Home Digital Home
The technology is new, but the situation is not, Consider this...
The electric light and the telephone didn't become common until well after they were invented.
It's simply because nobody knew what to do with them.
There wasn't anything to plug in and there wasn't anybody else with a phone to talk to.
The technology existed, but the applications hadn't been invented yet.
It wasn't until the late seventies that coaxial cable began to appear in new homes.
It wasn't needed until people started having cable TV in several rooms.
Home technologies have advanced at a glacial pace for over eighty years.
Hang on to your hats folks.
A paradigm shift is taking place right now.
It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis.
It does not just happen, but rather, is driven by agents of change.
Timekeeping has existed for centuries, but it had no urgent application, no real meaning for the masses until Watt and Stephenson invented the locomotive and, hence, the schedule.
The all-digital home network is here today..
..
..
and its proponents are doing their best not to make the mistakes of the past.
The agents of change aren't quite so random this time.
We've lived in an analog world for so long that making the paradigm shift in our lifestyles never occurred to us.
Most people with mortgages and kids have survived the transition from the typewriter to the PC well enough.
And many have even started integrating cell phones and PDA's into their daily lives.
Although these devices have made us more productive, have they really saved us any time? If anything, people work more frantically, in more places and with less leisure time than their parents did.
But, the changes in lifestyle that these items have created have been subtle compared to the next step.
In the all-digital home/office everything communicates with everything else.
The only connection to many devices will be a single cable, or frequently no cables at all.
A device in this environment may be added or removed at any time even while the system is operating.
It announces its presence to the other components and establishes communication as soon as it is plugged in.
In addition, new specifications have been developed for wireless links between laptops, mobile phones and many other portable devices.
The goal will be to allow devices to communicate as a network automatically and without being physically connected.
There are some pretty cool applications for this.
Let's say that you're at the grocery store.
Your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA, you know, Palm Pilot) reminds you that you're out of ketchup and your milk is past its expiration date.
It knows this because your refrigerator told it so.
While on your way home you approach a Home Depot, your cell phone receives a message reminding you of your burnt out closet light and the fact that Home Depot has one in stock for you.
The Internet is the primary medium that will allow virtually everything in your home to be part of the network.
Appliances such as your dishwasher and hot water heater will use a connection to the power company to know when electricity is the least expensive to use.
Your refrigerator will know what you put into and take out it by reading bar codes embedded in the packaging that reveal what is, when it was purchased and what its expiration date is.
By using this information, it can keep a running inventory to create a shopping list to alert you when commonly used items are running low.
It can even shop for the best price on-line and have them delivered to your home.
How will it know when you are going to be home? Your PDA or cell phone will tell it when to expect you because it automatically received your new schedule while at the office.
Everything in your home, right down to the light bulbs will connect to the network and work to make your life more convenient and productive.
Your home will become a sentient environment, that is, aware of your presence, your habits and preferences.
Yes Hal, a paradigm shift indeed.
If this stuff sounds a little spooky and Jetson-like, just think back five or six years.
How many of you looked up information or downloaded music from the Internet, owned a laptop computer, personal digital assistant, hand held cell phone or a digital camera? These devices are so common now that many people can barely remember life before they existed.
The real paradigm shift is the ability of these devices to communicate easily with one another.
Now if I could just apply this technology to my in-laws.
The electric light and the telephone didn't become common until well after they were invented.
It's simply because nobody knew what to do with them.
There wasn't anything to plug in and there wasn't anybody else with a phone to talk to.
The technology existed, but the applications hadn't been invented yet.
It wasn't until the late seventies that coaxial cable began to appear in new homes.
It wasn't needed until people started having cable TV in several rooms.
Home technologies have advanced at a glacial pace for over eighty years.
Hang on to your hats folks.
A paradigm shift is taking place right now.
It's a revolution, a transformation, a sort of metamorphosis.
It does not just happen, but rather, is driven by agents of change.
Timekeeping has existed for centuries, but it had no urgent application, no real meaning for the masses until Watt and Stephenson invented the locomotive and, hence, the schedule.
The all-digital home network is here today..
..
..
and its proponents are doing their best not to make the mistakes of the past.
The agents of change aren't quite so random this time.
We've lived in an analog world for so long that making the paradigm shift in our lifestyles never occurred to us.
Most people with mortgages and kids have survived the transition from the typewriter to the PC well enough.
And many have even started integrating cell phones and PDA's into their daily lives.
Although these devices have made us more productive, have they really saved us any time? If anything, people work more frantically, in more places and with less leisure time than their parents did.
But, the changes in lifestyle that these items have created have been subtle compared to the next step.
In the all-digital home/office everything communicates with everything else.
The only connection to many devices will be a single cable, or frequently no cables at all.
A device in this environment may be added or removed at any time even while the system is operating.
It announces its presence to the other components and establishes communication as soon as it is plugged in.
In addition, new specifications have been developed for wireless links between laptops, mobile phones and many other portable devices.
The goal will be to allow devices to communicate as a network automatically and without being physically connected.
There are some pretty cool applications for this.
Let's say that you're at the grocery store.
Your Personal Digital Assistant (PDA, you know, Palm Pilot) reminds you that you're out of ketchup and your milk is past its expiration date.
It knows this because your refrigerator told it so.
While on your way home you approach a Home Depot, your cell phone receives a message reminding you of your burnt out closet light and the fact that Home Depot has one in stock for you.
The Internet is the primary medium that will allow virtually everything in your home to be part of the network.
Appliances such as your dishwasher and hot water heater will use a connection to the power company to know when electricity is the least expensive to use.
Your refrigerator will know what you put into and take out it by reading bar codes embedded in the packaging that reveal what is, when it was purchased and what its expiration date is.
By using this information, it can keep a running inventory to create a shopping list to alert you when commonly used items are running low.
It can even shop for the best price on-line and have them delivered to your home.
How will it know when you are going to be home? Your PDA or cell phone will tell it when to expect you because it automatically received your new schedule while at the office.
Everything in your home, right down to the light bulbs will connect to the network and work to make your life more convenient and productive.
Your home will become a sentient environment, that is, aware of your presence, your habits and preferences.
Yes Hal, a paradigm shift indeed.
If this stuff sounds a little spooky and Jetson-like, just think back five or six years.
How many of you looked up information or downloaded music from the Internet, owned a laptop computer, personal digital assistant, hand held cell phone or a digital camera? These devices are so common now that many people can barely remember life before they existed.
The real paradigm shift is the ability of these devices to communicate easily with one another.
Now if I could just apply this technology to my in-laws.
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