Computing’s Next Wave: Thinking Toasters

The shiny black dishwasher made by Bosch Siemens Home Appliances looks like any other modern appliance, with the usual buttons and switches to do that decidedly low-tech task of washing dishes.

But the inside goes beyond a motor and water jets. It also has a microprocessor and other electronics that connect the washer to a network--creating an Internet-ready dishwasher.

With a computer or a mobile telephone, a repairman can control and monitor the dishwasher--from turning it on and off to changing its wash cycle for different types of detergent, says Michael Rockstroh, senior vice president of marketing for Bosch Siemens.

“This is just the beginning,” Rockstroh says. “Irons, coffee makers, toasters, freezers, ovens or anything you can imagine. We have the opportunity and the technology to put these things now into the real world.”

The advantages of the wired dishwasher may not seem overwhelming, but the idea behind it--the embedding of tiny computers into every nook and cranny of the real world and electronically linking them into a network--marks a significant step in the evolution of computing.

For computer scientists, breaking the once monolithic desktop PC into a million pieces and scattering them throughout everyday life represents the third wave of computing, following the eras of mainframes and desktop machines.

Called pervasive or ubiquitous computing, the movement promises a day when computing and networking with other devices will be constant, automatic and virtually invisible to the user.

While there are now billions of microprocessors strewn throughout the world in smart office buildings and automated factories, cars and appliances, pervasive computing will push those devices into the home and evolve them into more personal and interactive devices that automatically tune to your needs and do your bidding.

That’s the theory, anyway. Only a few pieces of this exotic world now exist. A Colorado professor has tried to bring the elements together in a so-called “adaptive house” that learns the habits of its inhabitants and adjusts its functions accordingly.

In some cases, the uses of pervasive-computing technology seem a bit strained--an intrusion of digital complexity into everyday functions that seem to work just fine without an Internet connection or a microprocessor.

Even the engineers working on projects concede that they are floundering to find the killer applications that make sense in the home and workplace.

“What does it make sense to network? That’s what we’re struggling with now,” says Jon Bostrom, one of Sun Microsystems’ evangelists for pervasive computing technology.

There are also concerns about the threat that the technology poses to personal privacy. The very nature of pervasive networks requires a constant flow of information between devices.

While IBM, Sun and Microsoft all work on standards to ensure a secure environment, leakage is inevitable.

“Of all the shortages in the world, privacy is the scarcest [commodity],” says Leonard Kleinrock, one of the creators of the Internet and a computer science professor at UCLA.

But the plunging prices of chips and the proliferation of home networking schemes have increased the momentum behind this movement to the point where companies can see it used in even the most mundane products, such as an iron.

“Why?” asks David R. Kuykendall, president of Lares Technology, a San Antonio-based engineering firm that is working on a variety of pervasive devices. “Why not? That’s the real question. The pieces are all so cheap now.”

At Motorola, researchers are working to create a car that a mechanic can diagnose while you’re driving, using embedded sensors and a connection through a wireless network.

At Celebration School, a high school in Florida, students are now equipped with rings and key fobs made by Dallas Semiconductor that have a computer chip embedded inside them. The students have in essence become a part of the school’s network, allowing them to open classroom doors that are programmed to stay locked to keep nonstudents out. In the fall, students use those cyber-rings to carry electronic cash to buy sodas out of networked vending machines, each with their own Internet address.

Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center, or PARC, has been experimenting with embedding electronic tags in documents, printers, books and appliances that would come alive with extra information or functions whenever another tagged device came close.

For example, a tagged poster for a concert could trigger a special wristwatch to pull up a personal calendar. Tagged appliances could automatically send their operating manuals to a hand-held computer whenever they are placed close to each other.

“The automatic identification of anything you can name will be a part of everyday life,” says Roy Want, the manager for embedded systems at PARC and a researcher in ubiquitous computing for 10 years.

The idea behind what is sometimes called “ubi.comp” for short traces back to 1988 when it was first proposed by Mark Weiser, the former chief technologist at Xerox PARC who died earlier this year.

Weiser believed that the most powerful technologies are those that disappear. “They weave themselves into the fabric of everyday life until they are indistinguishable from it,” he wrote.

Computing has followed a different pattern, centralizing power in a single box that demands a user’s attention. In the earliest days of computing, the power was centralized on large mainframe computers shared by many individuals through dumb terminals scattered around an office. Then, the personal computer arrived, creating a one-to-one relationship between computers and humans.

Weiser believed that the next step was to create an environment in which one person could eventually tap the power of hundreds or thousands of computers, in essence flipping the pyramid of power.

Sun’s Bostrom says that in many ways the desktop computer has already reached a point of overload.

“It’s trying to be a Swiss army knife in a world that is increasingly complex,” he says. “We see a movement to small devices with narrower uses. The PC is not going to go away, but all the new stuff isn’t going to be on the PC.”

Many activities already are beginning to move off the desktop, such as Web browsing and e-mail messaging. A flood of new small devices, such as 3Com’s wireless Palm VII personal digital assistant or a prototype Web watch from IBM, have begun to transform Web surfing into a mobile activity.

The crux of pervasive computing, however, lies in all the mundane appliances that right now have nothing to do with a desktop computer, such as toasters, cars and stereo systems.

Now, with the development of wireless, phone-line and power-line networking, and the creation of several technologies designed to make connecting appliances and devices transparent, pervasive computing is becoming a reality.

“What makes all these network appliances useful is the infrastructure,” says Mark Bregman, general manager of IBM’s pervasive computing effort. “Pervasive computing is a misnomer. If we’re successful, people won’t even think of it as computing.”

Two of the key technologies are Jini from Sun and Universal Plug and Play from Microsoft. Both allow a device to automatically announce itself to a network, configure itself and find all the other pieces available to it on the network.

“The network is everywhere, and I should be able to plug in everywhere,” says Kleinrock, who now heads a company called Nomadix that is introducing a device that allows computers to plug into any network with no configuration.

The last piece of the puzzle is one of the most difficult--trying to make the devices and networks aware of the world around them so they can work on their own, disappearing into the background.

One example is a project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology called House_n (for next generation and neural) that will have a wireless network able to constantly monitor the health of its occupants and automatically summon help if necessary.

Bostrom pointed to a prototype stereo system in his house that is aware of what room he is in and will play music only in that room. The music follows him through the house. “I don’t notice the speakers following me around anymore, but I would notice now if they didn’t,” he says.

A networked phone in his house is designed to ring only in the room he is in. “It works most of the time,” he says.

The occasional errors by Bostrom’s phone are just the first glimmer of technological glitches that surely lay in the future.

While pervasive computing devices will bring a new level of automation into the home, they will also bring a technological fragility where simplicity and reliability have always been prized.

All well-structured systems are very efficient until they have a meltdown, Kleinrock says. “That’s the scary part of these systems.”

Michael Mozer, a professor of computer science at the University of Colorado at Boulder, says technology inevitably improves with time, and total failures will become rare.

But he adds that little failures will probably always be a part of modern technological life.

Mozer has been working on a project he calls the “adaptive house”--a converted schoolhouse where he lives that is festooned with controllers and sensors to detect motion, light, temperature and sound.

Its centerpiece is a program that attempts to predict the proper temperature, airflow and light settings based on his past behavior.

In the winter, the adaptive house warms up half an hour before he usually arrives home. When he gets up from his reading chair, the light in the bathroom flicks on. The house usually takes care of itself, Mozer says, but it still has its quirks.

“Sometimes I just stand up to stretch and the system turns on the light in the bathroom,” he says. “It’s fun, but it can also get a little annoying at times.”

Times staff writer Ashley Dunn can be reached at ashley.dunn@latimes.com.

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Home, Smart Home

Networks of home appliances that can program themselves are closer to reality thanks to new technologies and lower chip prices. Scientists are experimenting with ways to use tiny computers embedded in everything from irons to toasters to link and control the appliances. These experiments include an “adaptive house” in Boulder, Colo., that programs itself by observing the lifestyle of its inhabitants. How the house works:

Sensors: Twelve sensors embedded in the walls of the home are designed to detect light, temperature and sound.

Bathrooms: A sensor can detect statistical patterns of water usage, signaling the water heater to shut itself of when hot water isn’t usually consumed.

Great Room: Four sensors monitor the environment and occupants’ actions--such as when they turn on certain lights or open and close windows. The sensors can “learn” when the occupants usually return from work and heat the house so it’s warm when they arrive.

Kitchen: A sensor can monitor a person’s activity and control the lighting and temperature accordingly.

Source: Michael Mozer, University of Colorado at Boulder; Researched by JENNIFER OLDHAM / Los Angeles Times.