Network Computingwww.networkcomputing.com

Americans have been captivated by the idea of smart homes for a long time. The 1950s tantalized the public with visions of shiny robots doing all the cleaning, jet cars soaring above traffic, wall ovens making a complete roast-beef dinner from a 1-inch-by-1-inch brown cube. Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, meet George and Jane Jetson. Today we still have a hankering for helpful houses, but our expectations are more down to earth. Our readers will be in the vanguard of the smart-home movement; in fact, we were surprised at how many of our own editors are using these technologies in their own abodes. So to start the year, we decided to take a break from our usual fare and look at the state of the smart house.

We found that many homes have the infrastructure for simple low-bandwidth applications, including automated lighting and security systems. Newer construction (and some retrofit designs) will use Category 5E cable for high-bandwidth data transfers, such as DVD video and audio. Remote access to equipment through the Internet or a dial-up line will let us remotely control our houses, from running a lighting script to simulating a person being home to adjusting the heat and air conditioning. Motion sensors can detect room activity and turn off the lights when not in use, conserving energy, reducing pollution, maybe even knocking a few dollars a month off the electric bill. We had some discussions with ITT Industries and Home Director about their products, and we took a look at the X-10 protocol (yes, there are standards even for home networks).