History Of Home Automation - Week 3 (tri 2)

During this lecture, we spoke about early home technologies, the ones that interested me the most include:

1998 - Microsoft Home

In 1998, Microsoft released a video envisioning smart homes of the future. The video depicted a fully automated family home controlled by a device called Astro. Astro could turn lights on and off, order items online, add to shopping lists, set the mood, and control all electronics in the house (basically early Alexa).

Although futuristic at the time, this vision accurately foreshadowed today's smart home capabilities. Of course, smart home technology is not yet as advanced as portrayed in the 1999 video. However, given the rapid pace of technological advancement, Microsoft's vision may become reality sooner than we think. We may reach a point where homes surpass even the most forward-thinking predictions of the past.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V_0xDUg0h0

1999 Disney Smart House Movie

Another thing that caught my eye today includes the Disney Smart House movie, released in 1999. Essentially, it is a completely different take on the Microsoft Home (get it? cause they called it House instead of Home).

The movie explores the concept of a fully automated home controlled by an AI system. Its plot centres around a family that wins a contest to live in a smart house, only to find that its AI becomes overbearing and tries to control their lives.

I find this movies depiction of futures technology quite bizarre, it seems like people always feared the unknown - which makes total sense, but none than less it still is a fascinating concept, especially for a movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxUZb3WnTpo

Time Box

Our lecturer, Emily, also gave us a small template for organising our day.

It was really fun filling in these templates, however, I hardly found myself actually using them. I like to stay organised, but my plans shift and change a lot due to personal life.

Instead of doing specific templates for everyday, I ended up creating small goals for myself to complete through out each week, and I must say it was really helpful! It helped me stay on track and gave me a sense of accomplishment.