warnings.

Big, simple interfaces for seniors is overlooked by most
device makers these days. Lots of tiny, low contrast buttons
with nested menu structures only confuse most non-geeks.

Downside of this will be that you'll need a monthly subscription
for -everything- and selecting interfaces will also be an additional
charge, like cellphone ring tones.

System administration is the tricky part

[Diomidis Spinellis]

I built a home application network I termed an Information Furnace [spinellis.gr] a couple of years ago based on machines running slightly customized versions of FreeBSD, Linux, and NetBSD. My system handles Internet access, the PBX, MP3 music distribution, an alarm system, and a door opener. It can receive commands from remote controls, DTMF, and the web.

What I gained from connecting these systems under one roof was

• a better user interface; e.g. no more cryptic PBX commands to change quick-dialing codes
• enhanced functionality, as in globally distributed MP3 play lists
• synergies; a single command turn on the answering machine and the alarm system
• more efficient and elegant provisioning: most of the cable clutter is now concentrated in a single out-of-sight location

The biggest difficulty in setting up the system was not technical, but administrative. Although I had to write a device driver and some custom software, these proved to be relatively stable once debugged. The problems were in correctly specifying our living requirements, translating them into specifications, and testing the result. The first friends to visit us after I installed the system rang the doorbell and were greeted by the answering machine message (oops!) Now the system is very stable, but I would never think of modifying its configuration less than a month before leaving for a vacation.

Diomidis Spinellis - Code Reading: The Open Source Perspective [spinellis.gr]
#include "/dev/tty"

A NTP server

[jhines]

A time server would be a really handy thing to have in a home network, imagine all the clocks in the appliances having the same, correct time all the time.

Sure beats the blinking 12:00 syndrome.

Why?

[FreekyGeek]

Everytime someone gets excited about a "home appliance network" (which seems to be every year, like clockwork, for the past 20 years or so), I ask myself: "Why? What does my toaster have to say to my lamp? What does my microwave have to say to my toaster?"

Other than a very few uses (your PC talking to your A/V components, for example) this is a technology in search of a problem.

Do that many people really spend so much time using their appliances that they need to have their own network? And, of course, this is just one more thing to break - maybe it's a conspiracy by appliance manufacturers to reduce the reliability and "it-just-always-works" nature of most appliances.