Home Networking

Do You Want to Live in the Home of the Future?

By David Dritsas

Remember the old “home of the future” news reels from the 1950s? In the Pleasant Meadows development community, a Donna Reed look-a-like serves up turkey and mashed potatoes with appliances that appear from behind hidden panels in the kitchen; all controlled from a button menagerie on the countertop. Father orders up an evening martini from the automatic bartender, lights his cigarette from a pop up ashtray/lighter that appears from the arm of the couch. He glances comfortingly out the window at the robotic lawn mower that is finishing up its weekly chore, while Junior is out playing with his shiny toy atomic rocket he got from his school trip to the moon.

Fifty years later, how much is this “future home” like your home today? Are we any closer to being that happy, nuclear family living in automated bliss? Most people today would probably answer no to these questions. The fact is, we usually laugh at these old reels, finding them silly and naive. Our predecessors could never have envisioned the future we live in, with the World Wide Web, cellular phones and PCs on every desk. Yet, in truth, we are not much different than our 50s’ counterparts. We are still fascinated with the home of the future. Whether it is in a Philips display at Saks Fifth Avenue in New York or at the Microsoft networked home in Redmond, Wash., home-of-the-future displays are just as popular as they ever were. The difference today is that instead of “the automated home” big-name companies like Microsoft and Sun Microsystems are labeling it the “networked home.”

You would think the concept of home networking would be a unified ideal, but in fact, its definition in our culture is complex and unique in the mind of each individual. There are those who think of home networking as a link between multiple computers, peripherals and phones. Others feel that it is a link between multiple elements of their home entertainment systems. The more domestic types are set on seeing the basic home functions integrated—appliances, security and environmental controls. Last, and most complex, are those who want it all connected. The question is, where do you fit in? How do you cash in?

Why Not Start Small?

The computer is where modern-day networking was born. There isn’t a new PC out there that isn’t network-capable, so it’s a great place for the novice to get his or her feet wet. When you scour the computer catalogs and electronics superstores, you’ll find batches of companies offering both wired and wireless ways to enable your PCs to share files and Internet access. 3Com has ethernet, phone line (Home PNA) and USB versions of networking modules that allow you to connect up to five PCs with one module for less than $200, as do other companies you will find.

But if simplicity is your thing and you hate running unsightly cables or you live in an old house with plaster walls, the wireless options are more desirable. Several companies, part of a consortium called the Home RF group, have been working to make this a reality, out of which sprang Proxim’s Symphony network, which links PCs via radio waves. Compaq computers, also a member of this group, has made its desktop PCs and notebooks wireless-network ready too. Not to forget our Mac users, Apple offers an optional “AirPort” card that will allow the latest iMac, G4 and iBooks—with antennae built in—to communicate with a central bus station.

If you don’t care to start with the PC, you could start with the more domestic points of your home, such as the environment and lighting controls. Home Systems Plus offers the Aegis Home Management System that will control these home functions, as well as security, all through a touch-screen remote control. By adding an additional “Web-Link” software package, home-owners can control these functions via the Internet wherever they can log-on. To a lesser degree, Lutron offers an array of ways to control your lighting systems with infrared remotes, and, if you don’t mind calling the electrician (it’s not yet sold in stores), you can get their brand-new Radio RA RF lighting control system that allows you to control all of your lights from anywhere in the house. It’s based on an FCC approved 413 MHz frequency, so it won’t interfere with your other wireless remotes or electronics.

So You Want It All?

As great as the technologies I just mentioned are, they are not as cutting edge as some people would like. Maybe you are the kind of person dying to be able to control everything at the touch of a button wants more. Fear not, there are companies out there that share your vision, but they are taking different approaches.

Some think it’s all in the wiring. A good example is Digital Harmony, a four-year-old networking company offering technology to various electronics manufacturers that make it possible with its Reference System 2000 to link multiple products from multiple vendors. This system uses iEEE 1394 cable (a.k.a. FireWire or i.LINK) for data transmission. It claims to work with just about any 1394 devices or legacy adapters that enable older VCRs and cable set-top boxes to link up to the system. According to Digital Harmony, you could interconnect your Panja environmental control systems, Meridian home theater speakers, Mac or PC (with a 1394 interface), Harman Kardon A/V receiver and your cable set-top box. Then, with one connection, you could hook everything into a Windows-powered set-top box (with remote control) that provides a graphical interface on your television screen. Unfortunately, most of the products offering the “Digital Harmony” seal will not be available until later this year, so you may have to wait a bit. You should also know that 1394 cable has a limited range of about 4.5 meters from connection to connection before data starts to break up, but that range may be improved with less resistant cable in the future.

Conversely, some companies are opening networks that are not limited to particular wires. Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and slew of other partners are developing a home networking platform that uses Sun’s Java and Jini technology built into Cisco’s networking protocol, named Gateway. Sun and Cisco are working with a wide spectrum of companies and products: including Bosch and Whirl-pool major appliances, Siemens telephony products, GTE communication services, Sony A/V equipment and mobile phones from Motorola and Nokia.

Believe it or not, one of the first products you will see on the market, at the end of this year, is a Whirlpool refrigerator that has a portable Internet “Web Pad” that would theoretically allow you to control most of the electronic products and functions in your home. The entire system is Web-based, so instant Internet services would be integrated with your electronics and appliances. In theory, if your Java-enabled dishwasher (Bosch has one in the works) broke, a signal would be sent to the manufacturer who could call you to address the problem before you even knew about it. Helpful or scary? You decide. Regardless, the nice thing about this technology is that it is, in a way, wireless. In other words, the networking is dependent on the platform being built into the device, so you could have different kinds of wiring in a single network. The trick would be to make sure the product you buy has Java built in.

Fortunately, several industry standards, including Home Audio/Video Interoperability (HAVi), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) and the Open Services Gateway Initiative (OSGi), have included Java into their development specifications.

A World of Change?

The possibilities exhibited by these products and technologies are undoubtedly amazing, but will they change our world? If you listen to the technology gurus that litter the airwaves, you would think that we are on the verge of a major lifestyle change.

Don’t hold your breath. Why not? Take a look at the networks that already exist in your home—electric, water, heat/air conditioning. You may not consider these to be home networking, but they are. The difference is that they were standardized so long ago and we have integrated them so tightly into our lives as necessities that we sometimes overlook that fact. Standards are essential in making a technology available to everyone, not just the few who can afford it. When a technology is available to everyone, then and only then does is become widely adopted into our lives as a necessity. That’s when the world starts changing. In the world of home networking, we aren’t at that point yet and won’t be for at least a few years.

So when, and if, the home networking revolution does come, how will it change our lives? One could say that we will become more in-touch with our world or that technological home streamlining will allow us to enjoy ourselves more, but, in truth, that’s all just a lot of marketing “hooey.” It is best not to even attempt to answer this question.

It is perhaps better to take a lesson from our would-be prophetic 1950′s footage and realize that the people we are today will not be the people we are tomorrow. Our needs will undoubtedly change, as will our attitudes. Conversely, we should also accept that there will be some things that won’t change, even if the possibility exists. For example, the home kitchen has never come quite to the level of automation our predecessors envisioned. This is perhaps due in part to our enjoyment of being a part of the cooking process. It stands to reason that there are somethings we aren’t going to want to network. It will be possible to control your refrigerator from your PC, but are we going to want to do that? Do we truly stand to gain from it? Or will it just make more things difficult? Do we run the risk of spoiled food due to a computer crash? The masses will decide. To coin a cliche, necessity is the mother of invention.

Caution! Let the Buyer Beware

Enough with the foreshadowing. You’re a mover, a shaker; you want it now right? More power to you, but be careful. There is a lot of great current and emergent networking technology out there, but it’s a jungle. If there is one point I cannot stress enough, it’s that you do your research. Think about what you use your home for, what you would like to network and why. When you approach a retailer or call a company, be tough, direct and unafraid to grill the them with questions about compatibility and wiring. Clearly state what you want to network, what you want to use it for and most importantly what kind of house you live in. Do not rely on them to understand what you want off-the-cuff. They often rally behind a particular kind of networking format, one that may not be right for you. Finally, be mindful of the risk you are taking. There are a lot of protocols and formats out there, they may not all survive, even in this communications revolution. Your “home of the future” could run the risk of becoming the home of the obsolete.