BorgCo are developing a touchscreen interface for domestic use.
The design is essentially a cheap tablet computer in a range of screen sizes.
It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It's designed for wall mounting, to fit over the plate of a regular light switch.
It charges its battery by bleeding power from the lighting circuit. When the light is off, there's a stepdown - when the light is on, parallel reversed diode stacks introduce a small voltage drop from which energy can be extracted.
The device has the usual microphone, speaker and camera, plus temperature and humidity; but there are no accelerometers, as the unit is intended for a fixed location*. In "idle" mode it acts as a light switch and internal (video)phone. Via WiFi, it interfaces to a central computer which is linked to broadband and the voice phone line.
It can act as a voice-command input system, allowing appliances to be switched by voice instructions, or can provide information. The dual-channel RF allows it to act as a Wi-Fi relay & booster.
The important point is to make these units in vast numbers, thus bringing the unit cost right down.
*Versions for geographies subject to tectonic and magmatic phenomena will have accelerometers as an option, for crowdsourced seismometry.-- 8th of 7, Mar 26 2018 There's even a version for barely articulate cockneys, [IT].-- 8th of 7, Mar 26 2018 So, come the singularity, your bathroom lightswitch will compete with your bedroom lightswitch in messing with your head, just for giggles.
It will be good news for at least some paranoid schizophrenics, who will find for the first time that they are actually better adapted to the new environment than those around them.-- pertinax, Mar 26 2018 The problem with all these home automation systems is that they're all integrated with something or other. Which means that after about 3 years, someone updates something, meaning that nothing else with work with anything else unless everything else is also updated.
I want a lightswitch that knows it's a lightswitch, has its own understanding of how to go about its job, and doesn't rely on the latest version of Javascript in order to be able to turn on or (should it be so required) off. The absolute maximum degree of modernisation I want in a light switch is a plastic fascia, although to be honest a chunky knife- switch with a Bakelite handle is more robust and easier to diagnose in case of a fault.
[-].-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 27 2018 Coming from someone who already has a complete voice-controlled establishment (courtesy of a vast staff of footmen, under-butlers, maids and housekeepers), that sort of petty criticism of an innovation designed to benefit the less fortunate (i.e. 99.98% of the population of your planet) is only to be expected.-- 8th of 7, Mar 27 2018 The point is, [8th], that a good under-butler will buttle for upwards of 45 years without an upgrade (though speeds may drop off a little toward the end). And, when a replacement is needed, the software can be transferred rather than having to be reinstalled de novo. The replacement will also be fully compatible with the existing maid, footmen and housekeepers, allowing phased obsolescence.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 27 2018 We never knew that. We had assumed it was the aiming point.
That's what we use it for when we put them up on the firing range, anyway.-- 8th of 7, Mar 28 2018 [+] If we can figure out how to be a paperless society it’s going to come to us having ubiquitous touchscreens that can interface with anything.-- Jscotty, Mar 28 2018 Except [Ian Tindale], but after all there's always one who spoils it for everyone else, isn't there ?-- 8th of 7, Mar 28 2018 random, halfbakery