On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 08:23:00AM -0400, sanga collins wrote: > Microwaves and refrigerators already have ip addresses. Especially useful > for physically challenged people. Right now quite expensive but available > for purchase everywhere. > > The refrigerators contact local grocery store when items like milk or eggs > go bad and grocery store will deliver.
Here is an article from 2009 on net-fridges. http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/internet_fridges.php Mostly it's just normal fridges with an ipad glued to the door. In some places you can have the guy from the grocery store come by once a week. You just put a refrigerator out in the garage and they come by and replace the eggs, orange juice and soda pop. In the US you can also order groceries from Safeway over the phone and they deliver to your house. But they don't have a way to hook into your fridge. I don't think the ordering new eggs works automatically from a sensor in the fridge works in real life. You would have to have a little sensor for each egg. If the order was placed automatically and the delivery van came one hour later then what would happen if no one was home? It reminds me of a story called The Complicators Gloves. http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/The_Complicator_0x27_s_Gloves.aspx How I would do something similar would be to have a qr-code for eggs posted on your refrigerator. When you run out, then snap a photo of it on your iphone and hit "buy". Every house hold item that has a bar code could be ordered that way as well. It would have to make a list and you'd hit "Order Now" after you had ordered the minimum of $50 worth of stuff. The only really useful net fridge was the one which connected to the power company and would turn on when the electricity was cheapest. That could make a big difference. If I ran a power company, I would ask the government to subsidize them as a environment saving effort. At my old elementary school, they synchronized all the refrigerators in the staff houses so that only one would turn on at a time. They were on timers and would cycle through so they all stayed cold but they didn't overload the system. That's an unusual situation perhaps, but it might be useful in commercial settings or in a huge company town in China. regards, dan carpenter _______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
