Where is My Home Control Panel?
Over the weekend my clock-radio lost power so I had to reset it.
I found the correct time on the Internet and decided to reset
everything in my room to the correct time. In addition to my
clock, I reset the time on my video recorder, television,
computer and mobile phone. There were five timekeeping devices
in the one room which all needed to be set individually.
Considering the fact that I can contact the other side of the
planet, shouldn't I be able to set everything in my home to the
same time all at once? Haven't futurists predicted home control
panels for decades, usually spouting the traditional "ten years
from now"? A panel in the living room with buttons to set the
temperature, open and close the windows, show you who is at the
door, and activate household robots.
A quick web search turned up a control panel from Sharp for 'the
miles of solar panels that will undoubtedly cover your house'
which I wholeheartedly support. There was also the iPronto Home
Control Panel which is an advanced universal remote control.
However, there seems to be nothing commercially available in the
way of a panel to control your house.
I guess what I really need is a room full of devices that can be
remotely set. If everything in my room was remotely
controllable, my computer could do the rest.
Summary - We have wireless Internet and many devices that have
clocks in them. Why don't we have wireless networking of home
appliances so that we can centrally control them? (For example:
set all the clocks at once.)