Panasonic R&D 'House of the Future' To Open

Tomo Hiratsuka writes "On January 4 Panasonic opens its new R&D showcase in Tokyo, featuring the usual raft of environmentally friendly products and a take on how to make gadgets more usable for the graying societies of the future. Examples are thin on the ground at the minute but the company's Universal Design (UD) concept could be just the kind of simplification everybody's grandparents have been whining for over the holidays when faced with the space-age remotes on new-fangled DVD players and the like." Details can be found via CBS, and an official release.

seriously

[mix_master_mike]

"Dinner still has to be cooked. OK, it's very easy because this system automatically sends the cooking data to the network microwave oven. " Don't we see this shit every decade or so? That sounds like a commercial from the 70s for those new fangled robots... When I can afford this junk I'll be interested.

Someday

[ScottCooperDotNet]

Someday my furnace, washer, dryer, water heater and security system will get an IP from my router. I'll be able to see off the router's homepage the status of my laundry, change the water heater's temp., etc. All this stuff could be in place by now, there's just no demand for it. Every one of these "homes of the future" events brings us a bit closer.

Technology: further isolating old people?

[OnanTheBarbarian]

It's a tough call - do developments like this merely improve life for already isolated old people, or do they make it easier (particularly on the conscience) to dump old people in isolated apartments with less and less social contact?

I'm torn between these two arguments. It's not like everyone treated old people warmly and integrated them into normal social life and then technology came along and messed it all up.

Finally, I'm dubious about how 'eco' all of these clean redesigns are. Visiting California, I'm always amused to hear about people with their new 'eco-mega-mansions' - big houses built really far from anywhere, at great expense, with lots of 'energy saving' features. They may save energy in the steady state - but the massive expenditure of energy and capital required to build them is significant. In a part of the world that isn't really experiencing much population growth, gadget-packed new developments (almost guaranteed to be obsolete and difficult in 10 or 20 years) probably aren't a very eco-friendly way to go (even if their theoretical characteristics in the 'steady state' look good).

Houses of the future

[zooo]

A large number of American houses of the future will look a lot like the trailor parks of today but with more expensive services. Urban living will probably be in high rise condos ala Hong Kong and a very small elite group will live in walled communities and or condos enjoying fabulous wealth and access to the latest technologies. They will pay dearly for security protection, clean water and reliable power. Mexico City would probably be a good indicator of where the average large American city is headed over the next twenty years.... provided the economy doesn't collapse first. As for the American Dream, it's still around, but it got outsourced to China!