And the creators are looking for volunteers to spend time in the house
Posted 07.20.2010 at 10:42 am
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iSpace
The iSpace smart apartment at the University of Essex, England, is a test bed for emerging smart-home technologies.
University of Essex
Smart house tech is about to go a step beyond your average energy-efficiency monitoring systems. What about a house that prepares a fresh pot of coffee when you wake up, plays your favorite music without being told to, and sets the thermostat to your ideal setting? Now that's smart.
Smart-home researchers in the UK want to test systems that rely on "ambient intelligence" -- systems that can learn your preferences and behavior and adjust conditions accordingly, according to Greenbang, a London-based sustainability blog.
The goal is to explore ways to enhance human-technology relationships, so your machines will know what you want and how to make you happy.
In such a situation, your coffee maker, home theater system, air conditioner and laundry machines could all communicate autonomously, and carry out specific tasks that fit your behavior patterns, as well as efficient use.
Researchers at the University of Essex are seeking a few volunteers to study such systems, as part of a European Union program called "Adaptive and Trusted Ambient Ecologies," or ATRACO.
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Technology, Rebecca Boyle, emergent intelligence, homes, houses, housing, ispace, smart homes, smart houses, Smart Personal Objects Technology, the internet of thingsResearchers have already asked volunteers to imagine iSpace as their home and told them to interact with various aspects of the ATRACO system, according to the Intelligent Environment Group at the University of Essex. The next step is to ask volunteers to hang out in iSpace for four two-hour sessions sometime this fall.
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I can see marketing companies tearing each other limb from limb to sink their fangs into that goldmine of data.
How many pots of coffee do they drink in the morning? maybe they need a stronger brand...maybe a weaker brand, maybe a smaller or larger serving. Do the occupants toss and turn at night? Sleep Number or Posturepedic will have a suggestion.
Nobody get me wrong...If there's a product out there that will actually improve my quality of life then Im all for knowing what it is.
I guess its just another question of "how much do I want the world to know about me and how much of myself am I willing to give up?"
I wonder if you would need your 27B/6 form to be permitted to acces that panel in the second picture when the automated temperature control goes on the fritz and sets room differential temperatures to fluctuate so severly as to create a mini windstorm. Tuttle save us!
I agree hilfest, Facebook has forever made me distrust projects like this that use information to "give us a better experience." Doesn't mean I'm not a little interested though.. :)
You got that right CoolHand. The Facebook Generation...
Was it Star Wars 2 or 3 when Padme said "So this is how democracy dies...with thunderous applause". I suppose the same can/will be said about personal privacy. Im going to console myself on my Sleep Number now.
Oh lord...I just scared myself. Did I really sound like a crotchety old man just then griping about dumb youth?
There are several home automation schemes available that will let you program your home appliances to behave as you'd like.
Doesn't seem to be a big demand because people (amazingly ) change from time to time.
I get the data mining aspect -- if this stuff was hooked into the 'cloud' -- and why wouldn't it be? Thanks, but no bleeping thanks.
Also adding all of these automated services seems to fly in the face of 'green'. I'm sure that the systems will have to be at some level of power on continuously, so that they're ready to 'serve'.