4 ms·

just... why?... I was expecting something silly like Siri Shortcuts... tbh

egypturnash 6y ago
"because I am stuck at home and bored out of my mind" is a plausible theory to me, though really, I find myself asking the same question about why the hell a toothbrush needs to connect to anything but power in the first place. The toothbrush company's page on the virtues of their Bluetooth toothbrush is not very compelling IMHO: https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/ https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/
- maxerickson 6y ago
  Of course it doesn't. They've saturated the market though, so it gives them something to sell to people who already have a power toothbrush.
- gumby 6y ago
  I bought one out of curiosity as to what it might add. It’s sort of like a management consultant: The bluetooth allows my phone to tell me when I’m brushing my teeth. So I paid big bucks to find out something I already know.
masto 6y ago
Sometimes people do things for fun.
imduffy15 6y ago
The demod used case is a silly one that makes zero sense, but instead of asking why, think, what else is possible. For most peoeple the act of brushing their teeth marks waking up or going to bed. With such data exposed and combined with timing data you could trigger morning or night time routines. For example, the toothbrush transitioning from running -> idle after 8pm and before 4am could cause the bedroom to go into sleep lighting (gold at 40% fading out over 15 minutes), all other lights to be turned off, all smart plugs turned off, house alarm set to armed, heating turned off and so on..... or I could just continue to be silly and turn it into a TV controller https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777 https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777
- gregmac 6y ago
  As someone who's done lots of automation and lived with a spouse that isn't as enthusiastic about it, one of the key things to think about is intuitiveness. The setup of "automatically adjusts lighting based on finishing brushing teeth before bed" could easily be "the bedroom lights do random and frustrating things when I'm trying to get ready for bed". The problem is complex interactions are hard to see, like what happens when someone does something out of order, or adjusts the lights to their liking before brushing teeth, or is brushing early after a late dinner or garlicky snack but not going to bed yet. That said, if you can do it without annoying others, go nuts! It's super fun, and it's a great learning experience to spend weeks interacting with your software from the real (physical) world. You'll find tons of edge cases, and figure out how to deal with race conditions, less than 100% reliable signals, etc. Some of my most useful automations are very subtle, like turning on a couple inside lights as it's starting to get dark outside but only if there aren't any lights already turned on. If we're home (and have manually adjusted lights), nothing happens. Yet we never come home to a dark house (There's a similar automation for front outside lights too). This is quite a bit more complicated than a simple timer, yet is so intuitive that you don't even realize you're interacting with it.
  - simcop2387 6y ago
    What I'd probably do is use it to control lights in the bathroom. You're supposed to brush for at least some amount of time, change the color of the lights as you approach that time.
    - mcintyre1994 6y ago
      My Oral B toothbrush came with a little digital clock that sticks on the bathroom mirror, when you start the toothbrush it switches to a timer that counts up, with a little quadrant indicator that changes every 30 seconds. It also apparently grades how well I clean my teeth, but that appears to be based purely on 1 star per 30 seconds, up to 5 stars.
BrianHenryIE 6y ago
~“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” ― George Bernard Shaw

"because I am stuck at home and bored out of my mind" is a plausible theory to me, though really, I find myself asking the same question about why the hell a toothbrush needs to connect to anything but power in the first place. The toothbrush company's page on the virtues of their Bluetooth toothbrush is not very compelling IMHO: https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/ https://oralb.com/en-us/why-switch/

maxerickson 6y ago
Of course it doesn't. They've saturated the market though, so it gives them something to sell to people who already have a power toothbrush.
gumby 6y ago
I bought one out of curiosity as to what it might add. It’s sort of like a management consultant: The bluetooth allows my phone to tell me when I’m brushing my teeth. So I paid big bucks to find out something I already know.

masto 6y ago

Sometimes people do things for fun.

imduffy15 6y ago

The demod used case is a silly one that makes zero sense, but instead of asking why, think, what else is possible. For most peoeple the act of brushing their teeth marks waking up or going to bed. With such data exposed and combined with timing data you could trigger morning or night time routines. For example, the toothbrush transitioning from running -> idle after 8pm and before 4am could cause the bedroom to go into sleep lighting (gold at 40% fading out over 15 minutes), all other lights to be turned off, all smart plugs turned off, house alarm set to armed, heating turned off and so on..... or I could just continue to be silly and turn it into a TV controller https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777 https://twitter.com/imduffy15/status/1256954852996939777

gregmac 6y ago
As someone who's done lots of automation and lived with a spouse that isn't as enthusiastic about it, one of the key things to think about is intuitiveness. The setup of "automatically adjusts lighting based on finishing brushing teeth before bed" could easily be "the bedroom lights do random and frustrating things when I'm trying to get ready for bed". The problem is complex interactions are hard to see, like what happens when someone does something out of order, or adjusts the lights to their liking before brushing teeth, or is brushing early after a late dinner or garlicky snack but not going to bed yet. That said, if you can do it without annoying others, go nuts! It's super fun, and it's a great learning experience to spend weeks interacting with your software from the real (physical) world. You'll find tons of edge cases, and figure out how to deal with race conditions, less than 100% reliable signals, etc. Some of my most useful automations are very subtle, like turning on a couple inside lights as it's starting to get dark outside but only if there aren't any lights already turned on. If we're home (and have manually adjusted lights), nothing happens. Yet we never come home to a dark house (There's a similar automation for front outside lights too). This is quite a bit more complicated than a simple timer, yet is so intuitive that you don't even realize you're interacting with it.
- simcop2387 6y ago
  What I'd probably do is use it to control lights in the bathroom. You're supposed to brush for at least some amount of time, change the color of the lights as you approach that time.
  - mcintyre1994 6y ago
    My Oral B toothbrush came with a little digital clock that sticks on the bathroom mirror, when you start the toothbrush it switches to a timer that counts up, with a little quadrant indicator that changes every 30 seconds. It also apparently grades how well I clean my teeth, but that appears to be based purely on 1 star per 30 seconds, up to 5 stars.

BrianHenryIE 6y ago

~“There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask why? I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” ― George Bernard Shaw