Disney Takes Another Stab at the House of the Future

Disney has announced that they are going to take another stab at showing us the "House of the Future". The 5000-square-foot house will appear normal from the outside but will house gadgets like lights and thermostats that automatically adjust when someone enters the room and countertops that can identify food placed on it and suggest recipes. "Millions of Disneyland visitors lined up a half-century ago to catch a glimpse of the future: a home teeming with mind-blowing gadgets such as handsfree phones, wall-sized televisions, plastic chairs, and electric razors and toothbrushes. [...] The $15 million home is a collaboration of The Walt Disney Co., Microsoft Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co., software maker LifeWare and homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Visitors will experience the look of tomorrow by watching Disney actors playing a family of four preparing for a trip to China."

I would like to see...

[Darundal (891860)]

...How integrated various forms of media are from each other in this house.

Re:I would like to see...TWO BRICKS BEING SMASHED

[sm62704 (957197)]

Microsoft has a hand in it, so considering how they write their software I doubt you can remove or replace anything in thhe house without the walls turning blue, black, or crashing down.

If you remove the laser razor is it "House Of The Future Lite"? I'll bet you can only use Microsoft Light Bulbs and Microsoft Lamps because the bulb screws, light sockets, and wall plugs are all nonstandard and proprietary.

Re:I would like to see...

[ushering05401 (1086795)]

I would like to see a completely sound-proofed house with all appliances designed to work as quietly as possible.

After all, it is highly unlikely that the volume of sensory input people have to endure outside the home is going to decrease anytime soon.

Hell, people are already patenting devices to track your eyes so their adverts can talk to you if they think they have your attention.

My home of the future might well resemble a faraday cage.

Re:I would like to see...

[hachete (473378)]

every gadget will have NO REPEAT NO lights, not even the smallest flicker. Even the damn mac has the green light on the power line. My epson printer has three, and one continually blinks.

Profound changes must take place, and NO LIGHTS is one of them.

Re:

[Foobar of Borg (690622)]

Oh, come on, stupid mods! It's actually funny (though admittedly very childish) and on topic considering this is a Disney "House of the Future". What I want to know is - does it have a holographic projection room so my kids can pretend they are in the African Veldt?

Any day now

[by Anonymous Coward]

In addition to the standard house-of-the-future home automation, the house will also include its own micro-fusion electric generator (running on tap water), a landing pad for the flying car, and Duke Nukem Forever running on a secure update to Microsoft Windows.

Re:Any day now

[by Anonymous Coward]

Clippy:
It appears you are burning your toast. Would you like some help with that?

UAC:
You are attempting to microwave a Cup-o-Noodle
[Allow] [cancel]

Re:

[mangu (126918)]

Duke Nukem Forever running on a secure update to Microsoft Windows

No, the secure Microsoft Windows will be the server, Duke Nukem Forever will run on the Linux Desktop

Don't forget the most important feature!

[morgan_greywolf (835522)]

Full support for multiple DRM technologies is built into everything!

Re:Don't forget the most important feature!

[Locklin (1074657)]

I'm sorry, you want to use your toaster in the bathtub? You have to purchase extra permissions to do that: $50 at amazon.com.

Remember, breaking usage agreements is STEALING. You wouldn't steal an old ladies purse, would you?

Any unauthorized appliance usage, or sharing of appliances is deemed a criminal offense and will be instantly reported directly to Microsoft.com. Your house will enter a "restricted usage" mode, and will drop to below freezing until sufficient licenses are purchased.

But ...

[shis-ka-bob (595298)]

That may work in the House of the Future, but it will never be approved by the Senate of the Future.

Time to join the Luddites...

[owlnation (858981)]

countertops that can identify food placed on it and suggest recipes

A whole house that has pop-up ads. That's not my future, I promise you. I'm thinking those bastards at the Sirius Cybernetic Corporation had a hand in the design.

Re:Time to join the Luddites...

[rucs_hack (784150)]

Um, yeah, of course.

What do you think are the chances of a computer controlled house with net access that *doesn't* spam you with ads?

There will be three kinds of utility for your web house. I shall elaborate.

Basic:

All the 'features', but to access them you must willingly subject yourself to advertising, and targeted recommendations.

Standard:

All the features, no non elective ads, but you're still likely to have 'great suggestions' coming in, facebook app-like, trying to get you to winningly accept the ads..

Premium.

They give you the device, and leave you the fuck alone. Expect this to be itself in one of two further sub-categories

sub-cat 1: Far too expensive for most people.

sub-cat 2: Available only to selected people, likely not even able to be bought.

Re:Time to join the Luddites...

[aywwts4 (610966)]

You forgot number four.

Ultimate:

I hacked my home by running a buffer overflow exploit on my blender, loaded linux and now my house can fly to the moon.

Re:

[Abreu (173023)]

If they try that, those idiots will be first against the wall when the revolution comes

Re:Time to join the Luddites...

[UberOogie (464002)]

Not only that, but can you imagine the amount of research they are going to have to do with cannibals considering that human hands will be the most common thing on the countertop?

Mmmmm, pork roast...

[NotQuiteReal (608241)]

I often sit on my kitchen counters.

[+HAL9000 voice] Excuse me, Dave. It seems you have a large quantity of SPAM there, may I suggest a recipe? [-HAL9000 voice]

Trip to china

[Mickyfin613 (1192879)]

Visitors will experience the look of tomorrow by watching Disney actors playing a family of four preparing for a trip to China to welcome their new Chinese overlords. Fixt.

Re:Trip to china

[Amouth (879122)]

i was about to comment on that..

atleast they will get one thing right... in 50 years we will be headed to China to find work to pay for our crazy expensive crap over here.

Home of the future...

[DragonWriter (970822)]

The 5000-square-foot house will appear normal from the outside but will house gadgets like lights and thermostats that automatically adjust when someone enters the room and countertops that can identify food placed on it and suggest recipes.

So, technology that's been around for decades but not popular in homes, and technology that is a solution looking for a problem (if I've chosen to buy food, bring it home, and set it one the counter [or take it out of the fridge and set it on the counter] chances are I already had a use in mind—countertops that suggest recipes for food placed on them seem about as useful as as a closet that suggest where I might want to go based on the clothes I take out.)

For $15 million, I'm not impressed.

Re:Home of the future...

[AvitarX (172628)]

What would be cool though is fridge that checks it´s contents and tells you recipes along with thigns you could make with just a little extra.

It would solve the "there's nothing to make, but the fridge is full" dilemma.

Re:Home of the future...

[jedidiah (1196)]

Better yet, it keeps track of how long stuff has been in there or
checks for chemical signs of spoilage. From this it can either tell
you that it's time to clean things out or time for a "leftover casserole".

"Warning: Jar on back of bottom shelf has not been touched in 123 days..."

"The 6th Day" had a pretty good Future-Fridge.

Clippy, Home Edition

[C10H14N2 (640033)]

Yes, an entire house programmed to second guess your every move...to "help" you. How could that not be terrific?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB03aRifPLU [youtube.com]

Re:Home of the future...

[countSudoku() (1047544)]

Oh boy, I can't wait for the future house to tell me it's having a problem getting rid of a virus in the fridge-server and all my Choco-Tacos have melted! Then I'll set a nice tri-tip onto the counter and see if I can't get around the "Unrecognized Item on Counter! Abort, Retry, Ignore?" displayed on the inside of my eyelids. Future House I already hate you! :)

Wake me when the house of the future runs on a platform that is secure and stable and relatively free of solutions in search of problems.

Re:Home of the future...

[gstoddart (321705)]

So, technology that's been around for decades but not popular in homes, and technology that is a solution looking for a problem (if I've chosen to buy food, bring it home, and set it one the counter [or take it out of the fridge and set it on the counter] chances are I already had a use in mind

Indeed. And, really, at what cost? Surely the current counter tops that most us have at under $10 / running foot aren't going to be something we replace with stuff which is as expensive as Corion or marble at more like $100 / running foot.

Since nobody will ever be able to afford this level of technical indulgence, who the heck do they think will be buying it? Honestly, sometimes I think futurists are engaging in the worst sort of intellectual masturbation -- here's something which is completely impractical, that will never be wide spread or affordable, but let's pretend that in 20 years we'll all be using it.

In the mean time, no flying cars, and the average schmuck still hasn't paid for his TV he bought on credit. Counter tops which suggest recipes will be something that only someone who can hire kitchen staff will be able to afford; in which case, they won't exactly need a suggestion, will they?

The simple reality is, this is never going to be the house of the future, it's purely an intellectual exercise of what you can do with a boat load of someone else's money when you can charge someone admission to look at it. It's about as divorced from reality as you can get.

Cheers

Bathroom jokes

[SoundGuyNoise (864550)]

Oh the possibilites... - What happens if I'm in the shower and the OS crashes? Will it never turn off? - Will the toilet only accept one kind of input? - Will the house "phone home" to let said manufacturers know what I do in the house? (For statistics only, no personal information of course) - Will my furniture be compatible with the floor? - What if the fridge is stuck in an infinite loop and keeps ordering me eggs? - Can it defrag my junk drawer?

Re:Bathroom jokes

[sconeu (64226)]

Will the toilet only accept one kind of input?

G-d, I hope not. It had better take at least two kinds of input (or two kinds of your output). Preferably at least three (if you get sick and need to shout into the great white telephone).

Re:Bathroom jokes

[JonWan (456212)]

Or worse... they install clippy.

"I see you're trying to masterbate, Would you like me to show you a picture of:"

1. Britney Spears nude.
2. Goatse.
3. Natalie Portman petrified and covered in grits.

GE House

[Bob McCown (8411)]

I hope its not like the GE house they had/have in Pittsfield, MA. It was supposed to be some modern house, listening to you talk, automated curtains, etc, but really was a guy in a hidden closet listening, and throwing switches.

China makes sense

[Subgenius (95662)]

Of course, it makes sense that they are planning a trip to China, since all of the stuff in house was probably made there, and after the next big credit crunch, they might even be going overseas to pay forced-homage to the mortgage lender.

Great. A house that nags

[ishmalius (153450)]

As if we didn't hear enough "suggestions" in our daily lives. Didn't Ray Bradbury kill his house for this very same reason?

I know!

[Stanistani (808333)]

The house of the future is a yurt. [wikipedia.org]

Impossible Future?

[drapeau06 (1010311)]

Shouldn't a "house of the future" be smaller than current houses? If they are to be available to all humans, I mean.

Also, I still have hope that USians will start using the metric system someday... so overall, I'd suggest that a more sensible house of the future would be about 100 or 200 square metres.

Additional feature

[rossz (67331)]

What's not mentioned is that DRM will be built right into your house. It will prevent you from doing anything that Disney considers a violation of intellectual property (as Disney defines it). That means your VCR won't record. Your DVR will self-destruct. Your computer won't download music or videos. You CDs will be locked to the first player you use the disc in. Your original and priceless manuscript of Grimm's Fairy Tales will smolder and burn (Disney now owns all that). iPods and other MP3 players will have permanent memory corruption. You'll be sent a bill for royalties if it detects you singing copyrighted songs in the shower (and the "Happy Birthday" song you sing for your kid on his third birthday).

Re:Additional feature

[Creepy (93888)]

not only that - the friendly Microsoft voice activated software will help you run your home

~~Home of the Future Premium Edition~~
me: Computer! shower on.
computer: warning - this will change your current hardware settings, which requires admin approval - are you sure you want to do that? Say 'yes' to continue, 'no' to cancel.
me: yes
~shower turns on cold water~
me: computer - set water to 36 degrees
computer: sets temp.
me: computer -this is still freezing - I said use Celsius yesterday - don't you learn?
computer: command not understood.
me: computer: set water to 36 degrees CELSIUS
computer: this is a US based system and only allows Fahrenheit temperatures. For international measurement packs, install House of the Future Ultimate Edition.
me: *%*#%*^ - computer - set temp to 98F!
computer: House temperature is now set to 98 degrees Fahrenheit.
me: aaargh - no computer, set shower water temperature to 98F and house temp to 70F.
computer: shower water temp set to 98F. please enter commands one at a time.
me: computer: set house temp to 70F.
computer: house temp set to 70F
~~shower~~
me: computer - shower off
computer: warning - this will change your current hardware settings, which requires admin approval - are you sure you want to do that? Say 'yes' to continue, 'no' to cancel.
me: yes!
~~shower turns off~~

House of the future compatible with today?

[HalAtWork (926717)]

Wouldn't the house of the future be made up of easily interchangable parts that can be easily retrofitted to existing structures? It wouldn't be something designed from the ground up with today's bleeding-edge technologies. Part of the hassle of doing work in the houses of today are parts, fixtures, or even the location of holes, that are of a new standard and plain just don't work with anything else.

Re:

[Xtravar (725372)]

They already make houses out of materials which exhibit the properties you seek.

They're called "Legos".

our own little worlds

[Statecraftsman (718862)]

Much of the project will showcase a network that makes the house "smart" and follows family members from room to room - even adjusting artwork - to preset personal preferences.

Does anyone get the feeling that we're all increasingly seeing what we want to see? Headphones and ipods mean we're less often exposed to the music of our parents, friends, and coworkers. We all go to our own favorite websites to check news(be it factual, entertaining, or agreeable) or socialize or whatever. We spend hours and hours in whole virtual worlds that are difficult to appreciate or explain without having spent those many hours there.

While I think it would be awesome to see the art and decor transform depending on who walks into a room...this just highlights to me that we may become more disconnected from each other as we optimize the digital world to our own personal likes. Not that it's bad...maybe we were all meant to relate to each other through screens, keyboards, and mice. Maybe the benefit of the digital world is that it provides a better way to share experience when we choose. Either way, it's good to recognize what's going on.

Re:our own little worlds

[bcattwoo (737354)]

I totally agree. For example, cellphones, Blackberries, etc, make it easier for us to stay in touch with people far away while increasingly distancing ourselves from those right around us. And now, instead of having the kids bugging you in the car, you just pop a DVD in for them. Even having listening to the DVD audio is too much to ask, you say? Upgrade to the wireless headphones!

It's not the house of THE future

[Itninja (937614)]

It's the house of THEIR future. 'They' being the megalithic companies that sponsor this type of thing. I bet their won't be any Linux-based appliances (i.e. Tivos) in there. Or any Jonathan Coulton music playing. Or anything else that's open-source. Down with everything! Just don't take away my XBox....oh wait.

Trip to China?

[bcattwoo (737354)]

"Visitors will experience the look of tomorrow by watching Disney actors playing a family of four preparing for a trip to China."

Probably just their normal daily commute to work.

I can't wait to see how it all works together

[stormguard2099 (1177733)]

Father: Come on medicine cabinet! I need my insulin!

Automated medicine cabinet: The serial number on your refrigerator seems to be invalid. Please call 1-800-chinasoft for assistence.

Father: Alright but hurry up I have to get to work.

Phone: It appears your telephone service provider is not supported. Can I interest you in signing up for MSNfone?

Father: I knew I should have installed linux but I just couldn't find those drivers for my countertop and showercurtain .

They can do better than this...

[neostorm (462848)]

I'm surprised that's all they could come up with... It sounds like it was designed by whimsy than practicality. Nothing they mention sounds like an ideal house to me. Maybe thermostat, but I live in Southern California, so it's not like that fluctuates a lot...

In the "future", I'd really prefer a house that -
1) helps me keep it clean. I've always envisioned a carpet that has a vacuum system beneath it, and will suck up all the dirt and grim and little bits from below.
2) an in-sink dishwasher, where I can simply pile my dirty dishes into the sink, slide the top closed, and let it do it's thing without me having to clean by hand or pre-scrub and load them into a separate unit.
3) has an embedded software system that will help me track my chores and tasks for that day, wake me in the morning, remind me of events on certain dates... basically calendar software that can be accessed from any wall in the house. (probably the closest scenario to what they have in the article).
4) runs energy efficient! uses energy recycling tech to generate as much of it's own power supply as possible - i.e. solar power, walking around generates kinetic energy picked up through the floor, running tap and shower catch access energy as they drain, etc.

I don't know, I just made this up off the top of my head by looking around my apartment (you can guess what shape it's in), but I think Disney's little inventors are looking too much in the direction of luxury, and not enough in the direction of practicality and things that people would really want to help them live their lives more comfortably.

Laundry idea

[CopaceticOpus (965603)]

Most of their ideas are cute but not especially helpful to anyone. I'd throw all those ideas out for a real laundry machine. I want to toss my dirty clothes in at night, and the next morning have them waiting for me, cleaned, dried, ironed, sorted, and folded.

Are we all rich in the future too?

[dtolman (688781)]

5000 square feet? Thats not a house - thats a mansion! Are they going to China to find a full time cleaning crew to chase after the dust bunnies in their 8 bedrooms and 6 1/2 bathrooms?

Just the same - I'm a sucker for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, and look forward to visiting the protype house of the Corporate Liege Lord in the future.

normal

[jemminger (914046)]

"The 5000-square-foot house will appear normal from the outside".... just like everyone else's 5000 square foot homes ;-p

My House of the Future

[Dr. Eggman (932300)]

Popsci has another take on the Home of the the Future [popsci.com].

My house wouldn't be built around gimmicky crap like auto moodlighting or suggesting recipies. Mine would be more practical innovation. Bathrooms and kitchens coated in titanium dioxide treated to dissapate dirt and mildew [popsci.com]. It'll have a 3D fabrication Printer [popsci.com] to print out dishes or maybe even chair parts when we have extra company. Automated machines to cut the grass [lawnbott.com] (if I don't go with bio-engineered no-mow grass [wired.com].) The construction itself will be steel framed and built using modular panels but build to be reconfigurable (relativly.) Replacing drywall with bolted or snap-in-place steel-backed panels (the exposed surface side could be bare steel, have wood glued on, wallpapered, etc.) allowing for me to access the interior portions of the wall with ease. My particular aesthetic would be bare steel panels, with cables run along the outside in bundles, but it would be easy to reconfigure it to appear 'classical' with the wires hidden behind the now covered panels. I want my home of the future to be flexable, low(er) maintenance, and something that will last.

What if the bad guys win?

[jagdish (981925)]

I got this from somewhere. p2pnet I think. What if the bad guys win? Going to the movies is not what it used to be. Security at the studio-owned theatres is heavy, it's not a trip to be taken lightly. But if you want to see the film everyone is talking about without waiting a year for the home release, you have little choice. When you enter the lobby the first thing you see are long ranks of tiny, thumbprint activated lockers. This is where you must leave all of your electronics, your personal server and peripherals, even your watch, and you had better not be wearing smart spectacles or contacts. As you enter the security zone you're scanned for anything you may have forgotten. Cochlea and optical implants must be capable of responding with a coded RF identification signal to indicate their systems are secure and cannot record. People with older models, or models implanted abroad where such interrogation is illegal, are turned away. Perhaps they would like to see one of the older releases? Once through the scanner you must submit to a biometric ID test - this is where the known bloggers, hackers and spoilers are ejected. Finally there is the non-disclosure agreement to be signed - these days most moviegoers choose to sign via the MPAAs annual subscription, just trying to take some of the hassle out of visiting the cinema. Finally you get to see the film. In the auditorium the audience is constantly scanned by an AI looking for suspicious activity, so don't rummage in your pockets for too long. It's strange that all this effort to protect the movie industry has done so little to improve the movies. You don't really own your home computer, or even the data you keep on it. Oh, you paid for it, just like you paid for the fibre-optic Internet connection that it can't function without, but now it squats under your TV using your electricity and does more work for the content industry than for you. The nightly security patches it downloads for itself don't secure your computer against attackers, they secure the system and software against you. TV-on-demand seemed like a dream come true when you first opted in and upgraded all your hardware, but the slowly encroaching charges are becoming a disincentive to turn on at all. Sometimes the last episode of a series makes up 50% of the cost of the whole season. The Internet is not what it used to be. It's expanded, naturally, the technology giving everyone mobile PCs with vast ad-hoc networking capabilities, it's faster, more efficient, and more available, but it's also more restrictive. Since the ISPs were made responsible for the content they deliver their filtering has become neurotic. Anti-terror, piracy, plagiarism and libel filters search every request and response for signs of illegal activity, always erring on the side of caution. Wikipedia's index has been decimated. Popular blogs like Boing Boing now have more lawyers involved than contributors (the one's that have survived that is). Even if you managed to get something illegal through the filters your operating system's regularly updated self-check mechanisms would eventually root it out, or report you to the authorities, usually both. These days it seems like every time you turn on one of your gadgets you have to fight with its DRM to get it to do what you want. The home movie of your daughter opening her birthday presents is ruined by a patch of grey fog that shifts with every movement of the camera, tracking sluggishly to keep the TV screen in the background obscured. From the codes embedded in TV's update pattern your camera had decided the show was not licensed for this form of reproduction and blocked it. You wish you had thought to turn it off at the time, but squinting into the camera's tiny screen it hadn't looked so bad. Even once recorded, your own media is not safe. Everything is stored on your home PC, trapped in the solid-state drive's proprietary filing system. Once there, the only reasonable way to transfer it is to another trusted drive from the same vendor - the DRM won't recognise any other brand of

How about a normal size house of the future?

[MSTCrow5429 (642744)]

In 2007, the average US single family home was 2,330 square feet. It would be nice to see a home of the future that isn't of a size current day mansion. I'd love a huge house, but realistically, very few of us can truly afford one.

Re:What about urinalysis?

[Grishnakh (216268)]

Discovery Channel had a show about this called 2057. The toilet checked your urine for drug usage, and if it detected it, notified your insurance company who then canceled your health insurance. So in the show, a guy who drank some alcohol on the weekend got his insurance canceled while he was in the ER because he fell out a window (unrelated to the alcohol).

No thanks. I have no interest in this "smart house" crap at all. In the future, I want a house that's extremely eco-friendly (and consequently has no utility bills), but all this intrusive technology connected to mega-corporations I have no interest in.