TECHNO-TOILETS and smart couches: THE DIGITAL AGE COMES HOME

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/06/2012 (4332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

You wake up in the morning and use the bathroom. Your toilet performs a quick health checkup and emails the results to your doctor.

Meanwhile, the coffee maker, which has already brewed a morning pot, is talking to the security system so it knows to shut off after you’ve left.

While you’re gone, your heating system monitors the house temperature and lighting. If the sun is heating up the living room unexpectedly, the blinds know to close themselves to save energy.

When you fall asleep watching late-night talk shows, your couch takes notice and shuts off the lights and TV set.

No, it’s not the year 2030 — digital home technology is already here, though it’s taking awhile to reach the average household.

In Japan, Toto Ltd. has been manufacturing the Intelligent Toilet since 2005. The original version of its digital lavatory measured blood sugar, blood pressure and obesity, indexes that are related to diseases such as diabetes, according to distributor Daiwa House Industry Co.

The techno-toilet sends its data to a home computer, allowing users to track and graph personal health trends.

“It’s programmed to send (information) to each family member’s personal computer about each family member’s condition. So, if the father’s weight is gaining, all the family members know and will judge each other’s health,” said Kazushige Morimoto, sales manager at Daiwa House California.

The sophomore edition of the Intelligent Toilet also analyzes urine, measuring hormone levels that can help women track their menstrual cycles.

Daiwa House says 10,000 Intelligent Toilets have been sold in Japan since the product launched, but sales are on hold as the next version of the smart can is in development.

A complete digitization of the home could involve the infusion of touch-screen technology, whereby doorknobs, furniture and appliances are programmed to react to different kinds of pressure. In May, Disney researchers unveiled Touché, which measures different types of touches, such as one finger, two fingers or a palm or grasp.

Lead scientist Ivan Poupyrev said Touché is “very simple technology which can very easily instrument real-world objects to measure not the only the simple touch event, but also gestures and interaction.”

“For example, you can have a doorknob and when the postman comes over to leave a FedEx, he can touch with three fingers to leave a message. Or, if he makes a mistake, he can press with one finger and that would simply remove the message and he can record again,” Mr. Poupyrev said.

The technology could be integrated into a sofa or blanket using conductive textiles, Mr. Poupyrev said.

“The sofa suddenly can recognize whether you are sitting, whether you are lying down or standing next to it, and then you should be able to map it to anything in the house, map it to the TV, to lights, to sound,” he said.

Technology that allows homeowners to remotely control lights, heating systems and security is already on the market in Canada.

The Smart Home system by Rogers Communications Inc. allows homeowners to synchronize lighting systems, water and carbon-monoxide sensors, as well as alarms, to their smartphones to get instant alerts. “Because all of those things are connected, I now am aware of what’s happening in my house. But the kind of the next wave of these things is going to be the automation piece,” said Robert Switzman, a spokesman for Rogers Communications Connected Life.

“Then more important things that are going to happen is when those things are aware of each other’s status and therefore things automatically happen,” Mr. Switzman said.

The technology is increasingly being updated to allow for more device connectivity, Mr. Switzman said, and the possibilities for event-based programming seem endless.

“I’m not home. I set my thermostat to 70 and the system is aware that my blinds are open and because the blinds are open during the day, it’s actually increasing the temperature, so my blinds automatically lower to reduce the temperature in the house,” he said. “Or the system knows that my home security system is armed, which means I’m not home, and I left my coffee pot on and it automatically turns it off.”

Setting up a digital home is likely to become easier and less expensive in the near future, as newer technology allows for a cheaper, do-it-yourself approach.

Seventeen-year-old Jean-Michel Laliberté of Boucherville, Que., was recognized at an international science fair last month for his home automation system, which can be easily configured without a technician, he said.

“You can install it by yourself. You can plug it in the outlet and after using the software that I made, program it and it takes like 10 minutes to program your system,” Laliberté said.

His hardware controller system and accompanying software allow users to control their home appliances via the Internet.

“You can control it using a remote control and you can add automatic action like motion sensors, temperature sensors, light sensors and sound sensors about anywhere in your house and make them interact with your house configuration and your appliances,” he said. The high-school inventor is now in talks with a local company about commercializing his project.

— Financial Post