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Technology

A Night in the Hotel of the Future 266

Posted by michael from the mirrors-on-the-ceiling-pink-champagne-on-ice dept.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Michael S. Lasky was lucky enough to test the amenities of the "Room of the Future", Room 267 of the Hilton Garden Inn in El Segundo, California. Among other things, the room provides a wall-mounted, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV Panasonic plasma television, a biometric room safe, free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV, or a Panasonic massage chair. Needless to say, Lasky didn't have enough time to test everything during his one-night stay, but was quite pleased. Check this column for a summary and a picture of the "Room of the Future.""
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A Night in the Hotel of the Future More

A Night in the Hotel of the Future

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  • Yet enigmatically... (Score:5, Funny)

    by JUSTONEMORELATTE ( 584508 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:42AM (#6132399) Homepage
    ... There was still a slot for the coin-op vibrating bed.
    Some things never change

    --

  • Not mentioned in the review..... (Score:5, Funny)

    by AMuse ( 121806 ) <slashdot-amuse.foofus@com> on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:43AM (#6132414) Homepage
    The 42 inch plasma screen on the wall cannot be turned off or the volume adjusted, and it constantly plays patriotic music to sooth you....

    • Re:Not mentioned in the review..... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      As O'Brien passed the telescreen a thought seemed to strike him. He stopped, turned aside and pressed a switch on the wall. There was a sharp snap. The voice had stopped.

      Julia uttered a tiny sound, a sort of squeak of surprise. Even in the midst of his panic, Winston was too much taken aback to be able to hold his tongue.

      'You can turn it off!' he said.

      'Yes,' said O'Brien, 'we can turn it off. We have that privilege.'

    • Re:Not mentioned in the review..... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Setlist (on rotation):

      Star spangled banner
      McDonalds Commercial
      Loose weight fast commercial
      Microsoft Commercial
      Saab Commercial
      Fox's new TV series Commercial
      Honda Commercial
      Some stupid movie Ad
      Keep kids off drugs Public Service Announcement
      Geico Insurance Advertisement
      Phone Sex Commercial
      Microsoft Commercial Part Two
      Hotel's advertisement for food
      Now playing on Patriot Music Channel #2 Preview
      Burger King Commercial

      This loops indefinently.

  • Very funny... (Score:5, Funny)

    by esconsult1 ( 203878 ) * on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:44AM (#6132421) Homepage Journal
    All the amenities are also good for alternative "dual uses":

    42" Plasma television - Good for watching porn

    Biometric room safe -- so that the prostitute you bring in doesn't steal your stuff while you're sleeping

    Free broadband -- surf all the porn you want on the big screen, or lookup local call girl services

    Massage chair -- need I say more?

    Have a good laugh like I did.

  • The nice touches (Score:5, Funny)

    by KFury ( 19522 ) * on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:45AM (#6132437) Homepage
    Gotta love the 'executive toy' on the desk in the picture.

    how are you supposed to know it's an executive's desk unless there's a kinetic sculpture on it? Truly, this is the future.

  • So What? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kevin_conaway ( 585204 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:45AM (#6132441) Homepage
    Big Deal. Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible but when I come back I want to get a good nights sleep and get clean the next morning. This type of stuff is designed to attract the people who bought those old Acer computers just because they had a black case.

    • Re:So What? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Demon of the fall ( 651054 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:54AM (#6132540)
      Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible

      Well, this is true for tourists like you and me, but I'm quite sure that business travelers don't spend their entire nights outside... They probably want to relax in their room after spending ours in endless meetings, and an addition of a massage chair and a 42" plasma TV probably is a nice bonus.

      • Re:So What? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kiwimate ( 458274 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:03PM (#6132648) Journal
        Hear hear. I've been on both sides of the coin -- travelling as a tourist, I spend as little time as possible in the hotel room. But, having done the consultant thing, including a stretch of 100% travel (get up Monday morning, kiss wife goodbye, come back Friday night, kiss wife hello, enjoy weekend, lather, rinse, repeat ad nauseam), a comfortable hotel room with pleasant amenities makes a huge amount of difference. It's especially welcomed when you're stuck in your hotel room doing business in the evening and you can take a decent quick shower to refresh yourself, or finish off a 16 hour day by raiding the mini-bar and watching television.

        More importantly, such amenities will put one in a better frame of mind and result in a more relaxing time, giving added benefit to the client (a happy consultant is a more productive consultant) and the spouse when you get home. For professional and personal reasons in such a scenario, this could only be a leg up in the business traveller's world.

    • Quiet rooms (Score:3, Insightful)

      by GGardner ( 97375 )
      Exactly! I've been in a lot of rather expensive hotels with guilded lobbies, liveried doorman, etc., but had rooms that were not soundproofed from road noise, the elevator, or the ice machine around the corner. Several times, I've unplugged the ice machine in the hallway in the middle of the night just to get some sleep. Unfortatenly, unplugging the elevator is a bit more difficult. Ding!
    • This is also for those people who like to have an extremely nice visit in the hotel, possibly on business, and have plenty of money to spend.

      I wouldn't mind having a very nice hotel if I go on a trip, would you?

    • Re:So What? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by aallan ( 68633 ) <alasdair@babilim[ ].uk ['.co' in gap]> on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:04PM (#6132653) Homepage

      Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible...

      As someone who sometimes has to spend months at a hotel when I'm abroad on business, I totally disagree. Business travel is very different to vacation travel, you're there for different reasons and you want different things. I'd kill for a hotel room with a decent entertainment system and broadband when I'm away on business.

      Al.

    • Re:So What? (Score:3, Insightful)

      by pubjames ( 468013 )
      Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible

      When you go on holiday, you go to interesting places. When you travel for business, very often you find yourself in a motel by the side of a motorway 200km from anywhere interesting. In that kind of situation, what you want is a stocked minifridge and some decent porn.

      I've no idea what the porn channels are like in the USA. I imagine they are quite prudish if things like Playboy any indication. You shoul
    • Big Deal. Hotel rooms should basically have a nice bed and nice bath. Personally, if I am going on vacation, I want to spend as much time OUT of the hotel room as possible but when I come back I want to get a good nights sleep and get clean the next morning. This type of stuff is designed to attract the people who bought those old Acer computers just because they had a black case.

      You are completely and totally wrong. There are tons of reasons why this is a good thing. Executive travelling, where they ar

  • Aren't Sanford and Son from El Segundo? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jason99si ( 131298 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:45AM (#6132444)
    In other news, Fred G. Sanford was lucky enough to test the amenities of the "Junkyard of the Future", Room 1 of the Sanford Arms in El Segundo, California.

    Amenities included a bottle of Ripple, automatic heart monitoring equipment, and the neighbors goat.

  • Le Meridien Minneapolis (Score:2, Informative)

    by sk3tch ( 165010 )
    Sounds a lot like the Le Meridien in Minneapolis.

    Info:
    http://www.lemeridien.com/usa/minneapolis/accommod ation_us1788.shtml [lemeridien.com]

  • They've gotta do something to get people there... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:46AM (#6132459)
    Ah, Smell Segundo, I remember it well. Bordered by a huge sewage treatment plant to the west, with it's lovely aromas, LAX to the north, with it's wonderful sound effects AT MAXIMUM VOLUME, and, to the south, the second oil refinery built on the West Coast (hence, the city name), with it's wonderful plumes of burning gases.

    Home to more engineering firms & Friday night Happy Hours than I can remember.

    • The oil refinery there is tiny, it's a joke. The guys in Texas City would have a good laugh. And the proximity to LAX is a plus for business, not a minus. El Segundo also actually has a train stop, not that the train actually goes anywhere you'd want to go. Too bad the taxi drivers defeated the attempt to connect the train to LAX, it might actually be useful.
    • Interestingly, El Segundo recently made it to Relocate America's Top 100 places to live [relocate-america.com].

      I have no idea why.
      • Wow, that is a crappy list. Trust me, there is no place in Florida on that list that deserves its place except Sarasota. West Palm Beach in the top 100? Somebody obviously hasn't been to West Palm in twenty years.
      • Please. The place lists Dearborn, MI as well, which is conveniently bordered by steel plants and oil refineries. Parts of Dearborn are also very very crime-ridden. Don't get me wrong, some parts of Dearborn are very nice, but I wouldn't exactly list it as one of the top 100 places to live.

      • In case you're either really naieve, or just braindead, it's obvious that this list is full of poo. It's sponsored by realtors, so obviously the people who sponsor it must have some pull in which towns are selected. I'm from NJ, so I'll give you a list of the towns in NJ that they list.

        Keyport, NJ
        Long Valley, NJ
        Princeton, NJ
        Ringwood, NJ
        Sparta, NJ

        What do all these towns have in common? Except for Princeton, they were all mostly either forest land or farm land 15 years ago. Buy a house in one of these t

  • Quiet minifridge? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jgerry ( 14280 ) * <jason.gerryNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:47AM (#6132462) Homepage
    I found this to be most interesting:

    a compressor-less mini-refrigerator that is completely silent

    I want more and more quiet appliances, including computers. Everything is so freakin' noisy now! I wish more industrial design took this into account. Yay future!
    • a small detail to be sure, but this would be a major plus in my book. It's hard enough getting a good night's sleep on the road, let alone trying to ignore a cranky fridge...
    • www.quietpc.com
      www.quietpcusa.com (their US branch)
      www.silentpcreview.com

      quietpc.com has products ranging from acousticly dampend cases, to speed-regulating fans, to fanless cpu coolers, to hard drive enclosers.

      Making my pc silent is one of my current side projects... fan by fan.
    • Maybe they have something similar in the hotel room. It's way quieter than our normal fridge.

      My wife bought one of these coolers [coleman.com] for camping. No compressor, but it does have a small fan to drive out the warm air.

      Frankly I was strangely miffed that I wasn't the first one to bring a Peltier cooler into the house.

      If you're into Star Trek, you can get extra kicks from reversing the polarity and turning it from a cooler to a heater. Instead of cooling the contents to 40 degrees below ambient, it warms to 80 d

  • things of the future... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by imaginate ( 305769 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:47AM (#6132465)
    I hate to say it, but I'm a little tired of things that pawn themselves off as "of the future," when they're just showcases for the most expensive, newest stuff that's already floating around.

    Maybe it's because the real "hotels of the future" won't be any more exciting than they are now. If they're motels, they'll be cheap - if they're five star hotels, they'll simply emulate what's in the best houses, plus a feature or two (whooo, biometric safe).

  • Room of the Future? No Room of the Rich (Score:5, Insightful)

    by binaryDigit ( 557647 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:49AM (#6132476)
    What's so futuristic about a room that uses technology available for the household for at least 10 years (broadband not withstanding). OK the tv is plasma, but it's still just a big tv. Anybody could offer a room like this if they could get away with charging the extra amount it would cost to pay for it.

    Now when you can get a room like this at Motel6 for $39.95 at night, then wake me up.
  • Just a little behind a cell phone with a video camera on my list of things I need. But I am sure there are plenty of people looking for new ways to spend money.

  • Future? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mr. No Skills ( 591753 ) <[lskywalker] [at] [hotmail.com]> on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:49AM (#6132487) Journal
    Just sounds like a a room filled with crap from Sharper Image. Hardly the future.

    • Re:Future? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by hipster_doofus ( 670671 )
      You mean someone actually buys something at Sharper Image?!?!?!? I thought you were just supposed to go in, marvel at the expensive crap, and walk back out!

      In probably 20+ visits to Sharper Image stores around the country, I have yet to see anyone actually buy something while I was there.

      The same goes for Brookstone and all of the other Sharper Image clones.
  • (booming voice, 2ms echo) without the Hookers and Blow of the Future?
    • Personally, I'm not one for hookers and blow. When I used to travel for business, I was more for stupid sluts and overpriced hamburgers.
      • I'm not exactly sure why a cheap slut is better than a hooker though, it's not very logical, but it is true...
      • You do have to admit that charging a $15 hamburger to your expense account is rather satisfying.

      Of course, such a room certainly wouldn't belong to Marion Barry [rotten.com].

  • Modern Chair vs. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Quixadhal ( 45024 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:51AM (#6132510) Homepage Journal
    Old fashion courtesy masseuse?

    I think I'll take the cute hotel-staff masseuse, you can keep the chair of the future.

  • It isn’t the future… (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:52AM (#6132522)
    â¦until the Gideonâ(TM)s Bible is provided in pdf and pdb formats.

  • Room of the future? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Andorion ( 526481 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:53AM (#6132529)
    This isn't the hotel room of the future... it's the hotel room of today, if you're rich enough.

    ~Berj

  • Beach (Score:5, Insightful)

    by drooling-dog ( 189103 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:53AM (#6132539)
    Give me a nice beach just outside my sliding-glass door, and you can keep all this other crap...
  • Seems less like the room of the future, and more like the room of people with too much freakin' money in their bank account.

    I think only the broadband access has a shot at becoming common, the rest of that stuff is just too filthy expensive for all but the most expensive hotels to be installing.. much less putting it into people's homes.

  • I've always been happy with a 13" TV and 1 channel of pr0n as long as it was "billed discreetly to my hotel bill".

    Why does he need all this stuff in his room? Is the city he's visiting not exciting enough? Why did he go there in the first place, then?

    • Re:That's Strange... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Zaphod B ( 94313 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:34PM (#6132917) Journal
      It seems obvious that you don't travel on business much. When you are a tourist, the idea is to take in the sights, hit the nightclubs, &c. When you are a business traveller, you want one of two things: to not have to leave the hotel room (because you won't be in there very long), or to continue working.

      I like to work in the evenings when on business trips, because the more I work, the sooner I get done, and the sooner I can go home.

      It should have been plain that this hotel room in El Segundo was not meant for tourists... a tourist with that kind of dough wouldn't stay at the fucking Hilton Garden Inn El Segundo, he'd stay at Le Meridien or the W or something, in a place with some nightlife and some interesting things to see. (El Segundo's a nice enough place but it's not exactly a tourist mecca.)
      • As a matter of fact, I travel quite a bit.

        It seems obvious that you don't have a sense of humor.

        When I travel, I spend as little time as possible where I am going. In the evenings, I work on my laptop and always pay the $10 for a high-speed connection. If the high-speed connection is there, the TV doesn't even go on.

        Besides the high-speed connection, the only other amenity I can possible see taking advantage of is the ironing board.

  • Crotch Blaster (Score:5, Funny)

    by Baron_911 ( 664953 ) <baron&insecure,net> on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:56AM (#6132573) Homepage Journal
    Since I couldn't see what buttons I was pushing, the crotch-level nozzle blasting 102-degree water came as a shock--and my attempts to shut it off only caused other nozzles to splash me as if I were in a penitentiary riot. (Hilton's plan to install a voice-activated control could be just the solution.)

    I hope the voice command to turn it off will be 'OMG MY WANG ARRRRRG!!!!!'

  • Is it the future? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Gizzmonic ( 412910 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @11:58AM (#6132588) Homepage Journal
    Or is it just lots of luxury?

    I mean, he wasn't flying around in his personal broomcopter that folds into a suit jacket. When I burgle your rich yuppie house, I don't call it time traveling! Although maybe that would work as a legimitate defense in court...is anyone here a physics attorney?
  • Plasma-shmasma, but what about the minibar? There's not a word on that in the article. Does this mean there will be no booze in the future? Now that's what I call dystopian sci-fi.

  • What about the mini bar? (Score:5, Funny)

    by select * from ( 593191 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:01PM (#6132628)

    Protected with Microsoft Passport.

    RFID embedded potato chip bags. $5

    GPS enabled water bottle. $6

    $7 Liquor bottles featuring HP inkjet technology. Cannot consume liquor and fill bottle back up with 3rd party tap water, the bottle will still register empty. Attempts to reset liquor usage on said bottle will be a DMCA violation
    • At a hotel I stayed at in central London a few years back, every item in the mini-fridge was sitting on a switch. As soon as you picked anything up, it registered with the central biling system and was added to your account.

      As I was staying there for two weeks, this really sucked. I like to take everything out of the mini-fridge and put my own stuff from the local grocery store in there. Instead, I had to carefully balance my stuff on top of the items already in there.

      Of course, that wasn't as bad as the
    • ... not including "PRICELESS" in your list of prices: er, priceless. Right?

  • the future looks grim (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LuxFX ( 220822 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:03PM (#6132643) Homepage Journal
    So how is this the room of the future? This all sounds like stuff that's around already. The only part that's somewhat unusual is the biometric safe -- but when there are already biometric PDAs [techtv.com] on the market, it's just not as impressive.

    The Hotel Room of the Rich, maybe, but not Future. Sounds like Lasky was desperate to add some hype to a story.

    A Hotel Room of the Future should be something that attempts to guess and then mimic how future innovations would tie in with the setting. (mimic being the keyword, because the object here is to show what hasn't been produced yet)

    For instance, a room where the fabric-upholstered walls were made of ultra-thin flexible LCD sheets, and displayed a database of exotic settings. (faked for display with a simple projector) And a AI assistant that could order food from various restaurants, book theater tickets, or call a cab. (faked for display with a pre-recorded sequence) And a three-dimensional television set. (faked for display with iMax technology, requiring the use of glasses for demonstration)

    Then I would be convinced that I was in a room of the future, or at least a mockup room of the future.

    .
    • Another thing that the hotel room of the future will have is video on demand - you'll be able to watch any movie whenever you want to.
    • Have you ever seen a modern day cheap m/hotel room? It's like stepping into a 70s time warp. By the time we have "ultra-thin flexible LCD sheets" that are cheap enough for middle-income home consumption, crappy hotel rooms will start getting cheap-ass 42 inch plasma tvs from some pawn shop/antique garage sale. So while all this technology is currently available at a really high price, in 30 years or so, you will probably walk into this "hotel of the future." It's all based on your time-line of "the future"
  • Most of the /. readers read about the 42" plasma and the broadband access but they forgot how the hi-tech shower nearly burned the authors balls. "the crotch-level nozzle blasting 102-degree water came as a shock."

    • Re:I think most of you missed this (Score:5, Funny)

      by Zaphod B ( 94313 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:40PM (#6132981) Journal
      I assume he meant 102ÂF, not 102ÂC. 102ÂF, while quite warm, is not exactly scalding temperature (after all, hundreds of thousands of yuppies regularly dunk their meat and two veg in hot tubs that are heated to 105ÂF and suffer no burns). 102ÂC would be a hell of a lawsuit.

      I'm reminded of a Dilbert episode (yes, from that lousy TV show) where Dilbert has a voice-activated shower.

      Dogbert: Tell me about the Gruntmaster 9000.
      Dilbert: You mean '6000'.
      Dogbert: What?
      Dilbert: I SAID, YOU MEAN 'SIX THOUSAND'!
      Shower: ...six thousand...
      Dilbert: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!

  • Re:Apache displacing IIS? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by erikdotla ( 609033 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:13PM (#6132729)
    These "things" of the future (homes, rooms, toilets) are always the same thing: They are not the Whatever of the Future, but simply the Whatever of the Very Rich.

    I firmly believe that our futures hold simplicity, non-intrusiveness, and ease of use where technology is concerned. If television still exists in 100 years, it will be a nearly invisible unit, projecting onto a wall or an image floating in midair. Technology will dissolve into the very fabric of our lives as such that we will appear to be living in the 17th Century, when in fact we have lots of technology at our disposal.

    I also do not believe that the capitalist system will disappear anytime soon. There will always be the rich, the middle class, and the poor. Most people cannot access high technology until it drops to commodity prices.

    If you want to see what the future holds for technology, study the markets for the types of components that make up that technology. That which becomes cheap becomes widespread and ubiquitous.
    • That damn "Apache" subject got stuck on there again. Mozilla's form cache is so fun.

      In traditional Slashdot manner, I posted before even reading the article or looking at the picture. After looking at the picture, I have to say - well done. All that technology seems to dissolve well into the background of the room, giving the appearance of not very much tech at all. The Way Things Should Be Done.

      Even still, such a room is likely to cost a fortune. I travelled to Albequerque by motorcycle with a band
      • That damn "Apache" subject got stuck on there again. Mozilla's form cache is so fun.

        Now, if only you could change that into Re:Mozilla displacing IE?...

  • Hmm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Tyrdium ( 670229 )
    I didn't see an orgasmatron in the list... When do we get that?
  • My hotel of the future would have:

    No safe, you won't need one everyone provided for and there arn't any thiefs.

    No HDTV, T.V. a popular form of brainwashing and keeping the plebs occupied between the mid 1900's and late 2000's. In the future people prefer social interaction.

    a heated toilet seat/bidet, just wait for someone else to use it, you do know someone else don't you?

  • Free Broadband? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by milesbparty ( 527555 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:22PM (#6132797)
    free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV

    I think he means: "Included in the price of the room", not "free".
    • I think he means: "Included in the price of the room", not "free".
      No, it's free! Like "Free printer when you buy this computer," or "Free CD player in this car," or "H/HW included in rental price of apartment," etc.

      I can't believe people fall for that sort of crap. Do you think the business is just going to give you stuff at a loss just because they're nice folk? No! It's as transparent a marketing gimmick as charging $19.99. It's twenty freakin' dollars!

  • Blogs about blogs aboug blogs... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by malakai ( 136531 ) * on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:27PM (#6132840) Journal
    I'm getting a little annoyed at refering to references that refer to referenes that refer to a source article.

    The content on Roland Piquepaille blog [weblogs.com] is always worthless. This is at least the third story he submitted (and was approved) that links you to his site, where they quotes from the article, and then says a very obvious sentance about that quote.

    This all started back in Nov of 2002 see: for his articles [slashdot.org]

    I don't get it. If you find something intresting, and you want to submit it to slash dot, then do so. Why make a blog, so you can submit, so you can refer to your blog.

    I'm not getting into conspiracies about money or ads or anything. Near as I can tell none of that is involved here.

    I just get annoyed going to his blogs to find he just quots the article, and has no real insight or other information.

    -Malakai
  • Bob Shaw got it right. Try:

    In The Hereafter Hilton, (short story) Omni Sep '80

    (Poor bastardized Babelfish [altavista.com] English->Russian->English follows, which oddly, is still readable)

  • Not in El Segundo (Score:3, Funny)

    by dspyder ( 563303 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:29PM (#6132856)
    I can guarantee that my dream room of the future sure as hell isn't in El Segundo :)

    --D

  • Seriously (Score:5, Funny)

    by mobileskimo ( 461008 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @12:54PM (#6133098) Journal
    Why is this room "of the future"? The amenities are all items from this day and age and in working order aren't they? Usually when I hear product "of the future" I think of a concept product that is shown emulating it, but not really function.

    Is it because in the future it will be commonplace?


    Among the niceties of this high-tech hotel room are:
    - a wall-mounted, 42-inch flat-screen HDTV Panasonic plasma television connected to a Technics receiver with surround-sound Bose speakers;
    - a biometric room safe that uses a thumbprint as the lock and key;
    - free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV;
    - a Panja touch-panel remote control that manages lighting levels and room climate; opens and closes the drapes; controls the TV, radio, and DVD player; and even repositions the head and foot of the king-size bed;
    - a Panasonic massage chair,
    - a heated toilet seat/bidet,
    - a computerized five-nozzle shower,
    - and a defogging bathroom mirror.

    Or are they implying that the commonplace habits of being on the road will be
    - Still watch alot of TV, but demand better quality of delivery
    - Be Paranoid
    - Be a geek
    - Be a lazy geek
    - Be a lazy geek with tension problems
    - Be a lazy geek with tension problems and a cold ass
    - Be a REAL geek
    - Now you're spending way too much time in the bathroom. it's my turn.
  • This is pretty dumb. These are just the latest toys. And many of them are not new at all.

    -a second, smaller flat-screen LCD monitor next to the Jacuzzi bathtub;
    --Not new -- just getting cheaper

    -motion-detection lights that activate when guests enter the room;
    --I had this when I was 12. (1990 or so) Bought something at radioshack to do it.

    -a biometric room safe that uses a thumbprint as the lock and key;
    --Not new -- just getting cheaper

    free broadband, accessible via laptop or the TV;
    --Not free (paid a premium for hotel room)

    a Panja touch-panel remote control that manages lighting levels and room climate; opens and closes the drapes; controls the TV, radio, and DVD player;
    --Can set this up using devices from http://www.smarthome.com [smarthome.com]

    and even repositions the head and foot of the king-size bed;
    -http://www.craftmatic.com/ [craftmatic.com] Craftmatic has been around forever.

    a compressor-less mini-refrigerator that is completely silent;
    -- and here http://www.ajmadison.com/cgi-bin/ajmadison/BB52.ht m [ajmadison.com] is the "amazing" silent refrigerator.

    a Panasonic massage chair, a heated toilet seat/bidet, a computerized five-nozzle shower, and a defogging bathroom mirror.

    ahh nevermind

    i guess it is kinda cool.

    But it seems a bit much to get THIS excited over.

    blah, blah, blah. im tired of typing

  • needs to be renamed... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Lumpy ( 12016 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @01:15PM (#6133284) Homepage
    to room of the rich...

    nothing is "the future" in there. every bit of it is off the shelf available to the obscenely rich.

    Show me self opening doors, lights that work when i say "illuminate" and the ability for me to issue a search command verbally to an avatar to search for information to display on that TV... then it's the room of the future.

    hell give me the hotel room abiliteis that are in Johhny Mnenomic.. let me dial from, check messages, net,etc from the tv and it's remote.

    Just dont try and pass off a bunch of high-priced things as "the future"

  • The Los Angeles Times has a better erticle (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Friday June 06, 2003 @01:19PM (#6133320) Homepage
    The LA Times article [latimes.com] on Hilton's "rooms of the future" has less hype and more useful info. Hilton has set up 14 rooms at their El Segundo property with various new conveniences. They assign people who are in their "frequent flyer" type program to these rooms at random, and after they've stayed a night, ask them for comments.

    One of the most popular features is very simple - two hooks on the inside of the bathroom door.

    Hilton is doing this because they made an expensive mistake. They tried a smart card system in New York, using the same card to unlock rooms, pay for meals, and make phone calls. People hated it. So now they use their rather boring location in El Segundo (next to LAX) to debug.

    Hotels have a terrible problem with guest-visible technology - all their users are new. They don't want to hand a manual to each guest, or get calls for tech support. So it has to be subtle. This is good; too many products come with far too many controls for things the system should be managing itself. It's a nice design exercise to design technology for hotels.

  • the Future (Score:3, Insightful)

    by presearch ( 214913 ) * on Friday June 06, 2003 @02:15PM (#6133761)
    With all of our jobs being outsourced to sweatshops overseas,
    the "Room of the Future" is that cardboard box that the massage
    chair came in, and digging for scraps in the dumpster, out behind the Hilton.

    • Amen to that (Score:3, Interesting)

      by No Such Agency ( 136681 )
      I was thinking... for most of us, the hotel room of the future will resemble those Japanese coffin-hotels mentioned in William Gibson books. A 10 foot yellow polymer cylinder with a bed and a small TV in it. Residual body odour. Shared bathroom. Dangerous or at least unattractive neighbourhood.
  • I'll stick with my 57" model.
  • ...where's my flying car? I want my flying car, you insensitive clod!

  • Future? (Score:2, Funny)

    by pkunzipper ( 652520 )
    Room of the future? It's just some electronics and gadgets from the Sharper Image thrown into an ordinary hotel room.

    All this calls for is more calls to the service desk: "How do I use the remote to turn the lights down, they are blinding me again!?"
  • This is a hotel room in which you can relax:

    Ryoukan [nihon-kankou.or.jp]

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