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I went to an Internet of Things meeting in SF about two years ago, and it was about like this. A Samsung executive was touting an Internet-enabled refrigerator, which was basically just a refrigerator with a tablet built into the door, with no special sensors, costing more than a refrigerator plus a tablet. I asked him why they'd built the product, and got an honest answer. He said the market was three types of people:

- People who just had to have the latest thing - early adopters. - People who like to show off their houses to other people (the granite kitchen counter crowd) - People who just like to buy expensive stuff and will buy the most expensive thing.

I talked to a HVAC engineer there. The room we were in was an old industrial building in SF. It had skylights with chains and toothed pulleys for opening them, openable windows, curtains for both, ceiling fans, both spotlights and light cans, a video projector and powered screen, and a standard HVAC system controlled by a standard thermostat. Controlling and coordinating all that would be a good "internet of things" application. He pointed out that companies which installed that sort of thing wanted it to work, and not generate service calls. Engineering, installing and connecting all the motors and sensors to run that room properly would be a big job. Motorizing the old skylights alone would need custom engineering.

That's the problem. Internet of Things stuff that's actually useful requires more than buying some plastic gadgets. Just an HVAC system for the home able to open and close windows would do more for heating cost and air quality than Nest's gadget, which, in the end, just turns heat and A/C on and off.




It'd be great if the refrigerator could track the expiration dates of the items inside using RFID, then notify you if anything was getting old.

For made at home items and non-tagged items, they could also make RFID stickies, where you scan them when you put the item in the fridge, give it a name or take a snapshot with the built-in camera, set your own expiration date, and it tracks how long it's been in there.

If you focused enough on usability, you could make the whole thing feel streamlined and natural. The fridge itself could dispense the RFID tags, and you could just reuse them by reloading it with the old ones, for example.


Please tell me that was a clever sarcastic comment about the whole smart refrigerator idea. Sorry but obsessive compulsive tracking of what exactly is in the refrigerator isn't really a problem for people who are already exacting about such things. Most of us fall more into the camp of "Does it still smell OK"? That's the messy analog reality of so many things around the house that supposed consumer IoT solutions mostly ignore.


Nope, but then my sense of smell has been broken for years, so I don't take it for granted that you can just sniff things.

My main concern was finding a way to keep the things that end up in the back of the fridge from staying there for weeks and weeks. I waste more food than I care to because I'm the opposite of what you're attacking me for being -- I'm the guy that puts stuff away and forgets about it the next time I go to eat. That, and it's hard to coordinate with my fiancee on meals when she works midnights.

Anyway, I'm sorry for offending you with my ideas. I just think a smart fridge could actually be handy for wasting less food without having to be obsessive compulsive about tracking and without being a great judge of freshness with my nose. You just glance at the fridge and pick out things to eat before they go bad.


My printer does this with printer cartridges, and I wish I could make it stop. Can I just print until it looks funny and replace it then?


Consider a phone app which reads product barcodes and orders more of the same thing. You shop by pointing your phone at the empty container and telling it how many. Smarter developers might also have it recognize common fruits and vegetables. That might be useful.

I'm surprised Amazon doesn't already have such a device. They have a voice input thing and a push to buy thing. A kitchen appliance which looks and works like a price gun is a logical next step.


Yes, that actually sounds useful.

One of the problems with solutions like the omniscient fridge and printer is that they sound helpful but are not helpful in practice. They could benefit from testing.

Also, a structural issue: the incentives of the manufacturer (buy more stuff) are not aligned with my incentives (eliminate routine tasks).


> early adopters

I think for the NH crowd, this is us. Previously it was innovators fiddling with Arduinos and servos. Now the products are being made from those prototypes. It will be about 5 years until we see more adopters, when the products are refined and start to become useful. Good product design for people essentially.


what do you mean by "granite kitchen counter crowd"? is it the case that granite counters are not particularly functional and primarily there for show (i'm genuinely asking).


Granite looks great, at least initially, but is expensive and can have issues with discoloration, cracking, etc. Corian-type materials are probably more practical. Granite isn't a terrible material but it is often the choice for kitchen remodels done mostly for show.


Well, a real stone countertop is probably more functional than formica because it won't age as quickly and thus lasts longer. I'm not sure if the increased cost justifies that.

When I hear "granite kitchen counter crowd", I think of people who spend a lot of money on their house to have nice things, either because they genuinely like the aesthetic or they want to keep up with and show off to the Joneses.


That's exactly what I got from that.




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