https://www.evernote.com/shard/s15/sh/a0b8847e-0cd7-4748-8b4d-396c39558c35/200022bfb620e02d

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Back in September, IBM published a paper on "device democracy", outlining its thoughts on why it was essential to reimagine the entire communications backbone to the IoT. (I wrote about why it was such a big deal at the time, even though the news flew a bit under the radar.) The research team noted that the tech strategy, business models and design thinking around the early IoT are all unsustainable -- either due to their costs, privacy shortcomings, lack of function, or unviable economic model. They then did their thing, and concocted something that would be cheap to implement, functional, and private by design. That proof-of-concept was finally on display at CES last week. (At least, I think so; haven't seen any pics or videos yet.)

The result meshed Telehash's trustless, peer-to-peer messaging system, BitTorrent's distributed cloud, and Ethereum's blockchain. Adept allowed users to set rules for their devices (if this Samsung smart washing machine runs out of detergent - order more with my card on file at Amazon); for those devices to act autonomously and share resources (during peak energy times the washer could talk to the TV during peak viewing hours and decide to hold off on a wash cycle until electricity demand subsided and its cost declined); and for the device manufacturers to transfer the maintenance responsibilities to the devices themselves (discover a failing part and the washer could check the blockchain to see if the part was covered under warranty and schedule a service call).

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I'm not sure I need my washing machine talking to the TV and deciding not to wash. What's it going to do? Run at 11 PM and then I'll have wet clothes in the washer in the morning...no thanks.

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I'm not sure I need my washing machine talking to the TV and deciding not to wash. What's it going to do? Run at 11 PM and then I'll have wet clothes in the washer in the morning...no thanks.

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If it can order detergent on its own and decide not to wash because you're at peak hours it won't wash at the worst time. If you're going to put that sort of effort into making smart appliances, you're not going to build in uselessness and stupidity.

These kind of ideas are floated fairly often. I remember seeing a bathroom of the future demoed in the mid-90s. Features like calling it up on the way home to get the water started, programming it to keep the water a certain temperature, air jets to dry you off, things like that. Looked pretty cool, and the prediction was that within a decade all new bathrooms would be equipped like this, and you'd have to bring old ones up to date to be able to sell your house. The concept has started to catch on a bit in Japan, driven by efficiency and resource conservation though, not convenience

Anybody remember the fridge that LG had a while ago that would detect when you're low on things like milk and add it to a grocery list on its display? That's more useful than a self-aware washing machine, and it never really got off the ground

The IoT concepts seem doable and realistic as well, but often you find that the cost is generally not worth it to most people, and it never reaches a point where there's enough of a market to bring the price down. Right now, these are extravagant conveniences that aren't really that much of a convenience.

Hopefully it catches on, there are so many things you can do that would really be helpful. For example, water heaters that perform their own service checks and email you if there's a problem or safety concern

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These kind of ideas are floated fairly often. I remember seeing a bathroom of the future demoed in the mid-90s. Features like calling it up on the way home to get the water started, programming it to keep the water a certain temperature, air jets to dry you off, things like that. Looked pretty cool, and the prediction was that within a decade all new bathrooms would be equipped like this, and you'd have to bring old ones up to date to be able to sell your house. The concept has started to catch on a bit in Japan, driven by efficiency and resource conservation though, not convenience

Anybody remember the fridge that LG had a while ago that would detect when you're low on things like milk and add it to a grocery list on its display? That's more useful than a self-aware washing machine, and it never really got off the ground

The IoT concepts seem doable and realistic as well, but often you find that the cost is generally not worth it to most people, and it never reaches a point where there's enough of a market to bring the price down. Right now, these are extravagant conveniences that aren't really that much of a convenience.

Hopefully it catches on, there are so many things you can do that would really be helpful. For example, water heaters that perform their own service checks and email you if there's a problem or safety concern

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I actually think people are more likely to adopt less useful but less intrusive things first. A smart fridge is awesome, and incredibly useful, but it is a HUGE behavior shift to use and trust something like that.

A smart washing machine on the other hand doesn't really require you to change your behavior at all. You treat it the same way and it makes little adjustments to optimize its usage.

The Nest learning thermostat is the same way. You don't really use it any differently, you set it and occasionally you get up to turn it up or turn it down, but instead of a dumb switch inside it's actually learning about when you turn it up and down, so it can optimize for you.

I am most certainly not a luddite.

But some of this is a solution looking for a problem.

"There's an app for that!"

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I am most certainly not a luddite.

But some of this is a solution looking for a problem.

"There's an app for that!"

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some of it, definitely. The wifi mousetrap at CES was a great example of that. But I rather like the idea of the different electronic devices in my house being able to communicate with each other to optimize their power usage.

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I'm not sure I need my washing machine talking to the TV and deciding not to wash. What's it going to do? Run at 11 PM and then I'll have wet clothes in the washer in the morning...no thanks.

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If it can order detergent on its own and decide not to wash because you're at peak hours it won't wash at the worst time. If you're going to put that sort of effort into making smart appliances, you're not going to build in uselessness and stupidity.

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I think you're over estimating the intelligence of you average programmer. Hell, the end all be all tech company, Apple, STILL cannot get more than one attachment in an e-mails in iOS.

And unless it STORES the detergent on the machine (has to be brand specific or no warranty), how would it know I'm out of detergent?

Read this and learn about the hype cycle. http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/hype-cycle.jsp

Understand the iot is quickly approaching the peak of inflated expectations. It has a while to go before it hits the slope of enlightenment aND as long as that chick is running ibm, you can bet they wint be a part of it.

I hope some of this comes to fruition, but I won't hold my breath. I've been reading about that refrigerator that will order me more milk for about 20 years now. Until the solutions these things provide become more cost effective than driving to the grocery store myself, nothing will change.

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I've been reading about that refrigerator that will order me more milk for about 20 years now.

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This is an interesting one. The technology that allows a refrigerator to identify what is below the ordering threshold has been there for a awhile, but it's really not very practical in and of itself because opening the refrigerator and taking a quick inventory is pretty easy. The hardest and most difficult part of acquisition was getting to and through and back home again from the store. However, now that payment options and home delivery technology has dramatically improved, it's increasingly more efficient for a refrigerator to identify that something is below the ordering threshold, submit the order to the vendor/store with the lowest total price (items + delivery) that day, have them paid for, and then delivered to your home when you're actually there to receive the items. It's never pretty trying to get all these different pieces of the process working together, but it is pretty cool when something that seems unrelated facilitates adoption of new technology.

I think in this case, a single purpose appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher makes a ton of sense, given that the home delivery portion would be around the same relative cost of buying it at the store.

Refrigerators would be tougher for the reasons you listed, unless it had a purpose built milk dispenser. You have to get universal buyin and standardize vendors if not. Good luck with that.

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I think in this case, a single purpose appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher makes a ton of sense, given that the home delivery portion would be around the same relative cost of buying it at the store.

Refrigerators would be tougher for the reasons you listed, unless it had a purpose built milk dispenser. You have to get universal buyin and standardize vendors if not. Good luck with that.

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the ones i've seen basically just have a sensor that can tell when you take the carton in and out and based on what they consider the average amount you'd use know when it's low, so it's more or less just counting the number of times you take out the milk and know that after X number of times it's time to order more milk

This is like feature creep for living

A single device that does a wash and dry cycle together... there is a product that could catch on if priced right.

Has nobody thought of how the IoT will be necessary for self driving vehicles?

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A single device that does a wash and dry cycle together... there is a product that could catch on if priced right.

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I've been lamenting this for as long as I can remember.

I hate moving clothes from the washer to the dryer

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I think in this case, a single purpose appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher makes a ton of sense, given that the home delivery portion would be around the same relative cost of buying it at the store.

Refrigerators would be tougher for the reasons you listed, unless it had a purpose built milk dispenser. You have to get universal buyin and standardize vendors if not. Good luck with that.

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the ones i've seen basically just have a sensor that can tell when you take the carton in and out and based on what they consider the average amount you'd use know when it's low, so it's more or less just counting the number of times you take out the milk and know that after X number of times it's time to order more milk

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This is just stupid. Tons of R&D to order a carton of milk.

A washing machine can do one load in 75-90 minutes. Unless it can sort and load clothes, and move to a dryer with no intervention, improving A SINGLE LOAD OF LAUNDRY has no value at all.

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thing on a larger scale. Imagine if thousands, tens of thousands, of these washing machines are in use.

They are shifting energy usage away from peak times. On an individual level that might not represent much savings for the person with the washer, but aggregated together it could be a big deal.

The effect multiplies the more people use it and the more devices do the same thing.

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I think in this case, a single purpose appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher makes a ton of sense, given that the home delivery portion would be around the same relative cost of buying it at the store.

Refrigerators would be tougher for the reasons you listed, unless it had a purpose built milk dispenser. You have to get universal buyin and standardize vendors if not. Good luck with that.

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the ones i've seen basically just have a sensor that can tell when you take the carton in and out and based on what they consider the average amount you'd use know when it's low, so it's more or less just counting the number of times you take out the milk and know that after X number of times it's time to order more milk

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This is just stupid. Tons of R&D to order a carton of milk.

A washing machine can do one load in 75-90 minutes. Unless it can sort and load clothes, and move to a dryer with no intervention, improving A SINGLE LOAD OF LAUNDRY has no value at all.

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thing on a larger scale. Imagine if thousands, tens of thousands, of these washing machines are in use.

They are shifting energy usage away from peak times. On an individual level that might not represent much savings for the person with the washer, but aggregated together it could be a big deal.

The effect multiplies the more people use it and the more devices do the same thing.

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This. To expand imagine you are a Downstream power supply company. Let's say it is the 5th straight day of 102 + degree weather in Texas and the price of energy is soaring. Your company is bleeding cash as people don't change their habits because they are still paying 10 cents per kwh but price has skyrocketed. Through "smart" devices the peak load can be altered both saving the downstream company money by reducing the cost of energy as well as reducing the exposure to the higher prices.

Smart devices can give these companies a way to track their users energy usage and "reward" diverting peak energy usage to off peak time.

Nice April Fools joke from Amazon, but it actually seems much more practical to simplify the process rather than build it into a $1000 appliance

https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button?reqInv=1

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A single device that does a wash and dry cycle together... there is a product that could catch on if priced right.

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I've been lamenting this for as long as I can remember.

I hate moving clothes from the washer to the dryer

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My ex has this in his apartment: http://m.homedepot.com/p/LG-Electronics-4-3-DOE-cu-ft-High-Efficiency-All-in-One-Washer-and-Electric-Ventless-Dryer-in-White-WM3997HWA/205140182/

It was pretty crappy. The clothes never felt quite clean or quite dry when they were finished.

This thread sponsored by Tex Avery's House of Tomorrow

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Nice April Fools joke from Amazon, but it actually seems much more practical to simplify the process rather than build it into a $1000 appliance

https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button?reqInv=1

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I'm not convinced that's an April fools joke. That can be made for a few bucks. After a use or two, Amazon will have paid it off and have a button in your home that directly links your home to their store. If this is April fools, I bet it will be a reality within a year.

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Nice April Fools joke from Amazon, but it actually seems much more practical to simplify the process rather than build it into a $1000 appliance

https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button?reqInv=1

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I'm not convinced that's an April fools joke. That can be made for a few bucks. After a use or two, Amazon will have paid it off and have a button in your home that directly links your home to their store. If this is April fools, I bet it will be a reality within a year.

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I would use one of those for diapers and formula in a heartbeat. Right now we buy far enough ahead, but if I had something reliable that would reorder it for me when I actually needed it, I would have so much free storage space.

It's real.

https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button

For those of you that say smart washers/dryers/dishwashers etc are dumb. It's not supposed to change your life, eventually these features will be so cheap that won't add much cost to each device and will become the standard (see: smart tvs). It's also not about laziness, it's about becoming as efficient as possible, which no one's residence currently is.

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Nice April Fools joke from Amazon, but it actually seems much more practical to simplify the process rather than build it into a $1000 appliance

https://www.amazon.com/oc/dash-button?reqInv=1

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I'm not convinced that's an April fools joke. That can be made for a few bucks. After a use or two, Amazon will have paid it off and have a button in your home that directly links your home to their store. If this is April fools, I bet it will be a reality within a year.

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It is real.

Why would I want a bunch of smart appliances when I can have just one NS-5?