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Ask HN: Object you'd like to see connected to the internet?

35 points by shervinshaikh ↗ HN
There is all this talk about the "Internet of Things" and how it's going to be one of the largest industries soon.

So I'm curious, what is something around you that you wish was connected to the internet(ex: Physical mailbox at home/work, desk chair, etc)? Or is there a product out that that you wish was improved(ex: smart lights, internet connected cars, etc)?

This devices can have sensors or actuators, but I want to know why you believe it'll make your life easier by connecting it to the internet.

86 comments

[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 158 ms ] thread
swah
Its "small stuff", but if many objects in my house published their state and events, I could do lots of little things, insignificant as "no need to check the mailbox because the little door was not opened today".
shrike
My fridge. A simple barcode reader I can scan an item with when I use the last of it. We could develop applications that add it to a offline or online shipping list, track the amount of 'item' we eat every month, our spend etc.

We could complicate things a bit more with two barcode readers, one when we add an item to the fridge, another when it's empty. That would let us find recipes based on what's available in the fridge or even what's available and likely to expire soon.

Barcode readers everywhere! Extend the same idea to the pantry, under the sinks, etc.

This is the closest I've seen to date - https://fresh.amazon.com/dash/

HeyLaughingBoy
I keep hearing about this idea, but most of the stuff in my fridge doesn't have a barcode. Either it never did (fruit, veggies), or it's worn off or the external packaging was removed. And then there's the fact that I don't always want the same thing (out of Smucker's strawberry jam, but want Minnesota State Fair Cherry preserves (mmmmm) to replace it).

Still don't get the appeal.

hacknat
I agree completely. When people talk about the fridge idea I've always scratched my head about it. First of all a good chunk of my food never sees the inside of the fridge. I would also add that the vast majority of items we "run out" of we end up not replacing, at least consistently. I consistently replace only a small amount of the food I consume (milk, butter, bread), and I suspect others are similar.

I'm sure I have some patterns in my eating habits, but it's an area of my life I'm constantly trying to randomize (i.e. try new things). I would also add that seasonality plays a huge role, both in what is available and cheap, which a computer could track, but my own desire for changes. I went through a cheese "phase" last year where I tried lots of different cheeses, but I don't really eat too much cheese anymore. Now I'm in a Bourbon phase.

HeyLaughingBoy
Which is, if I may add, an excellent phase to be in :-)
lost_name
Just a thought, but you could do this with a smart phone right now. I understand the implementation would be different integrated into the fridge, but maybe you could throw something together to see if you'd really like to do this after all.

I'm of the opinion that the value is immediately lost when I forget to scan things, which would almost certainly be the normal rather than the exception.

Edit: I should have assumed this already existed -- there's several apps on the Android/iOS/Windows Phone stores.

byoung2
Technology is getting so cheap that eventually we'll have everything connected and wonder why it wasn't always that way.

First, I'd like my sprinkler system connected so I can see and adjust the schedule, check current soil moisture levels, etc. Better yet, let the system adjust itself based on current conditions, forecasts, etc. I would use this mainly for my vegetable garden, not so much fo

Second, I'd like my refrigerator to track and record historical internal temperature. The fridge should be below 40 degrees at all times for food safety, and I have a thermometer inside that is 40 or below whenever I look at it, but recently I went home during the day when it was 96 degrees outside, and I saw that the temperature in the fridge was almost 50. It cooled back down in the evening, so if I hadn't gone home to check I would never have known.

Cars are getting more connected (particularly GM cars with OnStar). File this under "obvious" but new GM cars will have an 8 device LTE hotspot built in that is on whenever the car is. My brother has an Escalade and he has an app that can tell him stats about the car like tire pressure, etc. It would be nice if every car had this feature.

It would be nice to have more data about water usage inside the house, so I'd like a sensor on every water fixture. It wouldn't be too difficult in theory to add a meter at every water supply line and have that connect to WiFi or Bluetooth to report hot and cold water usage. It would be interesting to know that the dishwasher used 15% of the water, while the showers use 36%. I'm not sure it would be super useful, but definitely cool to see.

rubiquity
> First, I'd like my sprinkler system connected so I can see and adjust the schedule, check current soil moisture levels, etc. Better yet, let the system adjust itself based on current conditions, forecasts, etc. I would use this mainly for my vegetable garden, not so much fo

You should check out Lono[0].

0 - https://lono.io/

awhitty
I see someone mentioned Lono. Another company called Rachio[0] has a connected sprinkler controller available for purchase now. It's connected to Wifi instead of Bluetooth which I think is interesting in the Internet of Things discussion.

0 - http://rach.io

jack-r-abbit
> a sensor on every water fixture

I would love that! They make things like that for electrical outlets so you can see how much power things (lamps, clocks, etc) consume. It would be awesome to see the same thing for water. California is in a major drought right now and I'm very curious what in my house uses the most water.

jchrisa
I've been enjoying the Parrot Flower Power. It's just a sensor you stick in your plants. It's connected to a database of plants so it can give you advice based on sunlight, water, soil chemistry, and temperature, depending on what kind of plant you select.
eps
Wa-a-ay to expensive. It needs to be in an under-$10 range to be feasible for reasonably practical use.
wsinks
It's not adding things to the internet that excites me, it's the context you can put into them as well.

For instance, right now I move between work in San Jose, my parents house, and my SF house. The context and control changes in each place - my family, my roommates, my corporate policy and teammates.

I generally don't care about connecting things to the internet unless those things are also taken care of. I just need a couple knobs to turn.

fla
Not my door-lock !
ww520
Cars. I'd like to turn on the AC afar remotely 15 minutes or half hour before get into the car on a hot day, or heat it up remotely on a freezing day. Some might already be doing it (Tesla).

Watering system. It can look up the season/weather and adjust the amount of water to sprinkle.

Battery. So that it can send out a signal when it's low on power. I know it's probably impractical but we are talking about ideas for the future.

Credit card/smart cash card. Yes, I want to look up balance/transactions, transfer money, and be alerted on charges on the card itself with the screen and network on it.

stephenc_c_
Many cars sold in markets with colder climates have auxillary heating, which lets you start heating the car from the key fob. I'm not sure how much more convenient doing this on your phone would be.
viraptor
Some cars already use the electric heating automatically when you unlock the doors remotely. It just blasts hot air and heats up the seat quickly. I think the latest prius does it, but I may be wrong here.
ww520
But key fob needs to be nearby and almost getting into the car. I was thinking doing it in the office remotely 5 to 10 minutes before leaving. Cooling a car takes some times.
byoung2
My brother's car (Cadillac Escalade) has remote starting through an Android app, and you can adjust the climate control through the app as well.
ErikRogneby
I would love for my breaker panel to be smart. Knowing the power draw of different breakers and being able to trend those. Analytics could alert me to a slowly failing compressor on my fridge or a burnt out element in my hot water tank.

Lots of other cool features that could come with a smart panel a well.

ktsmith
I'd take that a step further and put a sensor on every outlet so it would be like a built in kill a watt that you could look at from a household level, circuit level, and then socket level. You could monitor and alert on things that are suddenly using more or less power and also determine where you are losing the most energy to unused or seldom used devices that are always on.
ChuckMcM
This is something I've looked at. When outlets with built in USB charging ports came out I thought, "Gee it would be much nicer if they used some form of powerline networking to tell the house server how much power they are supplying."
eps
A big neon sign that says "I am on the Internet of Things" that would flash every time it gets an ICMP ping and do nothing else. This would capture nicely the essence and general usefulness of an average IoT device :)
HeyLaughingBoy
Ha. This.

I led a project to connect my company's products (large, instrumentation devices) to the 'net a few years ago to improve serviceability, tell us when things are wrong, let customers order supplies, etc. It was a big success and I've been following the field for a while. Subscribed to the appropriate magazines, follow industry trends, get asked IoT questions from LinkedIn, etc.

I still don't see much purpose for consumer devices to be connected. Big industrial machinery: sure. Obvious benefits there. But my fridge being out of something? My oven timer went off? Why?

JasonFruit
Nothing but my computers. I don't want anything that affects my real, physical life to be open to trickery. Imagine having someone checking what is in your mailbox, what your waking hours are, how much weight you've gained, where you drove last night — it's not worth it to gain a little convenience.
falcolas
I agree with this, but I'd word it differently:

Anything that gets wired to the internet is done so with the user's safety and privacy as the first concern.

If it's possible to leak PII about the user to an unintended third party, it shouldn't be done. As JasonFruit says; the cost isn't worth the convenience.

mqsiuser
Also smartphone. Probably my sat-receiver (for remote recording). Likely that's it.

Even in my car: I'd just use my phone (instead of something else (another and likely worse UI)). It may turn out totally different in ~10, ~20 years...

... but remember: Something comes along and the expectations are high and then we see and realize that in practice it's less spectacular / much more modest.

The iPhone and Android are great, but extending it to a smart-watch?... that's kind of a lame idea. I don't care.

Hopefully we have something less expected and more exciting by then.

So to me it's a hype word, where I shiver a bit, since I remember the .com-bubble ("Internet of Commerce" if you will) and so many other "wordings", which passed by and got replaced by the next wording (and are still not catching on).

jo_
My front door, the buzzer, and maybe the door to my room and the lights. It would be nice if UPS ringing my doorbell sent an SMS to my phone so I could remotely unlock it. That way they can put the package inside my gate or front door, and I'll relock both after departure (which I can verify via webcam). No more arriving at 7:00 AM so I can leave at 3:00 PM to pick up a package.
jack-r-abbit
That would be cool. But I've never had a UPS or FedEx driver actually wait for someone to answer the door. They place the package in front of the door, put a tag on the door that says they delivered it (which seems useless since the box is right there) and leave. When I am home, I usually get to the door as they are getting in their truck. They wave and drive off.
dxgray
All devices that contain time of day displays. I live in 800 square feet and with appliances, clocks, etc. There can be 4 minutes difference across 25 feet.
falcolas
Appropriate quote:

A man with one watch will always know the time, A man with two watches will always be in doubt.

terhechte
My plants, so they can tell me when they're thirsty, need more sun, need less sun, hungry (i.e. minerals + water), whether they have a bug, whether the room is too hot, too cold, or whether the room is too humid, or not humid enough.
xyclos
I want coasters at the bar to be connected, so the bartender gets a notification that I'm in need of another drink. (but not the cups themselves, that would be ridiculous)
sadkingbilly
A sump-pump that sends an email when it detects water and/or runs. Would be great if it included a humidity measurement too.
ericfranklin
Traffic lights. While not directly personal or "Internet of Things", traffic lights could really use some AI. It would be fantastic if they could learn routine traffic patterns (rush hour, weekends), detect flow (green light, but no one is there), even receive traffic data from Google/Apple/etc., then automatically adjust timing accordingly. Even mesh networking with nearby intersections.

I can't count the number of times I have been waiting at a red left turn light, with a green straight light and no other cars around. Or, backed up at a red light with no cross traffic, yet cross traffic has a long green.

It is probably a complex problem to solve and suspect the biggest barriers are bureaucracy and control. Is there anyone on here that works with traffic lights? It seems like they are setup once with a predefined timing and are rarely ever changed.

Mister_Snuggles
This already happens in some cities. There are traffic lights in my city, for example, which adjust for trains, presence of cross-traffic, etc. The cross-traffic one is neat because a light will, quite literally, stay red forever and only change when a car pulls up to actually use the green light.

From this[0] article:

> Today, cities use computer-controlled traffic lights that adjust their timing based on traffic levels, the time of day and even the number of trucks on the road. In Los Angeles, for example, city officials use traffic management to control their 4,400 traffic lights, reducing travel time by 12 percent.

[0] http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2014/08/05/high-tech-traffic-lig...

wlesieutre
My hometown had one of those "cross-traffic" lights a few blocks from my house at an intersection that I had to cross to reach one of the major bike paths.

Naturally, it didn't register bikes. So if you wanted the light to ever change, you had to cross over to the left side of the street, go up on the sidewalk, and push the pedestrian button (no crosswalk on the right side of the intersection). Not much of a fan.

I'm not saying they're always bad, but they're not always good either. Maybe newer ones have improved on detection, but my understanding was that the sensor was induction based and required a big chunk of metal in order to spot you.

ericfranklin
I've seen the induction loops "presence" sensors too. One near where I used to live would never change to green unless the sensor was triggered, but wouldn't register until your car was beyond the crosswalk, nearly in the intersection. That means if someone in front of you stopped where they were supposed to, the light would never change.

I suppose there is bias though, in that people don't notice as much when traffic lights are operating efficiently.

maxerickson
If the sensor there is an induction loop you might be able to figure out where it is and line a wheel up well enough that the metal rim triggers it.
fredophile
Probably not. From my experience bicycles and small motorcycles will not trigger the sensor on the induction loop.
maxerickson
I looked around some before I posted that. This article seems respectable enough and at least supports the idea that bikes are intended to be able to trigger some of them:

http://bikeportland.org/2010/09/27/bike-science-making-sense...

fredophile
It looks like those are specifically designed to be triggered by bikes. I've been at intersections with a 50-100cc motorcycle that would not trigger the light.
maxerickson
I have the idea that they are broadly intended to work for bikes and the like but that they aren't always installed or tuned correctly.
wlesieutre
I was never able to, but I didn't do a careful search for it. If only every city used that same bike icon to show you where the sensor is.
fredophile
In my area I find that the cross-traffic ones are poorly implemented. I'll drive up, come to a complete stop, the light will change for me and will already be back to yellow before I clear the intersection. This forces me to always stop when there was no traffic on the preferred route. It also means that if there is a car more than a few car lengths ahead of me it will change for them and force me to wait a full cycle even when there isn't traffic on the preferred route.

This shouldn't be a hard problem to fix. Sensors just need to be installed farther from the light to detect approaching vehicles earlier.

goodcanadian
I find most lights these days have sensors to detect when cars are present and some basic logic to alleviate many of the problems you mention. No system is perfect, of course.
kgrin
Many lights and transportation networks already do (NYC is one great example). It's not just lights - there are all sorts of inputs into that system.

It does take some resources, so you typically don't see that sort of intelligent routing outside of the major cities (at least in the US), but the tech is definitely there (not that it couldn't be improved).

ericfranklin
Yes, I suspect major cities already have complex and optimized traffic routing, along with full-time traffic engineers. The mid and small cities are what I experience most, but I suppose these also have less traffic, so less need to be fully optimized.
agentx3r
Traffic lights will often have sensors to prevent switching when no cross traffic is waiting. There are also centrally controlled systems that incorporate adaptive control methods. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_light_control_and_coord...).

I think key infrastructure would probably be best left unexposed to the Internet, firewalled or not.

cpher
I don't think they're always looking for efficiency of traffic flow. I live on the south side of Chicago. I swear the lights along major streets are timed to make it inconvenient for traffic flow ON PURPOSE. My unscientific theory is that this is done to prevent speeding, rack up violations for idiots that like to race, and make it easier for cops to pursue in their cars. Case in point: my street has a stretch of at least 3 blocks without a light; hence, we get idiots (cars and cycles) that like to gun it in a 30 mph zone.
AnimalMuppet
When I was a kid, we went through some small town when on vacation (don't remember which one). It didn't have speed limits - just signs that said that the traffic lights were synchronized for 25 MPH. After a light or two, you believed them, and so you drove 25 MPH.
ryanSrich
Just to name a few:

- Stove

- Cat feeder

- Sink

- ...actually pretty much everything in my kitchen

- Selectable thoughts

- A physical notebook

- All restaurant ordering systems. So I can get the check right to my phone, pay with my phone, tip with my phone. No paper checks.

- City streets. So I can get real time data when I'm biking that tells me a certain road is closed or if traffic is heavy. I know this exists with Google maps but I'm talking about having the physical streets connected so the data is real time.

macguyver
Our refrigerator. It is big and things easily go bad if we don't periodically go through and do an "inventory" of what's there, what needs to be eaten.

A fridge should, ideally: Track counts of objects, Have date of entry of objects, Have a freshness meter for all objects, and give me a map of the location of each object.

I have in mind how to visually display this info and have R&D insights to other ways to make this practical. Lots of innovation :)

Fjrjcjsiwbfcnde
Oh boy! Now I can live out my 1984 fantasies where not only am I carrying a tracking device at all times, but literally everything around me is bugged with sensors!

People being able to assassinate me with a software update to my car is also a major plus.

[dead] nb4hnp
This is my stance on this question as well. Maybe it's okay to stop at dedicated computer + cell phone. At least when those get cracked into, they won't cause any physical harm (mental grief yes). If someone cracked into my fridge and messed with the settings, I would then be missing a lot of money and have the huge chore of cleaning a fridge full of spoiled food. Also, please never put door locks on the internet. Please.
fakeasaur
Automated trucking would be cool to see in my lifetime, but to be honest the idea makes me really uncomfortable because it would put roughly two million people out of work.
freehunter
Every time you think or hear "it would be nice to make this more efficient, but it would put people out of work", think of discussions surrounding universal basic income. If the only reason for having humans behind the wheel is because those people have no other way to make money, maybe it's time to face the fact that we don't need them to make money. Take their job but keep paying them the same, and the benefits from not having them on the road (they won't get in accidents, won't need to stop and sleep, will be free to pursue other things to enhance their and their family's lives) will still ensure that the economy benefits.

It's not just truckers, but forklift drivers, cab drivers, nurse assistants, any other job that can be replaced by a robot. There should never be a situation where we are putting people to work or putting people in danger for no reason other than so we feel comfortable paying them to do poorly what a robot can do perfectly.

JoeAltmaier
I'm reminded of my friend Ben, who has a PhD in Physics and drives a bus. Please, please put Ben out of the bus-driving business, if it means a basic income so he can do physics, or teach physics. This current economy is a waste, that demands smart people do stupid work so they can eat, instead of doing smart work that would enhance us all.
[dead] nb4hnp
If you guys are interested (and aren't already aware) there is a subreddit that houses all of the discussion on basic income with lots of good material pertinent to this subject. http://www.reddit.com/r/BasicIncome
cdcox
I don't know about connected to the internet, but it would nice to have more built in sensors in an oven/stove. They have digital thermometers, but it would be nice to get a total IR/temperature profile of what's inside. Maybe some basic computer vision programs. Something like 'looks like your bread is done and its temperature is correct, we'll turn the over down automatically unless you issue an override'. Perhaps even better would be a smart microwave that detects temperature unevenness with some IR setup and adjusts it's internal plate/heating mechanism to compensate.

I guess the internety aspect would be, people could upload ideal cooking/completion settings to achieve certain results. Or it could let you start food up as you are approaching home, but this would lead to some food borne pathogen issues, so it's probably not a good plan.

Though really this might be a bit excessive.

joezydeco
I think a lot of people would love something simple that just let you know that all the burners are off on the stove. Ever get that nagging feeling when you're 10 minutes away from home? Same for the iron.
theoutlander
Reading all the suggestions here sparks my interest in an idea I was tinkering with last year after I moved into a big house and I wanted to monitor and control everything through the web / phone app. In addition, I wanted useful stats about everything (a lot were mentioned in this thread). The main problem I was trying to address was building a centralized system that would communicate with devices built on different protocols (Zigbee, ZWave, Bluetooth, etc.) and allow them to communicate with each other via the central controller.I started to work on it, but got caught up deciphering various protocols and have been trying to validate the idea before venturing further into it. I hate the idea of owning several independent systems and want something that's unified - at least as far as monitoring goes. It sounds like there is a need for smarter homes. I would love such a unified system at home. I've also considered creating hardware to facilitate certain use-cases.

If anyone wants to collaborate on this, it would be fantastic! I was planning on making it open-source and free for home use. It wouldn't be a bad idea to simply solve some of the use-cases for folks on HN.

shervinshaikh
I think the AllSeen Alliance is trying to do something similar with AllJoyn (https://allseenalliance.org/developer-resources/alljoyn-open...). They want to create a standard communication protocol across a variety of devices and operating systems. Currently they only support mobile devices and computers, but I think their overall goal is to support everything.
theoutlander
That's interesting. I'm trying it out. I suppose if it does what I need, I could focus on building a unified home automation system.