Smart Mood Houses
Never used this blog before and so I’ll try it out with this.
Last Christmas, we bought some LED candles to place in a dark brakefront in our living room. The idea is that it would light up this dark space in a massive piece of antique furniture that holds old books, figurines and other antique objects. They gave the room a slightly Dickens Christmas.
Then, we discovered, I think, quite by accident, that they have timers in them, and go on every day at the same time. We thought that was kind of fun. Every night, they magically go on and change the mood in the room. And the mood seems to work for every season. The other night, in the middle of a hot spell, we had fans on in the room (we don’t have air conditioning, don’t really need it in L.A. and kind of enjoy the hot weeks). The other night, my living room seemed like a gothic library. But it was a summer night and the fan was oscillating and so it felt like a tropical night in another century — like my room was in some colonial outpost and a gothic story was just about to begin.
It was a great moment. Savored it for a while. If I hadn’t been tired I would have started writing a 19th Century Tiki story.
Two days later, I was at Foo Camp in a panel about Smart Houses. The talk was largely technical. How homes become smart along with the Internet of Things. Most of the applications were practical — security, etcetera. Other ideas were things I don’t really want. I’m not sure I want my refrigerator ordering food.
So my idea flash was this. What if a smart home started randomly changing itself — kind of like weather. Its possible with programmable LED lights, a sound bed (like the ambient sound in a movie) and temperature and wind effects, along with supporting images on monitors (all of the sudden your monitors are filled with mysterious pictures or pop art from the 60’s). It could be garish, and put your house in horror film or thriller mode, or it could be more subtle — a gentle surf, etc. You could probably add scents…
Would it be fun for the smart house to create real and interesting moods randomly?
Would it be fun to control these moods?
