* IHA's pilot project: Laundry Time
Today’s topic doesn’t have much to do with enterprise computing, but it might be of interest to the busy technology executive who is looking to cut corners on those unpleasant but necessary domestic chores that bite into personal time. I’m talking about household work, like washing the laundry, doing the grocery shopping, cooking dinner and the like. Yes, there truly is a technology connection. Stay with me here.
I just read a news article that had me choking on my coffee over how stupid the idea seems. USA Today ran a story about a project being tested by the Internet Home Alliance (IHA) in which your washing machine can communicate with you via messages to your PC, cell phone or television. No, the washing machine won’t tell you where your lost sock is or that a blue crayon in your son’s pocket is about to ruin your favorite shirt, but it will tell you when the current load has entered into the spin cycle.
Why would you care? Heck if I know! (Refer back to my comment about “stupid idea.”)
Seriously, folks, the IHA is a real group of companies that have come together to bring innovative technology solutions to the home. Some of the IHA member companies include Whirlpool, Panasonic and Microsoft.
The USA Today article describes a test project called Laundry Time. Three families are involved in the project, which wirelessly connects intelligent washers and dryers to a home network. The household appliances can notify the user of important conditions or milestones, such as when a load of laundry is done, when a lint filter needs to be emptied, or when too many items have overloaded the appliance’s capacity. (Note to self: Turn off IM when sharing desktop so “Your underwear is clean!” message won’t pop up.)
But communication is a two way street, busy users can remotely send commands to the appliance, too, such as to turn on, turn off, or fluff dry the clothes.
Now I know we get busy doing other things when we’ve got a load of laundry in the wash, but do you really think we need to receive text messages on our phones to let us know it’s time to throw the towels in the dryer? Heck, my lousy phone service provider will even charge me 10 cents to receive such a message!
But this is a real pilot project, which means that these products and services could be brought to market soon. For its part, Whirlpool is waiting to see the outcome of the study. “It’s really not rocket science,” said Rich McCoy, Whirlpool’s lead engineer. “But it’s something new to our industry. We’re slowly adopting things that make sense.”
Make sense? Rich, I don’t think having my washer send me e-mails makes much sense. I, for one, don’t need computer technology to help me determine when the load of laundry is done. I just listen for the chunk-chunk-chunk noises of the spin cycle to end to know that it’s time to throw the clothes in the dryer.
If you want to work on some projects that would make real sense to harried households, consider these ideas:
* How about embedding bills with RFID chips that signal the recipient when it’s time to open the darn envelope and pay the bill before late charges pile up?
* How about creating a Web site where I can enter my grocery shopping list and the site returns information about which of the five nearby food stores I should shop at in order to pay the least for the total amount of groceries? Then I wouldn’t waste time, money and gasoline comparison shopping the price of bread, bananas and yogurt.
* Borrowing an idea from The Jetsons, can you create one of those devices where you press a button to select a meal and all of the food instantly comes out, cooked and ready to eat? Microwaves comes close, but you still have to put food in before you get it out fully cooked. Jane Jetson just selected her meals from a menu, and voila! – the food came out. I want that in my home!
I’ll get off my soapbox now and end this article with a few comments about Laundry Time from Laura Champine, a home products analyst for Morgan Keegan. “I think this is a great example of people using new technology to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. I’ve done my own laundry for four decades and I’ve never been away from my home and wondered how it’s doing. Until the cell phone can load the dryer, I don’t know how this technology will work for me.”
Amen, sister!
