Communications of the ACM
Intel's Cure For Home Energy Management: Answering Machines
Intel may have come up with a way to solve one of the most pressing problems with home energy management consoles, and the solution harks back to the early '80s.
The company has developed a home energy management console that comes with 1) a household clock and 2) an answering machine that stores and plays back video messages. The console also sports an iPhone-like interface with apps for checking daily power consumption, historical power consumption and other data. Nonetheless, the answering machine, and to some degree the clock (with the hours corresponding to peak power periods painted in red), represent the real breakthroughs.
Why? Home energy management companies admit that it has been tough to get consumers to interact with their consoles after the initial thrill wears off. By integrating an answering machine, consumers will inadvertently have to come in contact with their energy consumption all the time.
"We realize energy can get boring," said Mary Murphy-Hoye at Intel Labs. "We’ve got to give people reasons to interact with it."
From Wired
View Full Article
No entries found