INTERACTIVE HOME (Part 1)

Michael Holigan: You may be one of the millions of Americans that have a home computer. Maybe you can balance your checkbook, search the Internet or even play video games on it, but can you do this? "Turn the dining room lights on. In ten seconds turn the dining room lights off." Well, you can do things like this if you have the right system in your house. We've got the creator of one of them. We've got Tim Shriver from Home Automated Living with us today. Good to have you here, Tim.

Tim Shriver: How you doing, Michael?

M.H.: How did you do this system?

T.S.: Well, basically what we did was, we took technology you already have in your home, a telephone and a computer, and you talk to the telephone, it goes to the computer and the computer interprets that, sends the appropriate signals down the line to any appliance in your house.

M.H.: Well, down the line? Do you have to put this system in when the home is being built?

T.S.: No, not at all. That's what's so great about this system. You can retrofit it into any existing home.

M.H.: So when you say the line, you mean the normal electrical wire that's already in the house?

T.S.: Exactly.

M.H.: Well, I've got to go in the kitchen and try a few more things. Let's go.

T.S.: All right.

M.H.: I'd love to be able to turn on the coffee maker before I get up. "Turn on kitchen coffee maker." Tim, that's amazing. How can your system control a coffee pot?

T.S.: Well, basically what just happened is, you talked into the telephone, the computer was listening, analyzed that signal, and then sent down the appropriate codes through your household wiring to this coffee maker.

M.H.: But this is just an ordinary coffee maker. I mean, there's nothing special about it. Why did it come on?

T.S.: Well, there's just one thing that's special, and that's the receptacle. That has a unique X-10 device that's plugged into the wall there.

M.H.: Okay. And I see we've got two switches on it. A red one and a black one. What do you do with those?

T.S.: That's how we identify the switch. We've set a unique address so that the computer knows how to send signals to just this device in your home.

M.H.: Can you put these anywhere in your house?

T.S.: Anywhere you want.

M.H.: So you can really control anything electrical that you plug into an outlet?

T.S.: That's exactly right.

M.H.: Tim, awhile ago we were turning lights on and off from the dining room. What else can it do to lights?

T.S.: Well, we can dim the lights. Let's dim these. "Dim kitchen lights 50%.".

M.H.: That's great. What else does it do in the house?

T.S.: Well, what we can do is control all of the heating and cooling functions in the house. That comes in handy when you're laying in bed and you want to get out and not have to run to the thermostat to turn the heat up. You can set modes of operation so that, basically, at 6:00 a.m., it turns the heat up. Or if you don't want to live by a schedule, you just pick up the phone by your bedside and say "Set thermostat to 72 degrees.".

M.H.: So if you go out of town for a week and you don't remember if you set back the thermostat, you can just call the house and do it?

T.S.: That's a real neat convenience, yes.

M.H.: With all the light controls, then I guess you can turn on the outside lights and certain lights inside the house when you're driving up, before you get out?

T.S.: Exactly. Or you can open up the garage door.

M.H.: Oh, so you can throw away that garage door opener you always loose and just use your portable telephone?

T.S.: Right. You don't have to wait until you get within a block to push the button.

M.H.: Okay. So Tim, the heart of the system is really just a normal PC running your software?

T.S.: Right. You can actually talk to the system and set the system up by just speaking to it. Or you can go through what we call "Wizard". If we wanted the front porch light...front, and then we go to the next screen, and we want to go find porch. And we want lights. And now we've defined what that label is and now we're going to give it an address. And this screen looks just like the device that we would set those on, and so we pick a unique address...E-5 for the front porch light.

M.H.: And on our switch we set the dial to the exact same thing, E-5?

T.S.: That's correct.

M.H.: How about other things?

T.S.: We have our Rolodex that allows us to do all of our caller notification, so that we can say "Call Bob." and the system will call Bob. Or we can say "Leave a message for Bob. Bob, I'm going to the lake house this weekend. I'll be back Sunday.". When Bob calls in, it matches up his Caller ID number with the one in our system and delivers the message for him. We can actually add things to a reminder list and then have it repeat back to us what we've put on that reminder list. "Remind me to buy bananas, apples and bread.".

Computer: Would you like to add apples, bananas, bread? Please say yes or no.".

T.S.: "Yes.".

Computer: "New items have been saved.".

T.S.: Then we can be in the car and just pick up the phone and say "Remind me to buy milk.", whatever we need, and that way it's not like...Honey, I'm sorry. I forgot to bring home the milk.

M.H.: How about the Internet?

T.S.: That's one of the really fascinating parts of it. It interacts with that, downloads, based on your zip code, the weather forecast, the TV Guide listings, stock quotes, news stories, and you can set thresholds for your stocks.

M.H.: So you're saying we can ask H.A.L. what the weather cast is for tomorrow?

T.S.: Sure. Let's do that real quick.

Computer: "Yes?".

T.S.: "What is the weather forecast for tomorrow?".

Computer: "Chance of rain. Lows in the mid 30's to lower 40's. Highs in the 40's to lower 50's.".

M.H.: Well, it's an amazing system, but now I've got to ask, what is the price?

T.S.: $499.

M.H.: Your kidding! $499! What does that get you?

T.S.: Basically what we package with the system is the CD that has all the software. It comes bundled with Netscape Navigator, which you're required to license from them directly, and it has two modules to get you started. One connects into the power in the house and the other one controls a lamp in your house. So you're ready to get started right out of the box.

M.H.: The best thing I like about it is, you can retrofit it in any house that's already built. You don't have to start from scratch.

Episode 46 1996 - 97 Season

| Interactive House - 1 | Interactive House - 2 | Cleaning Your Computer | Destination 2000 | Bi-Weekly Mortgage |

Purchase Video