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To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

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Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#81

Post by toast0 »

Animats wrote: post #7

It's very MIT. It's also an illustration of what went wrong with the "internet of things" concept. Sensors are easy today. Actuators are hard. Most "IoT" things can't do much. Try to buy a home power window. They exist. They're an exotic luxury home item. Even controllable home HVAC dampers are rare. It makes good sense to have a system where windows, fans, dampers, heaters, and compressors are all coordinated to max…

> Even controllable home HVAC dampers are rare.

I've got two in my house! Of course they weren't wired to anything, and one of them had its wires hidden behind drywall (and the accessible one seems to be broken, but I'd have to disassemble the ductwork to figure out why). Thankfully, the functional one is actually pretty useful, and I was able to hack it up so call for cold/heat closes off the basement, preventing the basement from turning into a freezer. Of course, if Nest would give us an API (again), I could also modulate the cooling if the basement gets too cold.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#82

Post by smichel17 »

reaperducer wrote: post #76
squarefoot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. True home automation is something that changes your life, not gadgets for rich people. I will call true home automation for example when I can throw the trash into a hatch at my same floor in a bag with RFID tag so that it will send it down and sort out it for recycle. I recall when I was less than 10 (mid '70s) my grandparents having those hatches (minus electronics of course) in their building. They would leav…

I used to work in a place that put me in contact with a lot of architects who worked on skyscrapers. I asked one why new apartment buildings don't have trash chutes as often as they used to. He said a lot of developers don't want the expense that goes into building them. And a lot of owners don't want the maintenance expense. They get clogged up more often than most people realize. That said, when I lived in Seattle…

The house I grew up in had a laundry chute, from the hallway outside the bedrooms to a bin in the room/clothset with the washer and dryer. It's kind of superfluous (how hard is carrying a bin of laundry down the stairs, really?) but also kind of nice/fun.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#83

Post by spanhandler »

jefftk wrote: post #78
spanhandler wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's like an 8-inch-square hole. Big enough for a shirt or pants or a towel to slide down, maybe with a nudge from a foot. By the time a kid can open the closet door to get to the hole, they'd have a hard time fitting through it. Any cat that falls through a hole in the floor has only itself to blame, and can likely manage the problem just fine. We have kids and a cat and none have had trouble with it. It's not half…

8" square is pretty big: 11" on the diagonal. I think my 6yo would fit through that fine, though she has the sense not to.

Yeah I thought we might end up having to temporarily stick some ply across it or something when we moved in, but it's never been an issue. Our kids are psycho daredevils who don't listen for shit, so I have to assume it's just not that interesting to them. I think the diagonal sheet metal in the hole helps. Effectively, the hole in the ceiling under it is offset by the width of the hole itself, and the metal directs stuff between the hole in the floor and the hole in the ceiling under it, which means that you can't really get a good look at stuff falling down. You can see it go through the hole if you look in at an angle, but not the fall to the floor. The metal itself would be rad as hell to slide hot-wheels down, except it's pretty short and you can't see the car fall on the other side very well so I guess it's more fun to just throw them off the stairs, or the deck, or whatever. Its residing in a small, boring linen closet probably helps.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#84

Post by m0zg »

vikramkr wrote: post #56
m0zg wrote: post #13

Peltier element is just about the worst solution for anything. The angel wings girl wasn't experiencing much "cooling" for sure. Form over function, I suppose - consumer market seems to prefer that, but as an EE I immediately know shit's not going to work, which robs me of appreciation of the "form". And I'd prefer a mechanized window, myself.

It's art

Then why bother with Peltier?

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#85

Post by nogabebop23 »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55
lmilcin wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trouble seems that there aren't many people that get software AND electronics AND mechanics AND on top of that marketing, right. It is rare enough to find people with good electronics and software skills.

Very true. Having worked in this space, the failures usually come from lopsided teams. Too many startups try to treat these products as technology products with a side of building materials, assuming that the technology is the hardest part. In reality, the technology part is easy. The most difficult part is manufacturing and shipping reliable mechanisms at low cost. It can be done, but the mechanisms and mechanical p…

it's kind of interesting that places like University research groups (including MIT in the early days of computing in the 50's/60's) recognized this need and had dedicated machinists to build a lot of the mech that they needed. If you've ever watched a talented smith work a lathe - wow, they are the true wizards!

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#86

Post by vikramkr »

m0zg wrote: post #84
vikramkr wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's art

Then why bother with Peltier?

It's part of the art. Thats like asking why kinetic sculptures move. The whole generating energy from your own inner heat part is kind if part of it. It's not supposed to make enough current to charge your phone, it's art. You're way overthinking it.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#87

Post by culturestate »

reaperducer wrote: post #76
squarefoot wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. True home automation is something that changes your life, not gadgets for rich people. I will call true home automation for example when I can throw the trash into a hatch at my same floor in a bag with RFID tag so that it will send it down and sort out it for recycle. I recall when I was less than 10 (mid '70s) my grandparents having those hatches (minus electronics of course) in their building. They would leav…

I used to work in a place that put me in contact with a lot of architects who worked on skyscrapers. I asked one why new apartment buildings don't have trash chutes as often as they used to. He said a lot of developers don't want the expense that goes into building them. And a lot of owners don't want the maintenance expense. They get clogged up more often than most people realize. That said, when I lived in Seattle…

Interesting; garbage chutes are required for any building over 4 storeys around here (Singapore). Some older places have individual chute openings in each flat, but most newer ones use centralized pneumatic systems, e.g. https://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/our-role/smart-an...

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#88

Post by tomatotomato37 »

Retric wrote: post #60
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. Having worked in this space, the failures usually come from lopsided teams. Too many startups try to treat these products as technology products with a side of building materials, assuming that the technology is the hardest part. In reality, the technology part is easy. The most difficult part is manufacturing and shipping reliable mechanisms at low cost. It can be done, but the mechanisms and mechanical p…

Just as important is people are generally quite capable, so stuff people find annoying tends to be genuinely difficult. A mass market automated pill dispenser you can just dump your prescriptions in seems like an obviously viable product. But, building something that’s easy enough to use, reliable enough to be safe, and cheap enough to be affordable is a pipe dream.

You know I'll be actually surprised if that isn't a product, because that seems "As seen on TV" level amount of effort. Have some hopper with 7 compartments, put a disk with a hole underneath it, and hook it to some 3 cent digital clock module such that spins it around 50 degrees or so everytime it rolls over. Build the whole thing out of plastic, throw it at some factory in China, and before you know it you'll be selling in every walmart in middle America.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#89

Post by ghaff »

Retric wrote: post #60
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. Having worked in this space, the failures usually come from lopsided teams. Too many startups try to treat these products as technology products with a side of building materials, assuming that the technology is the hardest part. In reality, the technology part is easy. The most difficult part is manufacturing and shipping reliable mechanisms at low cost. It can be done, but the mechanisms and mechanical p…

Just as important is people are generally quite capable, so stuff people find annoying tends to be genuinely difficult. A mass market automated pill dispenser you can just dump your prescriptions in seems like an obviously viable product. But, building something that’s easy enough to use, reliable enough to be safe, and cheap enough to be affordable is a pipe dream.

Turning on a set of lights is not actually very high on the list of annoyances for most people. Putting dishes in the dishwasher and then putting them away, ditto for clothes, wiping down the kitchen counters and cleaning the floor much more so. Dealing with various yard work a bigger PITA still. Guess which one consumer IoT can actually somewhat address.

Re: To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab

#90

Post by dsr_ »

raverbashing wrote: post #63
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very true. Having worked in this space, the failures usually come from lopsided teams. Too many startups try to treat these products as technology products with a side of building materials, assuming that the technology is the hardest part. In reality, the technology part is easy. The most difficult part is manufacturing and shipping reliable mechanisms at low cost. It can be done, but the mechanisms and mechanical p…

Also see: every "smart lock" startup around.

I have a great smart lock. The secret is, it's dumb. It has a keypad and a keyhole and a 9V battery that lasts about five years. About three months before the battery wears out, it starts beeping and blinking every time you open it, so you know it's time to replace the battery.

You have to look in the manual to add or remove a code, but it remembers at least a dozen codes. It doesn't talk to a smartphone. It doesn't have a network connection. It doesn't store a log of openings, and it doesn't violate your privacy.

What it does is solve the two biggest problems with door locks: not having your key, and getting a key to a friend so that they can get into your house.

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