So I’ve always admired and believed in the fundamental truth of (George) Carlin’s Law:
"If you nail together two things that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it."
I see examples almost every day.
So with a rising eyebrow at the “Internet of Things” concept and smartphone integration with things smart phone have no real business being near, and “There’s an app for that!” becoming less and less funny as time goes on, I read a bit in the Sunday Times about a high-tech addition to smoke alarms that will listen for the sound of a smoke detector going off and send an alert to your smartphone.
And I think…
"If you integrate two things that have never been integrated before, some blogger will call it progress."
Well, until AB comes back with a company or product name, I found 3 different smoke detectors with smartphone applications that I would consider if I were looking to update my smoke alarms: the birdi, the nest protect, and the Asante, if only because it looks like all three can be silenced from a cell phone which would be nice when cooking. I’m not seeing where the concept of a smoke detector linked to a smart phone is in and of itself a laughable proposition.
It would also be a good thing for deaf folks. In their own home they have (hopefully!) the alarms with blinking lights, but what if they’re out somewhere? Or working late in an office where they can’t see the emergency lights? How else would they know?
That same article in the NY Times refers to a baby’s onesie outfit that is fitted with a sensor to detect whenever the baby rolls over, or his body temperature rises.
And you can link the sensor to anything else in your smart home–so that a light will come on, music will start playing, and the coffee machine starts perking. All at once, at 3:00 in the morning.
IT’S PROGRESS!!!
Why do tech nerds always try to do too much? Mash together all the tech, and ignore the human side.
Google Glass failed because of this attitude. They tried to put the whole internet in front of your eyeball, and put a camera on everybody’s face, recording everything, all the time And then they were shocked and genuinely unable to comprehend why people were scared away.
They could have succeeded if they had asked some human beings first…And then worked to match the technology to a niche market…doing a useful task that people actually want. (Say, pilots or surgeons , who need specific information displayed on a heads-up screen while keeping their hands free.)
A couple decades ago, a morning show (radio) found somewhere a toaster-radio. He was giving it away as a prize for something. If kitchen counter space is scarce (certainly true of mine), I see the actual utility.
The hardware is a nightlight with a microphone & wifi connectivity. It will contact your smartphone via wifi and its own phone app if it detects a smoke or CO alarm going off. Is it useful to know if your home is on fire when you’re not home? Absolutely. Is it worth $99? That I don’t know. But it’s probably a lot cheaper than rewiring all your smoke alarms to go to a central panel that can call an alarm company directly.
Of course, if it is your wifi transceiver itself that has burst into flames, the device will not be able to notify you, or anyone, no matter how loud the smoke detector screams.
Sure. And if the nightlight itself bursts into flames, you’re doubly screwed. But I reject the OP’s Ludditistic implication that this is an inherently useless device.
So you design the device to automatically send an “everything’s OK” signal every five seconds. If the app doesn’t get that signal for 15 seconds, it assumes something’s wrong.
The problem is that 90% of the time, the thing that’s wrong is that your ISP has a regional monopoly and thus no incentive to provide reliable service, and your internet crapped out again. Which is a problem, but not the same kind of problem as your house being on fire.