Fischer.pa@XEROX.ARPA (10/05/85)
To do that you'd need an accepted standard for appliance control (like MIDI for music) and a transmit medium. I would suggest carrier current AM on the house wires. Anything you plugged into your home would (by default) be accesable to your home computer control system, also plugged into the wall. Such a thing could be a slow dumb ether for the toys in your house to talk on. [Far better than the voice recognition scare of a year ago: Toaster to coffee maker: "EYE YAM DUN PLEE-YUZ STAHRT THU CAW-FEE." After a pause the coffee maker recognizes that its being spoken to and a command was given... Coffee maker to Toaster: "SAH-REE BUD EYE HAHV NO WAH-TER." T to C: "EYE DEED NAUGHT UN-DER-STAND PLEE-YUZ REEPEET." C to T: same... ad nauseum.] Issues of isolation, security etc. could be solved with some checks in the appliances (to keep them from allowing really dumb/unsafe operations) and a "home code" that could be some large number of bits long to avoid hackage by friends outside with inductor transmitters wrapped around your power lines to "hack your home"... but is this latter really an issue or just paranoia? (ron)
henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (10/08/85)
> To do that you'd need an accepted standard for appliance control... > ... and a transmit medium. I would suggest carrier current > AM on the house wires... > Issues of isolation, security etc. could be solved with some checks in > the appliances (to keep them from allowing really dumb/unsafe > operations) and a "home code" that could be some large number of bits > long to avoid hackage by friends outside with inductor transmitters > wrapped around your power lines to "hack your home"... but is this > latter really an issue or just paranoia? It's a real issue, because carrier-current signals can and do propagate to neighboring houses. There is no magic boundary where the power line enters your house, or where it hits the pole; normally any signal on the power line will propagate until it hits a pole transformer or something similar, and that can cover a number of houses. You don't need malicious people with inductor transmitters; an uncooperative neighbor will suffice to cause problems. -- Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology {allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry
calway@ecsvax.UUCP (James Calloway) (10/10/85)
A committee of the Electronic Industries Association meets monthly to develop a standard for what they call the "home bus." This includes carrier-current signals, infrared, hard wire and spread-spectrum radio waves. The protocols developed for these "buses" are to be completely interchangeable with one another and compatible with all appliances connected to them. >>>In article <1913@brl-tgr.ARPA> Fischer.pa@XEROX.ARPA writes: >To do that you'd need an accepted standard for appliance control (like >MIDI for music) and a transmit medium. I would suggest carrier current >AM on the house wires. Anything you plugged into your home would (by >default) be accesable to your home computer control system, also plugged >into the wall. Such a thing could be a slow dumb ether for the toys in >your house to talk on. > >(ron) -- James Calloway The News and Observer Box 191 Raleigh, N.C. 27602 (919) 829-4570 {akgua,decvax}!mcnc!ecsvax!calway