Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Security Monitor

Monitor your home via telephone
  (+2, -1)
(+2, -1)
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Ever gone on a trip and trusted somebody to watch over your home? Ever gone out for a night and left your child with a babysitter?

Since security systems already hook up to the phone line, it would be a neat if not useful feature to be able to call up, dial in the special PIN and get status of what's going on in the house. One could inquire how many people are in the house, what rooms have active electrical appliances running, when the last time someone was in the house, maybe program a certain appliance (note: maybe for another idea, but maybe this could be a useful thing for internet-enabled appliance, start your heat before you leave work, prewarm the oven so it's ready to go when you get in), and other such ideas.

Add-on: I specified that you could inquire how many people are in the house, but now who, I'm not interested in taking away privacy, merely adding security.

narq, Feb 12 2002

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       The whole remote control scenario is baked, but to be honest the tie-in with the alarm company had never occurred to me. An intriguing business plan and I'm sure someone will let me know it's baked. Should Brinks buy X-10?
phoenix, Feb 12 2002
  

       phoenix: Yep - I have a mate who has done most of this with X10. All except the how many people are in the house idea, but since when he is not there the alarm is on, so you'd have to assume no one. So baked.
mcscotland, Feb 12 2002
  

       I guess the "how many people" thing is to stop house sitters, your children, etc, having big parties while you're away. How about microphones for checking no one's playing music too loud, or a smoke detector for marijuana smoke?
pottedstu, Feb 12 2002
  

       <obligatory "I thought this idea was about...">I thought this would be an idea about computer screens which you could hug and hold when you were feeling lonely and emotional.</obligatory "I thought this idea was about...">
hippo, Feb 12 2002
  

       definitely baked with the X10...check it out www.x10.com
georgie, Feb 12 2002
  

       Good idea. See if your son/daughter is having wild parties then bust them! (sorry guys and gals) How about being able to control the temperature in the house so you don't waste electricity or gas on heating. Then, when you are about to come home, you could increase the temperature. This would be useful for longs trips.
pogoman59, Feb 13 2002
  
      
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