RE: Orange House

[Scott Crowther <scrowther@xxxxxxx>]

This has reminded me that I never posted about my recent trip round the
Orange House.

General observation is that they've got the blend of technology and real
life pretty well matched.

It seems to start with they threw money and gadgets into the property but
then stripped out most of the unused stuff after they put 'real' people
into
the house to live. For example, touch screen wall mounted tablets instead
of
light switches were initially installed, but then removed again in favour
of
normal light switches as they were found to be too complicated for visitors
(particularly) to use - they just needed an 'on/off' switch.

There was a heavy use of tablet PC's and wireless equipment, and they
hadn't
been sucked in by such things as Internet fridges.

Some of the equipment was dated, and it is definitely not a place where
they
are testing all the new gadgetry and pushing HA to the boundaries, more
like
a place where they are using current, working technology to enhance
people's
lives.

The living room surround sound (vibration domes attached to the glass
ceiling - no speakers), and the intelligent bath that had depth and
temperature settings for each member of the family, were superb - the
latter
paying for itself in 18 months of use due to the savings in not over
filling
the bath unnecessarily.

Overall, well worth a visit and good to see what technologies have been
tested by a series of 'real' people and have been deemed to be life
enhancing - just don't expect anything you've not read about or seen or
though of before as a HA enthusiast/spotter  ;-)

Scott Crowther
Intamac Systems Ltd
tel. +44 (0) 1604 679260
www.intamac.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark McCall [mailto:mark@xxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 11:15 AM
To: Ukha_D@Yahoogroups. Com
Subject: [ukha_d] Orange House - Power Point and Video Clips

I have received the Orange House Power point presentation on CD that Paul
Waldron (senior technical consultant) gave in Belfast earlier this year.

Also included are two small video clips, one of the bath filling on voice
command, the other of unlocking a door via an SMS message.

The pp file is about 3.3 meg and the video clips are around 9 meg together.
I'd like to offer these for download if someone can host them for me?

Thanks

M.





http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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