Hacker News Reader

Comment by Retric | Hacker News Reader

Great now what's the killer app? I have seen an internet connected blender, toaster, refrigerator, microwave, vaccume, coffee maker, oven, dishwasher, close washer and dryer. But not a single reason to buy any of them.

AV, lights, thermostat, blinds, sure. But, that's 30 year old home automation stuff not 'the Internet of things'.

View on HN

I had to google internet connected toaster out of disbelief, but sure enough...

http://www.cmodigitalforum.com/2016/03/22/internet-of-things...

The linked article concludes:

Consumers may find it totally cool to design images for toast using a smartphone.

So the next killer app is you can design images on toast. Words fail me. Will people be uploading images of Jesus?

I assume the screen saver on the toaster will be flying toasters.

Every fifth slice of toast offers a coupon to your nearest walmart for 38 cents off a stick of butter.

I'm amazed Betty Crocker or Kraft haven't partnered with GE or Sharp to make a smart microwave. Who doesn't want one-button cooking, isn't that one of the intended benefits of microwaves? Each brand could have their own app in the microwave app store.

Put in a bowl of Easy Mac and press the Easy Mac button in the microwave app, microwave perfectly cooks the brand name meal. This is possible because Kraft would have their test kitchens using the same app and microwave.

---

This is just like Roomba all over again. Sure, they made a vacuum robot, and stopped there. Where's the Roomba lawnmower, man? Where's the Roomba clothes-picker to put laundry on the floor into a basket? Where's the Roomba trash can that takes itself out? Does nobody dream?

Your going to run out of buttons fairly quickly unless the meal can talk to the microwave. And at that point it might as well just give cooking instructions.

Honestly, this would be a great use for QR codes, but there is probably a patent out there.

Internet-connected, the microwave can just scan the barcode on the food package.

You can only cook supported food, though; your food vendor needs to belong to the same consortium as your oven vendor.

Hot pockets don't have barcodes on the things you put in the microwave. So, your going to need to change the packaging.

You could use wifi and a cell phone to take a picture of the package, but that's more effort than entering a time.

Or open up the search feature and search your microwave for "Hot Pockets". Or the microwave could have a camera viewing the inside somehow. Think of today's microwaves with a $50 tablet built in.

Well, you could cook unsupported food the "old-fashioned" way, by poking a time into the microwave. 2 minutes should cook it, right?

You're right that there are implementation details to work out, but that shouldn't invalidate the entire concept.

I think that anything that could be scheduled, except for people inherently having variance in their routines, could be fodder for the IoT. For example, the coffee maker idea would work if it were plumbed and drained and only needed cleaning like twice a year. But since my coffee machine already works at the push of a button there isn't much time to save.

The best IoT item I've purchased so far is a sprinkler controller. It does a good job of keeping the grass green, but not too green.

intelligent but not internet-connected sprinkler controllers have existed for a long time though. What's the benefit of connecting it to the net?

A killer app for consumers probably wouldn't exist for most things, unless you could integrate streaming or delivery services.

But I think the real killer app will help correlate consumer behavior, advertising and the supply chain. You could have a refrigerator that keeps track of everything you buy and where you bought it. Scaled up to tens of thousand or millions of consumers, you might have very useful data for stores to use to predict what to stock and how much, and how to target advertisements. I'm reminded of the story of Wal-Mart predicting one of their customer's pregnancies based on their purchasing habits, and sent coupons for related products.

I also think integration with social media is going to be a huge part of the IoT taking off but I'm not entirely sure how, yet, other than vague ideas about appliances having their own AI driven social media accounts and posting to your feed. That could both be useful, and an incredibly sinister way of getting consumers to empathize emotionally with a brand, even if only subconsciously.

Dave,

Based on the contents of your fridge, and the contents of your potential guest's fridge, I can not open that door.

#firstdatefails

wow, with all due respect, to me this vision of the future sounds horrifying. My refrigerator on Facebook? No thank you.

To you, it sounds horrifying. To your children, or grandchildren, though, It will be completely normal.

Things can be completely normal and still horrifying. No matter what section of the status quo you bring up, there will be someone who despises it.

I believe it was Target, not WM.

>Great now what's the killer app?

You know all that stuff you bought and just use? That's all subscriptions now. So, enjoy your toast subscription! Just don't try bagels. That's a premium add on for an extra $2 a month.

Oh.. You meant for consumers. Yeah, I got nothing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com