

Ask HN: If you could automate one thing in your home, what would it be? - brwr

Suppose a genie showed up and offer to take one thing in your home and automate it. What would you choose?<p>Examples:<p>1) Dishwasher automatically starts once its full. 
2) Lights turn on and off when you enter or leave a room.
3) Carpets are vacuumed by a tiny little robot without you having to lift a finger.
======
gatsby
Laundry.

Even with modern technology, the process is ridiculous. Collect the clothes in
a hamper, carry clothes over to washer/dryer (sometimes this means walking
down the street to a laundromat if you live in a large city), select all the
right settings so you don't ruin your clothes, add detergent/fabric
softener/bleach/etc, start first load, wait 30-45 minutes, move everything
into a dryer, clean the vent, select the right cycle, wait another 30-45
minutes, put clothes back into a hamper, and repeat. Finally once it's all
done, carry the clothes back to the closet and fold/hang everything.

~~~
brwr
Oddly enough, the most difficult part of this would probably be folding the
clothes. Take a towel for instance. When I want to fold a towel, I begin by
searching for the corners of the towel. As it turns out, this is a rather
difficult problem for robots to solve.

Unfortunately, however, robots might be the most practical solution to this
problem.

It could definitely be achieved, it's just a matter at engineering a new type
of washer/dryer. What I don't understand is why washers and dryers are
separate entities. Yes, engineering a machine that both washes and drys
clothes would be difficult, but I'm confident that it could be done.

This is definitely one of the more difficult options!

~~~
xauronx
I had a theoretical project when I was younger to alleviate clothes folding.
Essentially, you would have a vertical stack of thin layers.

_

_

_

_

When you wanted to put your clothes away the machine would lift all of the
layers up until you got to an empty one. Put the shirt down, it snaps a
picture of it and catalogs it. When you want to get dressed, you flick through
your catalog, select a shirt and it lifts all of the layers to get to that
article of clothing. Essentially you wouldn't need to fold clothes, simply lay
them out.

~~~
brwr
This is actually a fairly feasible solution. It isn't that much different than
a typical industrial robotic arm.

You should turn your theoretical project into a company. People will pay a lot
of money for innovation and convenience.

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dpolaske
I hate wiping my ass, and I'm not a fan of the water things (bidet). I want my
toilet to automatically fold up some tp and wipe my ass.

~~~
brwr
I don't really know how to respond to this one, but I definitely got a good
laugh out of it. Let us know if you discover anything!

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scotty79
I would like shower temperature just right. As I enter the shower temperature
of my skin should be measured and the water temperature adjusted so it causes
me minimum discomfort. Also the water should be additionally electrically
heated in the faucet so that even first drops of it that fall on me should
already have designated temperature.

~~~
brwr
Another consideration is that you might want the temperature to increase over
time. I love hot showers, but I don't want the water to scald me as soon as I
turn it on.

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gregcohn
So many of these suggestions are mechanical chore-doers. If I could automate
my home to inspire me, that would be something. To wake me up intelligently,
get me pumped up to work out, inspire me with art and music at other times...
you get the idea.

~~~
brwr
Again, this would mean a hyper-intelligent home far beyond the realm of
current artificial intelligence capabilities. At the very least, we would
require a machine that could pass the Turing test and, from there, we would
have to make it understand emotion.

The day of the butler and maid will soon be past, and the home itself will be
your steward.

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scotty79
Lockin and unlocking. I should have a ring on my hand with rfid chip and the
reader should be on the doors near the handle so the dors would unlock as I
grab the handle and lock as I release the handle after closing them.

~~~
johnyzee
Why not just a remote in the keychain like we've been doing with cars for
ages? I seriously don't get why this is not the norm yet.

~~~
brwr
That wouldn't actually increase security. It might help when you have a
armload of groceries, but to innovate successfully would require something
that makes the home owner more secure for unintended access.

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brwr
I'll throw one in the ring for a few giggles: Emergency Party Mode!
<http://youtu.be/6x1GkgbVP1I?t=3m15s>

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6thSigma
One thing I've been dreaming about for years is a stacked washer/dryer where
the washer is on top. Once the washer is done, the bottom opens up and it
transfers into the dryer and then the dryer starts automatically.

It is probably impractical for many reasons, but I'd be the first in line to
buy it if it existed.

~~~
mcarrano
I've thought about this too but rather than having two machines...

Why not have a washer/dryer work in one machine? Put your cloths in and it
starts to wash, once the water is rinsed out it begins to dry.

Edit: So apparently there is such a thing! <http://goo.gl/CWgKD> (redirects to
sears.com listing of such machine)

~~~
brwr
The problem with that machine is that it is ridiculously small. At 2.3 cu ft,
you probably couldn't find a comforter in there. Good find though! It gives me
hope!

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itswitch
Doors. I would have doors open themselves, either because my phone is near the
deer and my keys are nearby, or an implanted RFID chip. Or anything. Just a
way for doors to open quickly and silently, to just the right amount. Not too
much, not to little (it would depend on the situation).

~~~
brwr
Air compression is a valid solution here, if I am understanding what you're
asking for. The trick would be developing a silencer for the compression tank
similar to that of a firearm.

Check this out:

<http://youtu.be/otYAm6OXnH8>

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logn
Buying things for the home. I'd like to see an interconnected network of
pneumatic tubes like banks have at the drive-thru. Connect every home and
business with these tubes and integrate it with internet purchasing.

~~~
junto
Wasn't there an entire town in the USA where they connected the refrigerators
up to a automatic restocking system. Or have I imagined that?

~~~
brwr
If you did imagine that, you have an awesome imagination! If not, please send
some articles on the topic my way. I'd love to read more about it.

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wsujosh
Heat/hot tub turn on automatically before I come home. When away from more
than 1 day, I turn heat down for my home/hot tub significantly. Would be great
if it all turned on a couple hours before I got home.

~~~
brwr
Nest (<http://www.nest.com/>) is already working on a thermostat that solves
this problem. I can't imagine it would be hard to adapt it for hot tubs as
well. On an unrelated note, I really want a hot tub.

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scotty79
Dishwasher should be integrated with dish cabinets. You put dirty dishes in
the bottom part and after they are washed they should be autoatically
transfered to the top part where you can get clean ones from.

~~~
brwr
Here's the rub: A lot of people keep their dishes in a cabinet above the
counter, so there is empty space between the dish washer and the cabinets
where the dishes should end up.

I can't think of a way around this at the moment except the possibility of in-
wall dishwashers. In-wall ovens exist, so why not change dishwashers, washers
and dryers to do the same?

~~~
mblakele
There are a couple of brands of dishwashers with drawers. The idea is that one
half gets newly dirty dishes while the other half holds the clean ones.
According to Murphy, the dish you want will always be in the dirty drawer.

[http://www.ajmadison.com/b.php/Drawers%3BDishwashers/N~64+42...](http://www.ajmadison.com/b.php/Drawers%3BDishwashers/N~64+4294965730)

------
dm8
\- Tiny robot comes and puts my keys in key holder.

\- Turn on coffee-maker or juice-maker once I'm home

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itswitch
The house itself. I would have the house be like S.A.R.A.H in Eureka. Or
something similar.

~~~
brwr
So you are talking about giving the house a full personality? That's a fairly
interesting idea and I'm not sure if it's an active area of research.

It seems like giving the house a personality would require a huge advance in
natural language processing. I don't think it would be a practical idea until
a machine is built that can pass the Turing test with flying colors.

It will happen in the future, for sure. The question is when.

------
schiang
water to turn on when i step in the shower, turn off when i walk out or give
some sort of signal

~~~
brwr
Would you rather it happen automatically or after you give a voice command
such as "Shower On" or something similar? Having the water pre-heat would be
very cool. The problem would be knowing when to start heating the water.
Assuming the home owner doesn't follow a perfect schedule, a voice command
would be the most effective. Another possible solution is that the water
starts heating when you enter the bathroom. Motion detection isn't that
difficult, so the latter might actually be the better solution. It would
depend on how long it takes to heat the water to the desired temperature.

~~~
desas
Electric showers should already heat up water immediately, any water already
in the shower head might be cold though..

Houses with "combi" boilers should always have hot water on demand. The water
that has been sat in the pipes for a while will have cooled though.

~~~
brwr
Maybe one thing that would prove useful would be a pipe-heating system.
Heating the pipes would also heat the water inside them. Another use for this
would be homes in colder climates where the house's pipes are likely to freeze
on a cold winter's night and burst when someone turns on a faucet.

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impendia
Lawn care.

What a huge hassle.

~~~
brwr
Good idea! This isn't something that I had considered.

I imagine it would be very similar to cleaning inside. An autonomous lawn
mower and robots for things such as edging would be cool, but, again, it would
be a sticky situation.

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dylanhassinger
groceries

~~~
brwr
What about groceries? Sorting them, buying them, keeping track of current
stock?

