A Microsoft engineer, Ramaprasanna Chellamuthu in Bangalore, no longer lives alone at home.
That's because he built himself a buddy, an automated home.
As a hobby, Chellamuthu equipped his house with a variety of robotics, augmented reality, and speech and image recognition devices. He calls his project "buddyHome."
The house wakes him up in the morning and shows his calendar on a computer. It projects a TV news show on the wall. An automated stirrer cooks his instant noodles on the stove. While watching a televised cricket game, the house suggests to buy tickets and asks for a credit card. (Spouses all paying attention here?)
The house watches what he eats and warns "You are eating a high fat diet." (Spouses can turn off now.) And when his morning alarm clock rings, and he can't get out of bed, a device throws water on his face. (Spouses, you were supposed to turn off.)
What people build for themselve tells you a lot about what they really want. For years the PC makers ignored the custom builders and their variety of cases, colours and imagination. Instead they tried to shovel black and beige boxes. Look where we are today, where consumer IT is a fashion business.
