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The Internet of Way Too Many Things

nytimes.com

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Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#71

Post by mschuster91 »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #48
Zigurd wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a whole different dynamic to these devices in China. Air quality, water quality, etc. are part of middle class lifestyle in China, and many people do not trust the authorities to keep these parameters within spec. Multiple air filters in an apartment are common, and monitoring the performance of these devices is an obvious interest to their owners. This is a much more compelling home automation story than th…

I've never understood the desire to add smart technology to the smoke alarm. Once properly installed a smoke alarm should be interacted with when (1) there is a fire, (2) the battery is running flat. False alarms pretty much mean you've installed it wrong.

> I've never understood the desire to add smart technology to the smoke alarm.

Because very few things suck more than coming home from work and your house is burnt down because the smoke alarm wasn't heard by anyone and by the time the fire crews arrive it's too late. Happened to a friend of mine, house was beyond repair even though fire crews arrived 10min after a passing driver noticed the blaze.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#72

Post by thecodemonkey »

antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

I've started working on exactly this problem. I don't think that sticking everything to a specific vendor is the right solution, and hoping that everybody is going to adopt the same standard is just not going to happen.

I'm building a simple open source API that will connect all your devices together regardless of whether they have a fancy API or not. [1]

I just started working on it so it's definitely far from done, but I think that this might be a step in the right direction.

[1] http://github.com/hjem/hjem

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#73

Post by mschuster91 »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #52
Zigurd wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Door handles are a big problem in hospitals. I'd take the bet that they are a bigger problem in public places than is generally acknowledged.

Interestingly this is actually a solved problem that we have forgotten the solution to. Copper naturally kills most pathogens. Brass door handles therefore act to prevent touch based spread of pathogens -- but plastic is cheaper.

I think it's not the price but the looks. Copper tends to oxidize and form an ugly green-ish hue of copper oxide, while proper plastics or other non-biocidic metal will not degrade in looks.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#74

Post by azatris »

Duhck wrote: post #39

As someone actively working in the smart home space, I refrain from calling our business IoT for exactly this reason. I've even challenged the team to stay away from smart home. We do very little "smart" home stuff and instead rely on cleverly designing a set of devices that don't require an application or future technology (AI, voice control) to work properly. They also don't take up space in your home and combine t…

Hi :-)

This is very interesting. What exactly are you doing then? Designing (software, hardware, both?) dumb devices for home?

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#75

Post by Animats »

I went to an Internet of Things meeting in SF about two years ago, and it was about like this. A Samsung executive was touting an Internet-enabled refrigerator, which was basically just a refrigerator with a tablet built into the door, with no special sensors, costing more than a refrigerator plus a tablet. I asked him why they'd built the product, and got an honest answer. He said the market was three types of people:

- People who just had to have the latest thing - early adopters. - People who like to show off their houses to other people (the granite kitchen counter crowd) - People who just like to buy expensive stuff and will buy the most expensive thing.

I talked to a HVAC engineer there. The room we were in was an old industrial building in SF. It had skylights with chains and toothed pulleys for opening them, openable windows, curtains for both, ceiling fans, both spotlights and light cans, a video projector and powered screen, and a standard HVAC system controlled by a standard thermostat. Controlling and coordinating all that would be a good "internet of things" application. He pointed out that companies which installed that sort of thing wanted it to work, and not generate service calls. Engineering, installing and connecting all the motors and sensors to run that room properly would be a big job. Motorizing the old skylights alone would need custom engineering.

That's the problem. Internet of Things stuff that's actually useful requires more than buying some plastic gadgets. Just an HVAC system for the home able to open and close windows would do more for heating cost and air quality than Nest's gadget, which, in the end, just turns heat and A/C on and off.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#76

Post by huuu »

It's the Internet of Way Too Many Insecure Things That Never Get Updated that worries me most...

When your house has one door and two windows it isn't very hard to lock your house. Having gadgets you forgot about is another story.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#77

Post by tacon »

OliverJones wrote: post #15

Internet-enabled house jewelry? Feh. It will be fun for a week, then boring. Here's what I want: stuff that will make me a better neighbor and citizen of the world. Specifically: Realtime smart energy and water consumption meters. Wouldn't it be great to get some sort of alert if there was a pipe burst or even a water trickle? Wouldn't it be fabulous to track electricity consumption? That could generate the creation…

About ten years ago I sat through a funding pitch for a monitor that detects sudden changes in residential water flow rates. Cost was about $250/home, and part of the pitch was that insurance companies would help cover the cost to save catastrophic damage. Apparently washing machine hoses burst on a regular basis, and such an event in an unoccupied home is very expensive. I haven't heard anything about that problem/solution since.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#79

Post by wpietri »

thecodemonkey wrote: post #72
antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

I've started working on exactly this problem. I don't think that sticking everything to a specific vendor is the right solution, and hoping that everybody is going to adopt the same standard is just not going to happen. I'm building a simple open source API that will connect all your devices together regardless of whether they have a fancy API or not. [1] I just started working on it so it's definitely far from done,…

It always concerns me when a programmer reads a customer problem and offers a technical solution. It could be that an open-source API really will solve the problems he mentioned, but if you want adoption, you'll need to get better at explaining how they customer's life is going to get better.

If I say, "X is too much hassle" and someone replies with "Good news, I put a bunch of PHP up on Github", I'm not seeing less hassle. I'm seeing more hassle. Now I don't have to just worry about a half-dozen vendors, their possibly-janky products, and their willingness to spend 30 years supporting something that fell out of fashion. Now I can also worry about trying to glue all that together with somebody's hobby code that, if the average open source project is any guide, will be swiftly abandoned.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#80

Post by d23 »

netcan wrote: post #65

I'm reminded of the online coke machine: https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~coke/history_long.txt I'm also (many times a day) reminded of some Douglas Adams bits. 1. Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. 2. Anything that's invented between when you’re fifteen and thirty-five is new and exciting and revolutionary and you can probably get a car…

Well said. Less on your point specifically, but I find this article to be such a trite argument. "Here's a list of things I think are garbage. People still want them though, and I think that's stupid! Here's a list of things I think would be cool instead. People should want those things, and someone should make them!"
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