A world without wires

A world without wires

Indians are waking up to smart, intelligent homes that cater to all their fancy needs. From switching on the music in the bedroom sitting in your office to ordering your favourite film on TV, it is about being different, digitally


It’s the shape of things to come: a weird wireless world, where everything, from the garage shutters of your home to the coffee machine in the kitchen to the water temperature in the bathroom, is controlled by a smart button on your mobile phone. This is no fast-forward to 2050. Urban Indian homes today, like those in the West, are much more than just four walls and a nice terrace garden. It is not even about the antique pieces you got from your last holiday to Istanbul.
Home, they used to say, is where the heart is. Cut to 2006 and the phrase is tweaked on its head: home now is about being different, digitally. Intelligent homes today are about a plethora of plug-and-play infrastructure of communication, entertainment and security products. Consider this: You can now install a device in your house that helps you identify the person ringing your doorbell even when you are not at home? Or, how about using the keyboard of your computer in office to switch off your bedroom lights? There’s more. How about pre-setting your fridge to set-off a reminder beep every time the beer is out of stock? You can even use your mobile phone to set a digital video recorder in the living room to record your favourite TV show, and even do video conferencing with your doctors in Philadelphia. Sounds far fetched, but all this is happening in India.

INSPECTOR GADGET

Of course, safety is the bottomline and it wouldn’t pinch your pockets much to turn your home into an impregnable fortress. For instance, India’s first 100-home digitalised complex at Pune, Wonder Properties’ The Wonder Futura, boasts everything: smart-card access, automated points for gas, water heaters and electricity that could be controlled by an SMS or a simple phone call, video surveillance systems, wi-fi phones, a media centre to download movies and even infant monitoring. Says Indranil Majumdar, VP, Wonder Properties, Pune: “We have integrated security, automation, communication and entertainment to make our homes fully digital.”

Aftek Infosys, another leading provider of home security solutions in Pune and Bangalore, has created a digital home gateway connected to a central server in the society. It consists of surveillance camera and an eight-inch LCD monitor that filters unwanted visitors, keep a track of your children playing in the garden, and a VOIP phone that could reduce international phone costs.

Experts peg the market for consumer security system in India at about Rs 250-300 crore and expect it to grow to 40% soon. Service providers say security solutions for homes today range from low-end basic electronic locks and keys (from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000) to high-end biometric-based access control technology (between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh). Basic wired and wireless intrusion alarm systems, they say, cost between Rs 10,000 and 50,000.

Dhiraj Wali, business head of Bosch Security Systems in India says that his company offers a range of security solution from wired and Wireless Intrusion Alarm System, plug-and-play wireless solution for newly-constructed apartments and an independent bungalow that detects intruders, medical emergency, gas leaks and fire accidents. Another company, Zicom offers an innovative range of products on similar lines for securing your homes. Says Santonu Choudhury, CEO, Consumer Service Group, Electronic Security Systems: “Our Zicomhome and video door phones are hands-free instruments and very convenient to use. The outdoor unit of a doorbell and a camera allows you to see anything at a distance of 25 feet.” Choudhury adds that a Zicomhome costs around Rs 6,990 while colour video door phone are priced at Rs 17,495. Zicom is also planning to introduce biometric finger print locks.

Indeed, it is about ensuring a blissful night’s sleep for yourself. Ask Kamal Ahuja, a Delhi-based businessman and you will realise what an extra Rs 15,000 can do to the anxieties of living in a big city. Says Ahuja: “I use the video phone and alarm system and it is so secure. Every time I am traveling for work, I am not worried about my family back home because I know they are secure. This is difference these gadgets can bring to your lifestyle.”

—Monalisa Sen

—With inputs from Nanda Kasabe


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[love_gundu22]

LIVING WITH MACHINES

LIVING WITH MACHINES

Are you comfortable with the idea of living with machines? Indeed, gadget freaks never had it so good. One of the benefits of the technology boom in India is the arrival of gadgets that ‘understand you’. Believe it or not, it is a world full of surprises: like a pen that ‘underlines your mistakes’, or a ‘gate reminder’ that sets off a beep if you forgot to carry your mobile phone, or a ‘smart wardrobe’ that coordinates what you wear after digitally checking the weather forecasts! Wait for a while before scientists at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, bring all these fantasies to reality.

In the meantime, pamper yourself with talking washing machines, Time Machine TV, art cool ACs, TV-refrigerators, ambi-light TV… and much more. Consider these. With LG’s Time Machine TV, now you no longer have to miss your favourite TV show: you can pause, rewind and replay live TV. You can even block commercial breaks and record from external input devices like camcorders, DVD Players, game consoles onto the HDD recorder inside the TV. You can also install a hi-definition LCD TV on your refrigerator’s door and have built-in radio-tuner with speakers. Musique-de-cuisine, at its best?

But if you are looking for dramatic theatre effect inside your bedroom, you may be interested in Philips’ Ambilight full surround: it gives a dramatic color and light effect for the ultimate action effect. Still want to call it plain entertainment? Surely not.

And then Electrolux has a talking washing machine: it incorporates an interactive voice response system which guides you through the wash. It even senses the weight of the wash load, and decides the best wash program, the required water level and wash time. What’s more, you can even program the machine 48 hours in advance. Electrolux also has a vacuum cleaner that navigates using ultrasound: just like a bat. You can clean your floors by programming it even when you are not there. It also has a built-in infrared stair sensor: if you want, it can even find its own way back to the charger. That’s Electrolux’s Tribolite for you. Add to these ACs that change its visuals according to your moods? How about a classic Vincent Van Gogh or a family portrait? LG’s de-odourising filter and ‘Chaos Auto Wind’ technology minimises the temperature difference between the high and low places in the room.

Says Rajat kumar, VP, DLF, who picked up a LG 42” plasma and an Ozone side-by-side refrigerator which has a water dispenser on the door: “Most corporate animals are moving to apartments where the truncated room space necessitates smart home appliances. It makes the den look bigger. Moreover the investment appetite of people has increased. I bought the plasma for the distinct value proposition it offered. Buying the refrigerator was an impulsive decision.”

Agrees Cricketer Mohd. Kaif’s brother, Mohd Sayeed who cannot stop gushing about his Samsung plasma TV and a range of other Samsung appliances. “I am completely satisfied with the range. Though it comes at a steep price, nothing overtakes the feeling of satisfaction the family derives from it. Even when it comes to mere appliances, it is a long term association that one looks forward to.”

—Kiran Yadav

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[love_gundu22]

MUSIC TO THE EARS

MUSIC TO THE EARS


And if you are an entertainment buff, it is a whole world of opportunities waiting for you to tap. Music systems today can read a room’s acoustics and adjust automatically. They keep track of your favourite songs and play it back at the flick of a remote. All this without creating a menu or organising playlists!

Increasingly as urban Indian middle class becomes more affluent (blame it on more disposable incomes, easy availability of consumer loans and frequent use of credit cards), the market is indeed crowded with top brands like Sony, Bose, Bang & Olufsen, Yamaha, Kes, Dali, Nakamichi Denon and JBL offering a wide range of goodlooking sophisticated entertainment options. And when it is about soothing your senses, even a six-figure price tag is the last deterrent.

Bollywood hunk John Abraham, a gadget buff who also loves music, reaches out for the remote of his multi-room, wireless music system before doing anything else once he is back home from shooting. Says he: “I want the strains of music to waft in even before I enter my drawing room.” Abraham has spent roughly Rs 10 lakh on the system but confesses that “being able to control music in all the rooms that are hooked to the system with the remote, without compromising on the sound, made the expenditure worth it.”

Music connoisseurs, at times, don’t just buy readymade products but want to customise them to suit their needs. Like music composer Sandeep Chowta, who bought a Nakamichi sound system and teamed it with Yamaha speakers and amplifiers. Musician Shankar Mahadevan plans to install a new system with Harmon Kardon amplifiers (Rs 35,000) and JBL speakers (Rs 38,000). “I am sure the effect will be out of the world,” he says expectedly.

R Zutshi of Samsung India says that topping the consumer wish list are compact, wireless, multi-room systems that make it possible to play music all over the house. Says H Okada, division head, display & audio, Sony India: “The advances in surround-sound in movies, music and high-definition television has made the five-channel speaker system a virtual necessity in homes.”

Top-line products are easy to install and work on the plug-and-play principle. Once the equipment is fitted, your life is never the same. Urban India’s city slickers are rushing to go flat and most are settling for LCDs. Forget the cathode ray technology (CRT) TV. LCDs are the latest in thing0. The market for LCD panels has reportedly grown by 400% in the current year, touching around 1.5 lakh televisions compared to 30,000 LCDs sold in 2005.

Prices, of course, vary wildly depending on what you want to buy. Today an entry-level 20” LCD comes with a price tag of Rs 25,000, but a top-line product’s pricing is dictated by the kind of technology it offers, besides the brand and the look.

Indeed, the concept of digital lifestyle has taken root in India. Predicts Yoshiki Yamanokuchi of Sony: “It won’t be long before these new technologies become mainstream.” The market for home entertainment products in India may increase by as much as ten times its current value by the end of 2007 to Rs 1,200 crore, says M A Dhandapani, MD, Onkyo India, manufacturers of home entertainment products. The home entertainment market in India is at Rs 150 crore, and growing at a rate of 40%- 50% per year.

With the number of working couples on the rise steadily, everyone’s looking out for time saving devises to make life easier and less stressful. And mostly they don’t mind paying a premium for comfort.

—Somashukla Sinha Walunjkar

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[love_gundu22]

HONEY, WE SHRUNK THE WORLD
It’s all about networking. Says a senior Cisco official: “A smart home is not just about sharing an Internet connection or files among computers. It’s about sharing multimedia and being able to enjoy it anytime, anywhere at home.” The idea is to make the maximum use of a cache of technologies that includes smart phones and IP technology broadband that not only connects you to the world but also helps your creativity soar with the help of all the resources.

Of course, service providers are upbeat with MTNL, BSNL, Bharti and Reliance trying to get the biggest share of the consumer pie with their value-added services. Says Rajesh Chharia, president, Internet Service Providers Association of India: “In Korea, out of 14 million houses, 12 million have broadband connection. In India there are only two million broadband connections. In India integrated service providers are doing value additions in their voice network (telephony).”

Cisco’s Music Bridge lets users wirelessly stream Internet music services and other music stored on PCs to a home entertainment centre without running cables from room to room. The company also has wireless router, IP cameras, Game Adaptor and VoIP solutions for the networked Indians. Says Alok Bharadwaj, vice-president, Canon India, which offers a range of multi-function devices: “Within the home, wireless communication between PC and peripherals will make an impact. We are looking at more solutions.”

—Jyoti Verma

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[love_gundu22]

Live life kingsize
Live life kingsize
Vivek Sabherwal
Our relentless pursuit of technology is bound to manifest itself in the way we live in the future
The ‘house’ as a basic, freestanding unit, drawing on centuries of tradition, has remained unchallenged as the most aspirational mode of living for a vast majority of population. Popular science has always been fascinated with the idea of defining houses of the future, and TV programs and sci-fi comics often coming up with their own, ‘definitive’ designs: some of them are shaped like mushrooms and even constructed from bizarre new materials such as plastic. But for most people, in practice, style is secondary to technology. Experts believe that houses of the future would offer a plethora of labour saving devices and automation, space age environment in which technology and everyday life are totally integrated.

Soon, the boundaries between working and home life would be blurred. Notions of home office will become commonplace as the information revolution opens up an ever-increasing range of possibilities.

This dynamic, fast moving change will place increasing demand on our future houses to be more flexible and responsive to changing family structure, work patterns, technological advance and other innovations. If the house is flexible enough to double up as a workspace as well, it means no travelling long distances to the office and thus a reduction in transport emissions. Green construction will not only get more respect, but become necessary.

It is well known that buildings consume over half of the world’s energy and a significant amount is also used in the manufacture of construction materials. It is, therefore, imperative that the burden buildings places on the world’s finite resources, is reduced. The future of our environment depends on innovations in low or zero emission buildings and an environmentally responsible transport system.

Looking into the future, architects and designers need to confront the challenges of increasing environmental concerns and threats to the quality of life. Advanced technology offers opportunities to make buildings more enjoyable, productive and intelligent and to overcome environmental challenges that lie ahead.

Houses of the future will rely heavily on strategies that that help use energy sensibly and to better utilise passive technologies that are supported by easy to use control systems. Indeed, remote sensing and hand-held devices will play a very important role in the future.

The future of urban architecture is about inventing new building types that respond to culture, demographics, technology and changing patterns of our lives. ‘Intelligent’ houses will dominate future buildings, interpreting its occupants’ moods and demands with a complete integration of seasons and new materials. This would allow people to develop architectural environments that are tailored to those specific lifestyles and budgets.

Intelligent buildings are high technology manifestations, stacked high with gadgetry, and they will incorporate ‘intelligent’ devices and appliances that will assist in the efficient operation of the house. Home automation of this type offers significant advantage to the disabled who can benefit from automatically controlled devices.

Our relentless pursuit of technology can be understood as an expression of people’s need to master their environment. It is possible to constantly change and modify our living spaces in the future. Tomorrow mankind would be in a position to develop mind-reading control systems. It will be quite possible to develop an ‘intelligent chip’ to read a person’s mind and activate light accordingly as one enters the home.

It is also conceivable that domestic appliances will be actively integrated with lighting, opening to a wide range of responsive capabilities. Tables that will lit up when we sit down to eat, windows and doors that illuminate at night, ceilings that change colours and pressure-sensitive floors that light up as we walk, or leading from one space to another. Lights will automatically turn on as we enter the room, saving from stumbling across a darkened space. We will never be in the dark, unless we want to be. Who knows we might be buying ‘intelligent lighting systems’ as we buy our CDs, to give us special lighting experiences, like a girl’s dinner party or relaxation evening. Light switches will disappear altogether. LEDs are speeding up our approach to light bulbless interiors. Water will be a precious resource and new design concepts and technologies will drastically reduce the amount of water a home uses.

Designs in the future will still have to balance three basic requirements: function, solidity and aesthetics. The stress on function will remain important and controversial as before. We are rapidly moving beyond the age of the personal computer, in which access to the Internet was limited largely to a keyboard, a mouse and a monitor placed on a desktop. With a multitude of new interface devices, both mobile and fixed, there are many additional opportunities. Even walls, ceiling and floor can become portals for access to Internet.

But with the opportunities come new complexities. As physical spaces turn into dense fields of connectivity, designers will have to carefully interfaces to ensure users a coherent experience. The overall goal in the new technology era would be to tailor context to content. People would expect their houses to change with them.

—The author is a well-known architect
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[love_gundu22]

Attractive Gadgets
Neha Sharma

From talking plates to domestic recycling units, your future home is not something you recognise now. But well before this decade is out, a number of futuristic gadgets like these could well change the way your life is lived. While the domestic market has already changed many a daily routine, the upcoming options have the potential to make you even more of a regulator as you run your house reclining on your couch. Well, check out these cool gadgets, which have revolutionised lifestyles in foreign homes and are sure to make their way into Indian homes:

Ecopod e1 Home Recycling Center

Price $328

Designed by BMW Design works, the Ecopod e1 Home Recycling Center enables you to dispose of an aluminum can or plastic bottle through the top opening, where stepping on the step at the bottom will compact the recently disposed trash into a more manageable size. There are also three separate, removable bins inside the Ecopod e1 itself for separate items such as glass, paper, and other recyclable items.

Glow Pebbles

Price $9.99

These pebbles make an interesting addition to any patio or garden. By day they look like ordinary stones but at night they glow like radioactive elements. The pebbles charge up during the day and will glow for up to 6 hours at night, so when you roll in from the pub you’ll be able to see the pathway to stagger down rather than demolishing the nearby flower bed.

Talking Plate

Price $19.9

The Talking Plate will give you a dressing down in public when you’ve piled on much more than you can chew on your plate. Measuring 15cm in diameter, it is connected to a palm-sized computer, where the integrated weight sensors detect if the dinner has piled on more food than he/she is supposed to have. Some of the phrases uttered include “Where’s your willpower?” and “Stop right there”.

Erasable Shower Tablet

Price $15.99

Do you brain storm your best ideas in the shower and then forget them? Now you can jot down the to-do list, great ideas, or just doodles on this erasable shower tablet. It comes with a waterproof crayon, crayon caddy, and suctions to the wall.

Automated Plant Watering System

Price $65

The Automated Plant Watering System can water up to 20 plants for a total of 40 days without needing any interaction from you or any external source of power. Attached to the box is a 32’ PVC hose that branches off to form the 20 drippers which handle the actual watering of your plants. One 9 volt battery powers the watering system for about a year.

Washdryiron Machine

Price $1,389 - $1,562

The “WashDryIron” is an all-in-one machine that can handle up to 16 items at once, including king-size bed sheets. All the washing, drying, and ironing take place in separate compartments with each piece on hangers to prevent creases. The machine can eliminate colour runs, shrinkage and ironing. Even muddy sports gear can be washed at the same time, but at a different temperature for delicate fabrics.

Plasma Screen Fireplace

Price $3744 (just for the fireplace minus plasma)

With the Plasma Screen Fireplace, now your fireplace can do more than just keep you warm. When not in use, the plasma screen can slide into the fireplace or can be brought out just at the push of a button, leaving no unsightly wires or plugs in sight. The fireplace itself features a solid stone look and is accented with pebbles in a waved pattern.

E-plant

Price $3.99

Geeks.com is selling the world’s first digital “e-plant”. What makes this a digital plant? This bean plant sprouts with binary “01001011? and “@” characters on its leaves. With the Genica e-plant, the leaves are fractal enabled and the stem comes with built-in feature creep and sprouts in one to two weeks.

Inflatable Home Theatre

Price $1299.99

Those who want the big screen experience at home, check out this 12-foot Inflatable Home Theater (144-inch viewing area) — designed for your backyard. This easy-to-use kit is setup in minutes and connects to any projector. It also comes with 120W amplified speakers and a repair kit. A luxury indeed! But for some, a small price to watch their favourite video by the pool.

Samsung Smart Oven

Price $525

Samsung with Birds Eye Frozen Foods has developed a smart oven that can cook a meal by just reading “smart codes” found on specially marked packaging. Users scan the barcodes on frozen food packaging, just as checkout clerks do at a grocery store. The idea is not only to get rid of cooking hassles, but also eliminates user guesswork and error.

Invoca Remote Control

Price $49.99

The InVoca 3.0 Voice-Activate IR Remote Control enables you to bark commands at the idiot box sitting in the living room. It utilises your voice to perform a variety of functions over various household entertainment devices such as the TV, a DVD player, a VCR, a cable box, a satellite receiver, and even your home theater system. It responds to a total of 25 single-word commands, which can be programmed into the remote.

Sofa Guard

Price £18.95.

The Sofa Guard is a great way to teach your pet that taking a break on upholstered furniture is a definite no-no. Say goodbye to soiled and scratched upholstery that are free from hair and paw marks. This 138cm x 29cm x 3.5cm mat is powered by a single 9V battery. The cover is made from a low maintenance, wipe-clean black nylon fabric. You can roll it up for easy storage.

Sunflower Solar Power Station

Price Not available

The Sunflower solar power station is a new home solution that uses solar energy to generate electric power through three built in standard sockets. Combined with a solar powered music system, it can transform common living space into enjoyable and sustainable living environments. The solar panel receives energy through the day and the rechargeable solar batteries keep your appliances working through the night.

—The prices cited are valid only in the US

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[gaurav200x]

Gr8 articles dude! But please make sure to mention the source whenever u post on the forum.