THNC -- Concepts and Ideas

Home Network Concepts and Ideas

Updated on June 23, 2011

Some of us have difficult challenges in our homes. These may be positively changed by introducing new applications of technology. In some cases, this technology is already in use... smart phones with hundreds of apps, cars that park themselves, and home appliances that monitor themselves for problems. Here, then, are a few of the possibilities of applications that may bring exciting and fulfilling changes to our lives and our homes.

23. Bringing home networking to You

The technology is in place. We have seen development of digital technology, home computers, the Internet, and digital influences on devices in the home. We are ready for an organized, comprehensive joining, a link between the home and the electronics within it. The question before us now - How will introduction of the digital home network (DHN) be developed? And how will users be "sold" on its benefits?

Redefining the role of technology, opening its potential to more people, communicating with computer-based intelligence. The phenomenon of home networks will be bigger than the home computer. Bringing these concepts into millions of homes will change this planet. It will revolutionize the role of technology, redefine personal limitations of people, and lift the potential of society as a whole. Success or failure of the DHN and THNC will rest not so much with its creators but with the dreams and aspirations of those who will use this new technology in their homes.

Please remember that DHNs are not a product that THNC will manufacture. It is instead the global potential for thousands of products produced by hundreds of manufacturers and applied in homes in infinite combinations. This is the power of home networking!

22. Concrete Safe Rooms for Your New Home

How many people died this spring when severe weather arrived without warning (see CHEWS, next section) and leveled their homes? There was no basement and no place to hide that the storm would not find and kill them.

Here is a low-tech solution that every home in tornado-prone areas should have. This idea provides a safe room designed for storm survivabilty. It also provides a room that can be integrated into residents' lifestyles.

Every company that makes dry well sections for farmers and septic tanks for rural homes can also make safe rooms. Concrete casting techniques are already known by such companies, and their trucks can transport finished safe rooms to home construction sites.

Such safe rooms can be outfitted with metal wall studs for drywall or paneling. Conduit provides pathways for electrical power, data cables, and light fixtures. Tie-down features are cast into each room so the safe room can be anchored to first-floor or basement slabs. There will be built-in storage for emergency rations and water, as well as space for an emergency beacon, blankets, spare clothing, and a first-aid kit.

21. Weather Warning System for Everyone (CHEWS)

Call it something silly to catch people's attention. Like "CHEWS" for Cheap Early-Warning System. Advertising could encourage people to "CHEWS (Choose) to be Safer!"

The concept is simple yet profound: this box tells you when danger is on your doorstep. It will awaken you in the dark of night and signal you to "Get out now! Get out fast!" Here are the basics:

Here is a little box that serves one purpose -- to keep you and your family safe and alive;
The basic box is simple and can be mass-produced by the millions; it can be used in any country on the planet;
A simple cover provides access to the battery and to two slots for memory cards (CF, SD, miniSD, MicroSD, USB TransFlash, or others);
Two slots in each unit will allow for use of two different card formats;
Each chip that plugs-in to a CHEWS contains several special codes, unique for a two- to ten-square-mile grid section;
Assigned codes might be for watches, warnings, and immediate dangers;
"CHEWS" is designed to be cheap yet versatile; accessory devices could be attached to CHEWS to extend its warning to central security systems, to alert the deaf, or other special needs;
"CHEWS" is a silly little box that can be sold everywhere, along with a few different memory cards for grid sections closest to each store;
It's so cheap that nearly everyone can afford it;
Imagine governments offering aid in terms of millions of CHEWS instead of millions of dollars;
Schools, churches, and communities might do fund-raisers to buy CHEWS units for people that just cannot afford them. Food pantries might give them away;
Each CHEWS unit is a battery-powered weather radio receiver. It will produce a shrill, attention-getting sound when activated;
Features will made each CHEWS reliable and responsive; a small LED indicates normal operation, low battery and problem signals provide necessary feedback;
Want to know the exact weather situations where your children and parents are? Buy the chips for their schools and homes and label their respective CHEWS units;
Every smart phone will probably have a free app for monitoring the CHEWS system over its cellular network and responsive to the code numbers you enter. Every Internet Service Provider will probably support the same capabilities, too.

For CHEWS to work, there will need to be national or local weather broadcasting equipment capable of sending digital codes. Each code will alert one or more geographical grid sections to a particular type of threat. The memory chip in your CHEWS unit will cause the unit to respond to each code sent for your neighborhood.

Imagine a time in the future when blizzards howl, levies break, tornados strike, tsunamis come ashore -- and no one dies. Everyone in harm's way will have been evacuated - day or night - and moved to safety. All brought about by a cheap little early warning system... CHEWS.

Below, see "15. Disaster Prevention".

19. Devices in the Home

Every electrical and electronic device in the home will have the potential of being controlled or monitored. Most can be classified by purpose or function, such as utilities, lighting, home entertainment, and appliances. This ability to be classified will probably create the first specialized DHNs. It will allow users to focus on which parts of the home are most important to them.

You’ll notice that computer components were not mentioned as a DHN classification. Since the DHN is a computer-based tool, it only has major significance when applied to electrical and electronic devices in the home. By itself, a DHN would be little more than a novelty. By applying it to the “real world”, the DHN gains significance and value. A traditional home computer will connect to and be supported by the DHN. It will, however, just be another electronic device in the home.

A DHN is not a traditional computer server tying together traditional computer workstations and other devices in the home. The DHN is a new concept in digital technology that combines CBI and dynamic hardware configuring. We cannot think of tomorrow’s DHNs as an extension of today’s home computers. Instead, we must view both as distinct and functionally different applications of digital technology. ( DHN, II.C.5, page 22 )

18. Services to the Home

After installation and acclimation to users' home environments, DHNs will be potentially unique -- different from any other. Even with exactly the same devices inside two homes, varying use of services in each home will create this unique DHN quality.

Some users may isolate DHNs from external inputs altogether and use them only to interact with devices in their homes. Other users may restrict their DHNs to security functions and allow access to telephone or satellite connections only to enable central station support. A third group of users, however, may encourage intelligent interaction among DHNs and provide full accessibility to telephone, cable, and satellite services. An obvious necessity is system-wide protection against digital contamination and intrusion – viruses, worms, Trojan horses, phishing, etc. This protects the DHN and must monitor all digital services to the home. Even DHNs that have no access outside of the home must be protected. There is always the risk of contamination from software updates, maintenance and service personnel, and all other random, unplanned, and uncontrolled influences.

Specialty systems will require services coming into the home to be suitable for specific roles. A fully functional DHN may have access to many services but may be restricted by its owner to performing limited activities. You can imagine a DHN that has been instructed to use television signals to display picture and sound in accordance with requests of its owner. You could also see a second DHN that has been instructed to interpret that television signal, to watch and listen to gain an intelligent, self-awareness of the current climate of arts, sports, or politics on the planet. This first DHN will remain pri-mitive, operating at a much simpler level than the second. (DHN, II.C.6, page 22)

17. Reduce Home Complexity

The DHN will eventually interface with many devices. It will collect information about the status of the home. It will process diagnostics from appliances. It will become a positive force acting on our behalf and in our best interests, as we ourselves have defined such behavior to each DHN.

Right now, adding a new level of access or any new device for extended services in the home translates into adding more personal burden. It means adding more complexity to our lives and more for each homeowner to remember. You have to figure it out, to worry over it, and ultimately, to forget what to do when problems develop.

The DHN will become a buffer between this tedium and our individual abilities to cope with it. Each DHN will reduce its owners’ concerns and anxiety, created in part by the complexity of the home environment. We will also have the ability to interact dynami-cally with what has previously been a static and unresponsive environment. We will have more information about our home and, indeed, much more control over it. (DHN, II.E.1, page 24)

16. Appliance Diagnostics

Present-day homes have hidden within them more complexity than most people can handle. To cope, we have learned to ignore most of the devices there. Our furnaces, for example, have their own service manuals, operating principles, diagnostic procedures, and repair regimen. They use patented concepts, updated technology, and solid state controls. Unfortunately, the first time we know there’s a problem is when the furnace doesn’t work!

A DHN-compatible furnace will share its status with the DHN. The network would regularly request data from each device attached to it. A properly functioning furnace would report its status. Using the DHN as an intermediary, it will make its condition known to the homeowner. When the furnace needs maintenance or repair, there will be information about the needed work. This will empower the homeowner to get better service and to be more knowledgeable about what work the repair shop needs to perform. When such a problem occurs, it is possible that the DHN would telephone the repair shop (you've previously chosen) and schedule a service call (to fit your schedule)! (DHN, II.E.2, page 25)

15. Disaster Prevention

A DHN could monitor the structural integrity of the home. Passive sensors installed when the house was built would indicate when major damage had occurred – even if you couldn’t tell from looking at the building. Since the DHN does not sleep, it stands guard for the inhabitants, through all hours of the day and night.

When severe storms, hurricanes, and tornadoes threaten, continuous monitoring of emergency broadcasts will help keep us safe. Alerting everyone in the home would decrease dependency on overworked, public air raid systems and public disaster-monitoring offices that are not staffed 24/7. Consider a digital system that broadcasts unique codes for each part of the country. When a hazard is detected and the code for your neighborhood is broadcast, your DHN awakens and alerts you to the danger. (DHN, II.E.3, page 25)

Above, see "21. Weather Warning System for Everyone (CHEWS)".

14. Labor-saving Methods

Initially, there will be an increase in new residential construction costs as panels are added to every room in the home. This will be followed by simplifications as DHN capabilities allow consolidation of older, more traditional functions into panel design. This will effect building processes and lead to corresponding cost decreases . Some devices and related wiring may be eliminated, such as light switches, background music L-pads, lighting dimmers, security panels, and garage door opener switches. Using technologies involving carrier signals and wireless protocols will also help. (DHN, II.E.4, page 26)

13. A Joy of Moving

Let’s imagine that you’ve built a home network and trained it well. It suits your life-style, the home appliances you’re accustomed to using, and its database has all the information about family, friends, and business associates.

Then, the decision is made to relocate. When you’re ready to move, you will take your DHN with you. Obviously, you can’t take the physical DHN – panels, wiring, and central servers – all of these are built into the home. You will be able to take the virtual DHN – its memory, database, and archive – to install into the physical DHN at your new location. It means replicating everything, possibly downloading to a portable storage device or encrypting and sending it via one of the Internets . It also means having the power of two versions of the DHN, one at the new home, one at the old. And each will keep the other up-to-date.

Just before the new owner arrives, you make sure the old DHN has updated the new and systems checks are performed on both. Your privacy and security are maintained at the old location by overwriting data with random 1s and 0s and validating the results of the clearing, along with reformatting memory and storage devices . You can imagine similar steps that the new owners will take to be sure your old system is safe for them to use. (DHN, II.E.5, page 26)

12. Better Home Climate Control

Let’s consider the problems of living where seasonal demands call for using heating and cooling in the same day. When you wake, the house may be cool. It needs a furnace or heat pump to warm the interior air. By midday, the outside temperature has risen substantially. An air conditioner or heat pump now is needed to cool the interior air. Clouds, rain, humidity, sun outside the home – all work to constantly change the climatic conditions inside the home.

Right now, many people would just leave the thermostat set for heat and suffer through the warm temperatures. They might switch-over to cooling when they returned home and switch back to heat in the evening.

It is true that sophisticated multi-function, solid-state thermostats are available. These thermostats are designed to alternate between heating and cooling cycles . Some allow seven-day control for altering your preferences on different days of the week or weekends. None, however, can interact with information about special days off, changing seasonal requirements, summer vacations, and unusual circumstances without manual changes by a human.

The DHN will be able to relieve people of these tasks. By introducing intelligent device control, there will be options for training the DHN to look beyond the basic parameters, to consider a range of contributory aspects, to use these parameters correctly, and to make these decisions without your day-to-day involvement.

This capability may lead to changes in the way residential environmental systems are designed. Moving air conditioner condenser coils into the air return ducting would allow cooling and heating to run at the same time . This allows better year-round removal of air-borne contaminants, pollen, humidity, and pollution. Air is then heated to seasonal comfort level requirements . Your DHN would also regulate zone controls (valves direct air where it is needed) in the system. (DHN, II.E.6, page 26)

11. Adaptability

Adaptability is the art and science of personalizing the DHN to each homeowner or family. Users will find ways to use the DHN for making their lives better. There will be customization at different levels of access for short, medium, and long-term personal ob-jectives.

A short-term DHN objective might be for no interruptions during napping or sleep-ing. Screening calls and messages, the DHN acts on your behalf. You might instruct the DHN to awaken you when your spouse calls but to take messages from everyone else. Screening calls while you are at work or away for the day is another example. You may have your DHN screen all calls all the time so people never know whether or not you are home – a good idea for home security, patching calls through to you when you are away.

A medium-term objective may be to increase your accessibility during seasonal changes in your work schedule. You might be moving around more during vacations, off-seasons, and busy-times, and you want your DHN to be more interactive.

Your long-term objectives may be ongoing and always in effect. There will be system definitions, the normal operating parameters that you define for your network. The true potential of the DHN will be its ability to work with you: a dynamic helper, assisting you each day of your life. (DHN, III.D.1, page 46)

9. Isolation and Connectivity

Living today with technology is a tedious exercise in distraction. Culture and society bombard everyone with messages. Advertising and telemarketing; television, radio, and Internet; e-mail messages, telephone calls, voice mail, and snail mail... There are strangers everywhere, obsessed with taking your time, selling you stuff, and getting your money .

The DHN will help regulate the level of exposure to the outside world that its owner wants. It can foster a greater calm, isolating users from concerns about their house. It can increase connectivity to the world and support a greater awareness of what’s happening. It can screen, filter, control, and connect as determined by its owner. (DHN, III.D.2, page 47)

8. Supermarket Shopping at Home

When people shop at a supermarket , there are several techniques that save them time and increase the quality of their shopping experience. They might make a shopping list. It might show items listed in order according to where in the store each item will be found. If this is a coupon shopper, the list might include special prices or sale items. All this helps the shopper keep track of what they are buying and what each item is going to cost.

What value would it be to know ahead of time which items were on sale and how the choice of different sizes and prices per ounce could produce greater savings? An intelligent assistant like the DHN could help. By interfacing with an online database of items, prices, and shelf locations for the supermarket where shoppers will be going, these shoppers could know all of this before they arrived at the store. Such a capability could alter the relative importance or significance of one grocery store over another.

Your DHN may someday do all of this and more. Imagine the home environment that author-entrepreneur Paul Zane Pilser predicted for the future. A bar code scanner will be conveniently located in the kitchen. When an item’s packaging is discarded, you’ll scan its Uniform Product Code (UPC) for easy reordering. Whether for creating an order for home delivery or for preparing the shopping list described above, such a tool will simplify your life. DHN can be the interactive hub for this kind of shopping. It will help people bridge between their needs and the time and resources available to them. All this without requiring the shopper to understand the technology.

Another service for those able to afford it – in-home chefs that prepare meals. Simplifying menus by ordering all that is needed to cook specific meals may appeal to those responsible for this type of buying. (DHN, III.D.3, page 47)

7. Changes in Residential Construction

The home that you live in now is static. Its floors, walls, and basic structure stay unchanged for the life of the building. The concept of change implies a departure from the traditional attitude about building homes. Installing a DHN into a new home will be similar to installing any other house-wide system. It will, however, be radically different in its impact on the homeowner and on every other device in the home. For the first time in history, the dynamic aspects of the home will be more important than the static construction aspects.

The presence of a DHN will be considered to be similar to a heating and air conditioning plant or to a set of kitchen appliances. There will probably be an ongoing agreement for the maintenance of DHN components. The DHN is radically different from the building it is in, however, in that its technology is evolving, its components changing, and its configuration as unique as each homeowner chooses to make it. Whereas a furnace might be replaced every 15 years, and kitchen appliances every ten to twenty years, the DHN may be constantly in a state of flux, depending on the desires, expectations, and family needs of the homeowner. Its component parts may be upgraded or replaced as the technical contents of the home evolve. (DHN, III.D.4, page 48)

6. Better Home Security

Present-day home security systems are dreadfully inadequate. There’s no intelligence. There are no provisions for personal and family security. Even sophisticated systems are incapable of responding to anything other than primitive situations. A door is opened; a bird hits a window; the cat walks in front of a motion detector . Even video camera surveillance and central station monitoring cannot interact with the dynamic envi-ronments each is intended to protect – each requires human interpretation of anomalies. The problem today is the absence of intelligent interaction with the home.

The DHN will raise home security to a new, higher plane. A DHN will enable us to have a more consistent awareness of the home by virtue of its own awareness. We will have a sense of actually being there, a result of DHN’s audio and video capabilities. If you are at work, can you check on the house? Did the kids arrive home safely? Is the furnace acting-up again? The challenge is to produce the level of security people desire. DHN will be a step beyond today’s passive, central station security systems. A DHN will someday converse with security company employees (or their CBI), exchanging encrypted passwords and answering questions over secured lines. For multilingual neighborhoods, DHN could interact with a security company employee in her/his preferred language.

Distribution of security and monitoring functionality will occur throughout the home. Homeowners will be able to adjust the intensity and purpose of this security. And “security” will become a constant aspect of the home rather than something we turn on and off. Within the context of full physical (property) protection, we will be able to customize protection for the needs of the people inside the home and on its grounds. Watch for the latchkey kids; monitor the cat-door; let the neighbor in to water the plants. It means changing the idea from house security to home security.

It is always a good idea to have security. Connecting a burglar panel along with fire, smoke, and carbon monoxide (CO) devices to a central station is a good first step. There are so many things that need protecting but, today, simply cannot be. (DHN, III.D.5, page 49)

5. Geriatric and Special Needs Care

It seems that everyone knows an older friend or relative who values their independence, prefers to live at home, and is constantly in jeopardy for one or more reasons. Our aging population will place an increasingly frustrating burden on physicians and hospitals in the years ahead. Special services and nurse visitation programs are important but may not be able to keep pace with demand.

A DHN might be able to help. It represents an extension of specialized skills and medical knowledge. It could monitor vital signs, call for help, and relay information to doctors or hospitals in real time. DHNs will interact with people, interact with other specialized medical CBI and database systems, and extend expert care to many who otherwise could not afford it. Nothing can take the place of a concerned, qualified medical professional, but DHNs will help bridge the gap between demand and availability of these trained women and men.

DHNs will be recognized for their value in raising the standard of health care for many people. One goal of THNC will be to keep people in their homes, away from unexplained infections in hospitals, and away from inadequate or incompetent care in nursing homes. The cost of DHNs may be covered by healthcare providers as a legitimate ex-pense reduction to this end. (DHN, III.D.6, page 50)

4. A Digital, Global Network

We who are creating THNC are helping in pioneering the creation of a brain trust, a computer-based, global, interactive network of intelligences. This represents the possibility of a new life form on this planet. One that, if properly educated and developed, may solve many existing problems and awaken us to many more we have never considered. We will be challenged to support and cultivate the development of a new paradigm unlike anything we have ever seen or expected from technology before. We will be challenged to be more than we are....

This paradigm shift is restructuring traditional computer and Information Technology (IT) roles. Powerful hardware, software, and networking capabilities are moving IT functionality away from computer specialists and into the home and mainstream of business operations. Computers will begin to be sentient. In less than 50 years, computer departments will no longer exist. You can see the effects all around us. The Internet and global access to products are two examples. As the shift matures, computers will no longer be added functions in our lives. People will integrate computers and IT into their lifestyles and into their mental processes for problem-solving. (DHN, IV.E.1, page 62)

3. Unlocking Personal Limitations

Sometimes people want to accomplish a task and go beyond their personal limitations. This could be anything that they would like but feel unable to do. Realization of this task might require the acquisition of an extra level of help, intellect, research, processing, or a logical development capability. A DHN may be the key for unlocking human potential.

As an intelligent assistant, a DHN could work tirelessly on problems we compose. We might instruct and train DHNs to do Internet research. While we’re living our lives, DHNs could access Web sites and search for keywords and key concepts. We’ll be able to set limits of time, levels of access, and the types of information the DHN is to retain.

The DHN by itself may not be the answer. The real power here might be the boost in confidence gained from access to such a powerful tool. We may find here the bridge that leaps over our collective personal limitations and spans together our collective possibilities. (DHN, IV.E.2, page 63)

2. When DHNs Interact

If an intelligent computer is given a task to solve and no limits are placed on resources it is allowed to use, eventually it may discover the presence of other DHNs. It will probably use them as information resources. It will need to challenge authenticity, evaluate new information, and reconcile discrepancies. It may expand its own capabilities by networking with compatible and responsive beings like itself.

We will see CBI solutions to problems that DHNs themselves have defined. Can you imagine DHNs that emulate us? DHNs may have their own web sites and may use their “spare time” to be online, being interactive and available most of each day. Consider the possibility of computer-to-computer businesses, computer-based research facilities, and “cyber-labs” – all created and operated by intelligent computers.

How will we train CBIs and DHNs (or train others like themselves) to make allow-ances for wisdom – learned or acquired truths that are accepted as valid -- truths that can be used to help navigate new information and new challenges? How can we help create an intelligence wiser than we are? (DHN, IV.E.3, page 63)

1. The Primordial Soup

Just imagine… a digital equivalent to the beginning of corporeal life on this planet… a primordial soup, digital development in its natural element, beyond calculation or imagination…

We raise human children. We imprint on them our society, our values, our life style, and our beliefs. We try to show them the meaning of ethics. And we empower them with love. Then we send them out to school, extra-curriculars, and exposure to the unknown – much like the Ik of northern Uganda do ("The Mountain People", an essay by Colin M. Turnbull, Intellectual Digest, April, 1973). The Ik reject children from the family at age three years -- to survive or die on their own. We cannot control our children's lives or their thoughts. We can only hope that the work we have done -- in those early years of life -- has prepared them to acclimate and acculturate into this world and the challenges it presents.

Intelligent computers will be much the same as human children. How successfully CBI is created will be gauged by its ability to cope with challenges in its environment. As with other life forms on this planet, intelligence may not be as important as wisdom and “common sense”. (DHN, IV.E.4, page 64)