| Computers and Phones as Remote Control Devices | 2003-01-11 18:14 2 comments |
 by Flemming FunchA posting on SmartMobs talks about the possibility of controlling stuff over the net. "We've all heard a lot about Internet Appliances (IA). But how many of you have actually experienced the thrill of commanding an appliance over the internet?And you can do a little actual experiment here. But now, this is one of the things that is puzzling, that this stuff isn't ubiquitous by now. 20-25 years ago when people were soldering together the first micro computers, this was one of the first thoughts. Many computer amateurs were electronic buffs, like myself. Using your new computer to control relays that would turn on the light or draw the curtains according to some clever program - that would be one of the very first cool things you'd want to do. And there were boards and kits available for that, and diagrams in the Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar columns in Byte (a leading computer magazine at the time) on how to do it. But I suppose all the electronics buffs converted to being software people, and they got lost in something else. I for one would enjoy being able to control stuff in my house from my cellphone while I'm traveling. It can be done, with stuff like X10 devices (which I'm not going to link to, because I hate their annoying popup ads), but it is not much easier than 20 years ago. |