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Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?
There is all this talk about the "Internet of Things" and how it's going to be one of the largest industries soon.
So I'm curious, what is something around you that you wish was connected to the internet(ex: Physical mailbox at home/work, desk chair, etc)? Or is there a product out that that you wish was improved(ex: smart lights, internet connected cars, etc)?
This devices can have sensors or actuators, but I want to know why you believe it'll make your life easier by connecting it to the internet.
- swah 12y agoIts "small stuff", but if many objects in my house published their state and events, I could do lots of little things, insignificant as "no need to check the mailbox because the little door was not opened today".
- shrike 12y agoMy fridge. A simple barcode reader I can scan an item with when I use the last of it. We could develop applications that add it to a offline or online shipping list, track the amount of 'item' we eat every month, our spend etc. We could complicate things a bit more with two barcode readers, one when we add an item to the fridge, another when it's empty. That would let us find recipes based on what's available in the fridge or even what's available and likely to expire soon. Barcode readers everywhere! Extend the same idea to the pantry, under the sinks, etc. This is the closest I've seen to date - https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/ https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/
- jrvarela56 12y agoCheck out https://github.com/danslimmon/oscar https://github.com/danslimmon/oscar if you're interested in working on a prototype!
- dm2 12y agoRemember CueCat? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CueCat I see no harm in trying something similar again, it might work if done right, would need to be wireless.
- HeyLaughingBoy 12y agoI keep hearing about this idea, but most of the stuff in my fridge doesn't have a barcode. Either it never did (fruit, veggies), or it's worn off or the external packaging was removed. And then there's the fact that I don't always want the same thing (out of Smucker's strawberry jam, but want Minnesota State Fair Cherry preserves (mmmmm) to replace it). Still don't get the appeal.
- hacknat 12y agoI agree completely. When people talk about the fridge idea I've always scratched my head about it. First of all a good chunk of my food never sees the inside of the fridge. I would also add that the vast majority of items we "run out" of we end up not replacing, at least consistently. I consistently replace only a small amount of the food I consume (milk, butter, bread), and I suspect others are similar. I'm sure I have some patterns in my eating habits, but it's an area of my life I'm constantly trying to randomize (i.e. try new things). I would also add that seasonality plays a huge role, both in what is available and cheap, which a computer could track, but my own desire for changes. I went through a cheese "phase" last year where I tried lots of different cheeses, but I don't really eat too much cheese anymore. Now I'm in a Bourbon phase.
- HeyLaughingBoy 12y agoWhich is, if I may add, an excellent phase to be in :-)
- lost_name 12y agoJust a thought, but you could do this with a smart phone right now. I understand the implementation would be different integrated into the fridge, but maybe you could throw something together to see if you'd really like to do this after all. I'm of the opinion that the value is immediately lost when I forget to scan things, which would almost certainly be the normal rather than the exception. Edit: I should have assumed this already existed -- there's several apps on the Android/iOS/Windows Phone stores.
- byoung2 12y agoTechnology is getting so cheap that eventually we'll have everything connected and wonder why it wasn't always that way. First, I'd like my sprinkler system connected so I can see and adjust the schedule, check current soil moisture levels, etc. Better yet, let the system adjust itself based on current conditions, forecasts, etc. I would use this mainly for my vegetable garden, not so much fo Second, I'd like my refrigerator to track and record historical internal temperature. The fridge should be below 40 degrees at all times for food safety, and I have a thermometer inside that is 40 or below whenever I look at it, but recently I went home during the day when it was 96 degrees outside, and I saw that the temperature in the fridge was almost 50. It cooled back down in the evening, so if I hadn't gone home to check I would never have known. Cars are getting more connected (particularly GM cars with OnStar). File this under "obvious" but new GM cars will have an 8 device LTE hotspot built in that is on whenever the car is. My brother has an Escalade and he has an app that can tell him stats about the car like tire pressure, etc. It would be nice if every car had this feature. It would be nice to have more data about water usage inside the house, so I'd like a sensor on every water fixture. It wouldn't be too difficult in theory to add a meter at every water supply line and have that connect to WiFi or Bluetooth to report hot and cold water usage. It would be interesting to know that the dishwasher used 15% of the water, while the showers use 36%. I'm not sure it would be super useful, but definitely cool to see.
- rubiquity 12y ago> First, I'd like my sprinkler system connected so I can see and adjust the schedule, check current soil moisture levels, etc. Better yet, let the system adjust itself based on current conditions, forecasts, etc. I would use this mainly for my vegetable garden, not so much fo You should check out Lono[0]. 0 - https://lono.io/ https://lono.io/
- awhitty 12y agoI see someone mentioned Lono. Another company called Rachio[0] has a connected sprinkler controller available for purchase now. It's connected to Wifi instead of Bluetooth which I think is interesting in the Internet of Things discussion. 0 - http://rach.io http://rach.io
- 12y ago
- wsinks 12y agoIt's not adding things to the internet that excites me, it's the context you can put into them as well. For instance, right now I move between work in San Jose, my parents house, and my SF house. The context and control changes in each place - my family, my roommates, my corporate policy and teammates. I generally don't care about connecting things to the internet unless those things are also taken care of. I just need a couple knobs to turn.
- fla 12y agoNot my door-lock !
- ww520 12y agoCars. I'd like to turn on the AC afar remotely 15 minutes or half hour before get into the car on a hot day, or heat it up remotely on a freezing day. Some might already be doing it (Tesla). Watering system. It can look up the season/weather and adjust the amount of water to sprinkle. Battery. So that it can send out a signal when it's low on power. I know it's probably impractical but we are talking about ideas for the future. Credit card/smart cash card. Yes, I want to look up balance/transactions, transfer money, and be alerted on charges on the card itself with the screen and network on it.
- maxerickson 12y agoOnStar has an app: http://www.chevrolet.com/onstar-remotelink.html http://www.chevrolet.com/onstar-remotelink.html Heating/Cooling isn't discussed there, but I guess it's easy enough to leave the environment controls where you want them when the vehicle starts.
- stephenc_c_ 12y agoMany cars sold in markets with colder climates have auxillary heating, which lets you start heating the car from the key fob. I'm not sure how much more convenient doing this on your phone would be.
- viraptor 12y agoSome cars already use the electric heating automatically when you unlock the doors remotely. It just blasts hot air and heats up the seat quickly. I think the latest prius does it, but I may be wrong here.
- ww520 12y agoBut key fob needs to be nearby and almost getting into the car. I was thinking doing it in the office remotely 5 to 10 minutes before leaving. Cooling a car takes some times.
- byoung2 12y agoMy brother's car (Cadillac Escalade) has remote starting through an Android app, and you can adjust the climate control through the app as well.
- ErikRogneby 12y agoI would love for my breaker panel to be smart. Knowing the power draw of different breakers and being able to trend those. Analytics could alert me to a slowly failing compressor on my fridge or a burnt out element in my hot water tank. Lots of other cool features that could come with a smart panel a well.
- ktsmith 12y agoI'd take that a step further and put a sensor on every outlet so it would be like a built in kill a watt that you could look at from a household level, circuit level, and then socket level. You could monitor and alert on things that are suddenly using more or less power and also determine where you are losing the most energy to unused or seldom used devices that are always on.
- ChuckMcM 12y agoThis is something I've looked at. When outlets with built in USB charging ports came out I thought, "Gee it would be much nicer if they used some form of powerline networking to tell the house server how much power they are supplying."
- eps 12y agoA big neon sign that says "I am on the Internet of Things" that would flash every time it gets an ICMP ping and do nothing else. This would capture nicely the essence and general usefulness of an average IoT device :)
- HeyLaughingBoy 12y agoHa. This. I led a project to connect my company's products (large, instrumentation devices) to the 'net a few years ago to improve serviceability, tell us when things are wrong, let customers order supplies, etc. It was a big success and I've been following the field for a while. Subscribed to the appropriate magazines, follow industry trends, get asked IoT questions from LinkedIn, etc. I still don't see much purpose for consumer devices to be connected. Big industrial machinery: sure. Obvious benefits there. But my fridge being out of something? My oven timer went off? Why?
- JasonFruit 12y agoNothing but my computers. I don't want anything that affects my real, physical life to be open to trickery. Imagine having someone checking what is in your mailbox, what your waking hours are, how much weight you've gained, where you drove last night — it's not worth it to gain a little convenience.
- falcolas 12y agoI agree with this, but I'd word it differently: Anything that gets wired to the internet is done so with the user's safety and privacy as the first concern. If it's possible to leak PII about the user to an unintended third party, it shouldn't be done. As JasonFruit says; the cost isn't worth the convenience.
- mqsiuser 12y agoAlso smartphone. Probably my sat-receiver (for remote recording). Likely that's it. Even in my car: I'd just use my phone (instead of something else (another and likely worse UI)). It may turn out totally different in ~10, ~20 years... ... but remember: Something comes along and the expectations are high and then we see and realize that in practice it's less spectacular / much more modest. The iPhone and Android are great, but extending it to a smart-watch?... that's kind of a lame idea. I don't care. Hopefully we have something less expected and more exciting by then. So to me it's a hype word, where I shiver a bit, since I remember the .com-bubble ("Internet of Commerce" if you will) and so many other "wordings", which passed by and got replaced by the next wording (and are still not catching on).
- jo_ 12y agoMy front door, the buzzer, and maybe the door to my room and the lights. It would be nice if UPS ringing my doorbell sent an SMS to my phone so I could remotely unlock it. That way they can put the package inside my gate or front door, and I'll relock both after departure (which I can verify via webcam). No more arriving at 7:00 AM so I can leave at 3:00 PM to pick up a package.
- uptown 12y agoSeems like this guy accomplished exactly that with existing tech: https://twitter.com/adster/status/496321109789519872 https://twitter.com/adster/status/496321109789519872
- jack-r-abbit 12y agoThat would be cool. But I've never had a UPS or FedEx driver actually wait for someone to answer the door. They place the package in front of the door, put a tag on the door that says they delivered it (which seems useless since the box is right there) and leave. When I am home, I usually get to the door as they are getting in their truck. They wave and drive off.
- dxgray 12y agoAll devices that contain time of day displays. I live in 800 square feet and with appliances, clocks, etc. There can be 4 minutes difference across 25 feet.
- falcolas 12y agoAppropriate quote: A man with one watch will always know the time, A man with two watches will always be in doubt.
- terhechte 12y agoMy plants, so they can tell me when they're thirsty, need more sun, need less sun, hungry (i.e. minerals + water), whether they have a bug, whether the room is too hot, too cold, or whether the room is too humid, or not humid enough.
- Xlythe 12y agoDoesn't do quite everything, but it is a start: http://www.parrot.com/flowerpower/us http://www.parrot.com/flowerpower/us
- ryanSrich 12y agoJust to name a few: - Stove - Cat feeder - Sink - ...actually pretty much everything in my kitchen - Selectable thoughts - A physical notebook - All restaurant ordering systems. So I can get the check right to my phone, pay with my phone, tip with my phone. No paper checks. - City streets. So I can get real time data when I'm biking that tells me a certain road is closed or if traffic is heavy. I know this exists with Google maps but I'm talking about having the physical streets connected so the data is real time.
- shervinshaikh 12y agoCan you elaborate on selectable thoughts?
- fakeasaur 12y agoAutomated trucking would be cool to see in my lifetime, but to be honest the idea makes me really uncomfortable because it would put roughly two million people out of work.
- freehunter 12y agoEvery time you think or hear "it would be nice to make this more efficient, but it would put people out of work", think of discussions surrounding universal basic income. If the only reason for having humans behind the wheel is because those people have no other way to make money, maybe it's time to face the fact that we don't need them to make money. Take their job but keep paying them the same, and the benefits from not having them on the road (they won't get in accidents, won't need to stop and sleep, will be free to pursue other things to enhance their and their family's lives) will still ensure that the economy benefits. It's not just truckers, but forklift drivers, cab drivers, nurse assistants, any other job that can be replaced by a robot. There should never be a situation where we are putting people to work or putting people in danger for no reason other than so we feel comfortable paying them to do poorly what a robot can do perfectly.
- JoeAltmaier 12y agoI'm reminded of my friend Ben, who has a PhD in Physics and drives a bus. Please, please put Ben out of the bus-driving business, if it means a basic income so he can do physics, or teach physics. This current economy is a waste, that demands smart people do stupid work so they can eat, instead of doing smart work that would enhance us all.
- nb4hnp 12y agoIf you guys are interested (and aren't already aware) there is a subreddit that houses all of the discussion on basic income with lots of good material pertinent to this subject. http://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome http://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome
- xyclos 12y agoI want coasters at the bar to be connected, so the bartender gets a notification that I'm in need of another drink. (but not the cups themselves, that would be ridiculous)
- Meai 12y agoI'd like a sticker that I can stick on things and find wirelessly / via gps / some other method so that I never lose things again.
- wahooligan 12y agoCheck out Tile (http://www.thetileapp.com/ http://www.thetileapp.com/) and StickNFind (https://www.sticknfind.com/ https://www.sticknfind.com/).
- MrZongle2 12y agoVladimir Putin's shock collar.
- sadkingbilly 12y agoA sump-pump that sends an email when it detects water and/or runs. Would be great if it included a humidity measurement too.
- joewalnes 12y agoHulk Hogan
- ericfranklin 12y agoTraffic lights. While not directly personal or "Internet of Things", traffic lights could really use some AI. It would be fantastic if they could learn routine traffic patterns (rush hour, weekends), detect flow (green light, but no one is there), even receive traffic data from Google/Apple/etc., then automatically adjust timing accordingly. Even mesh networking with nearby intersections. I can't count the number of times I have been waiting at a red left turn light, with a green straight light and no other cars around. Or, backed up at a red light with no cross traffic, yet cross traffic has a long green. It is probably a complex problem to solve and suspect the biggest barriers are bureaucracy and control. Is there anyone on here that works with traffic lights? It seems like they are setup once with a predefined timing and are rarely ever changed.
- Mister_Snuggles 12y agoThis already happens in some cities. There are traffic lights in my city, for example, which adjust for trains, presence of cross-traffic, etc. The cross-traffic one is neat because a light will, quite literally, stay red forever and only change when a car pulls up to actually use the green light. From this[0] article: > Today, cities use computer-controlled traffic lights that adjust their timing based on traffic levels, the time of day and even the number of trucks on the road. In Los Angeles, for example, city officials use traffic management to control their 4,400 traffic lights, reducing travel time by 12 percent. [0] http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/08/05/high-tech-traffic-lights-could-reshape-future-driving/ http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/08/05/high-tech-traffic-lig...
- wlesieutre 12y agoMy hometown had one of those "cross-traffic" lights a few blocks from my house at an intersection that I had to cross to reach one of the major bike paths. Naturally, it didn't register bikes. So if you wanted the light to ever change, you had to cross over to the left side of the street, go up on the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button (no crosswalk on the right side of the intersection). Not much of a fan. I'm not saying they're always bad, but they're not always good either. Maybe newer ones have improved on detection, but my understanding was that the sensor was induction based and required a big chunk of metal in order to spot you.
- contingencies 12y agoSexual organs. Enough said.
- ww520 12y agoToys you meant.
- macguyver 12y agoOur refrigerator. It is big and things easily go bad if we don't periodically go through and do an "inventory" of what's there, what needs to be eaten. A fridge should, ideally: Track counts of objects, Have date of entry of objects, Have a freshness meter for all objects, and give me a map of the location of each object. I have in mind how to visually display this info and have R&D insights to other ways to make this practical. Lots of innovation :)
- Fjrjcjsiwbfcnde 12y agoOh boy! Now I can live out my 1984 fantasies where not only am I carrying a tracking device at all times, but literally everything around me is bugged with sensors! People being able to assassinate me with a software update to my car is also a major plus.
- nb4hnp 12y agoThis is my stance on this question as well. Maybe it's okay to stop at dedicated computer + cell phone. At least when those get cracked into, they won't cause any physical harm (mental grief yes). If someone cracked into my fridge and messed with the settings, I would then be missing a lot of money and have the huge chore of cleaning a fridge full of spoiled food. Also, please never put door locks on the internet. Please.
- cdcox 12y agoI don't know about connected to the internet, but it would nice to have more built in sensors in an oven/stove. They have digital thermometers, but it would be nice to get a total IR/temperature profile of what's inside. Maybe some basic computer vision programs. Something like 'looks like your bread is done and its temperature is correct, we'll turn the over down automatically unless you issue an override'. Perhaps even better would be a smart microwave that detects temperature unevenness with some IR setup and adjusts it's internal plate/heating mechanism to compensate. I guess the internety aspect would be, people could upload ideal cooking/completion settings to achieve certain results. Or it could let you start food up as you are approaching home, but this would lead to some food borne pathogen issues, so it's probably not a good plan. Though really this might be a bit excessive.
- joezydeco 12y agoI think a lot of people would love something simple that just let you know that all the burners are off on the stove. Ever get that nagging feeling when you're 10 minutes away from home? Same for the iron.
- theoutlander 12y agoReading all the suggestions here sparks my interest in an idea I was tinkering with last year after I moved into a big house and I wanted to monitor and control everything through the web / phone app. In addition, I wanted useful stats about everything (a lot were mentioned in this thread). The main problem I was trying to address was building a centralized system that would communicate with devices built on different protocols (Zigbee, ZWave, Bluetooth, etc.) and allow them to communicate with each other via the central controller.I started to work on it, but got caught up deciphering various protocols and have been trying to validate the idea before venturing further into it. I hate the idea of owning several independent systems and want something that's unified - at least as far as monitoring goes. It sounds like there is a need for smarter homes. I would love such a unified system at home. I've also considered creating hardware to facilitate certain use-cases. If anyone wants to collaborate on this, it would be fantastic! I was planning on making it open-source and free for home use. It wouldn't be a bad idea to simply solve some of the use-cases for folks on HN.
- shervinshaikh 12y agoI think the AllSeen Alliance is trying to do something similar with AllJoyn (https://allseenalliance.org/developer-resources/alljoyn-open-source-project https://allseenalliance.org/developer-resources/alljoyn-open...). They want to create a standard communication protocol across a variety of devices and operating systems. Currently they only support mobile devices and computers, but I think their overall goal is to support everything.
- theoutlander 12y agoThat's interesting. I'm trying it out. I suppose if it does what I need, I could focus on building a unified home automation system.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- terjeto 12y agoOur brains so we can communicate quickly and remote without noice polluting the environment.
- terjeto 12y agoLawnmover so i can remotely control it from afar (or just read stats if its a bot)
- terjeto 12y agoBattery levels on all my batteries (tv remote, wireless mouse, flashlight ..)
- dees 12y agoIt would make sense for me to be able to preheat my oven or stovetop remotely. Going all the way into the kitchen and back just to flip a switch and to come back and wait for 5 minutes seems insane these days. Things that could be dangerous like these would need additional sensors and safeguards against forgetfulness or deliberate exploitation, of course, but with this topic we're talking about a next-gen stack of technology instead of a Ben Franklin coil in a box with a knob. I believe the reason these things have not already been tackled (at least not for the mass-market) is that the production costs are disproportionately high compared with consumer demand for those small conveniences, considering most of these types of devices already do not need frequent replacement or upgrade, and are prohibitively expensive for a lot of households in the first place. My laundry machines and dishwasher are relatively smart appliances, but again, it's needlessly wasteful to have to remember to walk all the way across my house to check on their progress instead of just receiving a notification when they are done, and being able to view their usage and performance stats on a dashboard somewhere to make better decisions about how and when to use them. It'd be nice to be able to load up each machine and let it decide when to begin its cycles based on how full it is and with delayed timing to optimize for the lowest cost electricity. A refrigerator that can track the weight and volume of its contents and help maintain a shopping list is something we've talked about having for decades, but none has ever been successful yet. I'm not suggesting this is easy functionality to solve for, but perhaps thinking about it in different ways would help. What if each compartment were operated independently and could do more than just maintain a cool temp? Maybe a box that controls temp all the way from freezing to roasting as well as humidity. It could take your dishes prepped for cooking the night before and go ahead and heat them up to be ready to eat at the appropriate time, with no second manual process needed. It could double as a dehydrator, and maybe even keep track of when things will expire and pre-emptively dry them to avoid waste. If this were a stackable thing big enough to fit a big turkey or a pizza inside, I could imagine having several of them stacked or spread out instead of the traditional fridge/freezer combo box that can only be installed in one place in my house, and is hard to access under/behind for maintenance. Speaking of maintenance, if we're already adding some small general-purpose computer to each of these things, why not have them all self-contain operation and maintenance manuals, and politely remind when they are due for some cleaning or repairs? Most of these devices don't need to have a built in display, but instead should be managed via a web page or connected software on a phone, tablet, or other PC. I think it'd be pretty nice to open a general-purpose smartphone app and within a few taps get a step-by-step illustrated guide on how to properly replace some part or do routine cleaning on any of my dozens of household devices. The next step beyond that is to even be able to order the replacement parts or 3D-print them locally from the same app. What I'm especially interested in at the moment is aquaponic/aeroponic household gardening/farming and how to assemble a reasonably small and self-contained low-to-zero maintenance system that just tells me when to add food or chemicals and when individual plants/fish are ideal for harvest. I've been playing around with a Back to the Roots Aqua Farm, which is just a simple Betta fish tank with an integrated herb garden system on top, where the fish feeds the plants and the plants keep the water clean. This is really just a lower-hassle way of keeping a small fish, but the same principle works for larger setups with edible fish and plants and there are a lot of "everything you need to get started" kits out there but I have yet to see a true "open box, add water, insert fish and seeds" package other than this one, and of course it's extremely dumb as far as self-maintenance goes, the only real benefit being that you have a fish tank that doesn't need to be manually cleaned as often. A more sophisticated setup would involve timed pumping, grow lights, and autonomously administered food and maintenance chemicals, where really all you have to do is harvest and replace the plants and fish, and keep re-filling the stockpiles of whatever food and other additives are needed to keep everything in optimal health. I'd be really interested in buying such a setup in some type of one-box form-factor, and I think that such a thing may really be the future of sustainable agriculture. Something where I install the thing and simply extract food from it, and the pool guy can handle the periodic cleaning and re-supply that it requires.
- cordite 12y agoThis might seem rather silly, but what if toilets were connected? I don't mean just stall availability, but rather for a health reason. Japan, about 5-7 years ago or so, made some smart toilet that could tell what your diet is from the stool. What if with similar technology, individuals could be warned for slow or immediate changes based on similarly obtained data points? Individuals with certain diseases can have immediate preventative care and also prevent transmission of those diseases.
- apolymath 12y agoSLR cameras, drones, cats... anything that records video, photos, or audio, and any kind of sensor, so that the data can be instantly uploaded or even streaming at all times.
- YetAnotherBozo 12y agoEh, I think that for the near term, the internet of things is on the ropes. I think nobody's buying arduino or beaglebone, raspberry pi, etc. books any more. I think plenty of people bought one gizmo and a book, and now it's sitting in a drawer somewhere.