Smart Homes in South Korea

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6179868.stm' target='_blank'>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/6179868.stm</a><br /><br /></div><i>"More than 100 homes offering smart technology have just been built in South Korea and another 30,000 are planned. The control panel on the wall maps out the apartment so Mi Yung can choose which devices to control. Each flat makes use of the electricity cables to transfer data as well as power. Each appliance has to be compatible with a system called HomeNet, one of a number of competing systems on offer in South Korea. The choice of service also limits what devices Koreans can buy to hook into the system as each appliance needs to be compatible. The panel also keeps track of Mi Yung's electricity consumption, pays her power bills, and holds video messages - either sent to it over the net, or from neighbours."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/_42353272_southkorea203.jpg" /><br /><br />Interesting article. Many of the tasks listed can currently be handled by systems such as X10 but a system and appliances built from the ground up to handle this would be pretty cool. I'd be interested in seeing how a system like this deals with media and specifically DRM. Being able to share your media throughout your household is great; having a whole-house DRM enforcement agent is not.