New showcasing on the new gadgets for the home of the future. Ovens that are also freezers that you can start via the web or buy your cell phone. Touch-sensitive taps, speakers that can swivel several different parts to create the illusion of surround sound from only one sport. TV's and Monitors that can be swivelled sideways and be used as decorative pictures or mirrors. Etc etc etc.
Read on for the future of your veryt own home.
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CES: Home of Future Technology Today
By Shannon Bentley, February 8, 2005
Over 120,000 people from 110 different countries flock to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to get a glimpse of the latest gadgets & gizmos. This year, one thing is for sure: when it comes to new technology, there's no place like home!
And you need look no further than the front porch. Adjacent to the door is a hi-tech doorbell. When you ring the bell it turns on a video camera automatically. Then your audio and video pops up on a TV screen inside the house for residents to see.
The camera is wired into the house's video cable system via a central computer called a hub. In fact, all of the technology in the "house of the future" is connected to the hub: the televisions, stereos, security system, climate controls, and even the kitchen appliances.
The oven is connected to the Internet so that you can start dinner from the office. When you put your roast in before you head off to work in the morning, the oven also acts as a refrigerator - keeping your meat cool until it starts cooking. When you log onto the Internet you can tell the oven how long, and at what temperature, you want your roast to cook at. Don't worry if you get stuck in traffic, because you can call the oven on your cell phone to tell it to stop cooking and start warming.
What you are actually calling in to, is the central on-line computer (the hub) that is connected to the smart oven. Software on the computer allows you to access the oven's controls using your phone or a remote computer.
Appliances don't have to be connected to a computer to be considered "smart" either. Lots of gadgets around the house are getting hi-tech makeovers in and amongst themselves.
The Delta faucet in the kitchen sink has built in motion sensors that turn the water on and off automatically so you don't have to worry about contamination when handling things like raw meat. You set the temperature manually with a joystick so that every time you put your hands under the faucet, the water is the same temperature. It's also touch sensitive so that you can turn the water on and let it run for longer periods of time.
From the kitchen - into the living room: home theatres are getting more and more hi-tech...and so are the speakers.
A new type of speaker from Pioneer does the same job as five surround sound speakers. The wall-mounted panel is made up of 254 tiny embedded speakers and uses something called directional sound. That means that the sound from the speaker panel can be directed to bounce off things like walls and give the impression that there is more than one speaker placed throughout in the room. Each one of the tiny individual speakers on the panel pivots so that you can strategically aim the sound to work best with the configuration of your living room - taking into account walls, furniture, ceiling height, and viewing space.
Whether you watch your movies on a 52-inch plasma or on a computer monitor, the screens inside the house of the future are also getting smarter. Take the LG computer screen for example.
If you hate having to scroll through an image on your screen that just doesn't quite fit properly, this LCD monitor has built-in tilt sensors that allow you to turn it sideways. The screen automatically re-orients the image for you (from a landscape to a portrait orientation) to make it easier to read.
The technology doesn't have to stop there either. It could also be applied to a large wall-hung plasma television for example. The horizontal wide-screen TV could be converted to a vertical photo display and decorative mirror.
A lot of the greatest gadgets and gizmos found at the Consumer Electronics Show might very well be found in your home in the not too distant future.
For more information on the CES, you can visit their website:
www.cesweb.org
By Shannon Bentley, February 8, 2005
Over 120,000 people from 110 different countries flock to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to get a glimpse of the latest gadgets & gizmos. This year, one thing is for sure: when it comes to new technology, there's no place like home!
And you need look no further than the front porch. Adjacent to the door is a hi-tech doorbell. When you ring the bell it turns on a video camera automatically. Then your audio and video pops up on a TV screen inside the house for residents to see.
The camera is wired into the house's video cable system via a central computer called a hub. In fact, all of the technology in the "house of the future" is connected to the hub: the televisions, stereos, security system, climate controls, and even the kitchen appliances.
The oven is connected to the Internet so that you can start dinner from the office. When you put your roast in before you head off to work in the morning, the oven also acts as a refrigerator - keeping your meat cool until it starts cooking. When you log onto the Internet you can tell the oven how long, and at what temperature, you want your roast to cook at. Don't worry if you get stuck in traffic, because you can call the oven on your cell phone to tell it to stop cooking and start warming.
What you are actually calling in to, is the central on-line computer (the hub) that is connected to the smart oven. Software on the computer allows you to access the oven's controls using your phone or a remote computer.
Appliances don't have to be connected to a computer to be considered "smart" either. Lots of gadgets around the house are getting hi-tech makeovers in and amongst themselves.
The Delta faucet in the kitchen sink has built in motion sensors that turn the water on and off automatically so you don't have to worry about contamination when handling things like raw meat. You set the temperature manually with a joystick so that every time you put your hands under the faucet, the water is the same temperature. It's also touch sensitive so that you can turn the water on and let it run for longer periods of time.
From the kitchen - into the living room: home theatres are getting more and more hi-tech...and so are the speakers.
A new type of speaker from Pioneer does the same job as five surround sound speakers. The wall-mounted panel is made up of 254 tiny embedded speakers and uses something called directional sound. That means that the sound from the speaker panel can be directed to bounce off things like walls and give the impression that there is more than one speaker placed throughout in the room. Each one of the tiny individual speakers on the panel pivots so that you can strategically aim the sound to work best with the configuration of your living room - taking into account walls, furniture, ceiling height, and viewing space.
Whether you watch your movies on a 52-inch plasma or on a computer monitor, the screens inside the house of the future are also getting smarter. Take the LG computer screen for example.
If you hate having to scroll through an image on your screen that just doesn't quite fit properly, this LCD monitor has built-in tilt sensors that allow you to turn it sideways. The screen automatically re-orients the image for you (from a landscape to a portrait orientation) to make it easier to read.
The technology doesn't have to stop there either. It could also be applied to a large wall-hung plasma television for example. The horizontal wide-screen TV could be converted to a vertical photo display and decorative mirror.
A lot of the greatest gadgets and gizmos found at the Consumer Electronics Show might very well be found in your home in the not too distant future.
For more information on the CES, you can visit their website:
www.cesweb.org
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