1. Cars are moving into this with heated seats, and even heated steering wheels. Electric cars in cooler climates that don't have the excess heat production of an IC engine will depend on it to keep occupants warm.
2. There was an article a while back on HN about a fellow that had a computer desk with a heated keyboard, heated mouse, heated floor mat (designed for animal cages) and a warm incandescent light pointing at them.
3. The IoT can't happen fast enough. I want my electric blanket to talk to my HVAC system to know when to turn each other on or off. And my HVAC to interact with my flight schedule or my phone's GPS to turn up/down the temperature and know when to turn on so it's still toasty when I get home.
Heated steering wheels might seem like frivolities at first glance, but they're actually an important safety measure.
Lots of people drive with only the fingertips of one hand in the cold mornings because of cold steering wheels. Heating the steering wheel encourages the driver to keep both hands on the wheel, which is particularly valuable in winter when road conditions can be poor.
This is actually even more important in cooler climates, where you may need to scrape the ice off of your car right before driving. Having frozen hands most definitely does not make driving easier.
Moving into? I thought this has been commonplace for a while now? My parents 1991 model Volvo had heated seats. Maybe it's only common in colder climates.
"The IoT can't happen fast enough. I want my electric blanket to talk to my HVAC system to know when to turn each other on or off. And my HVAC to interact with my flight schedule or my phone's GPS to turn up/down the temperature and know when to turn on so it's still toasty when I get home."
I have these things right now (well, not the flight schedule thing since that happens so little that I prefer manual control) with a few hundred $ worth of home automation gear and a regular PC as the control center. Anyone with a bit of hacker mindset can build such a thing, really.
1. Cars are moving into this with heated seats, and even heated steering wheels. Electric cars in cooler climates that don't have the excess heat production of an IC engine will depend on it to keep occupants warm.
2. There was an article a while back on HN about a fellow that had a computer desk with a heated keyboard, heated mouse, heated floor mat (designed for animal cages) and a warm incandescent light pointing at them.
3. The IoT can't happen fast enough. I want my electric blanket to talk to my HVAC system to know when to turn each other on or off. And my HVAC to interact with my flight schedule or my phone's GPS to turn up/down the temperature and know when to turn on so it's still toasty when I get home.