It’s no secret if you look around my blog that I’m a huge technology proponent. I enjoy the way that it improves our lives, and I also enjoy discussing the issues new technology raises. But every once in awhile I want to suggest improvements in hopes of swaying the guys who come up with “ideas” – even though I doubt they read my site. But I do it anyway, because companies spend millions of dollars every year in market research trying to find out what consumers want. The problem is that most of the time, consumers have no idea what they want. Well, I’m a consumer and I’ll tell you exactly what I want. I’ve gotten flak for these “call to action” or “suggestion” posts in the past from people who think I should just shut up and make one of these ideas happen myself. Fine, front the money and we’ll talk about it. In the meantime, here’s what I want to talk about today: the mobile phone as an interface for devices without interfaces.

That’s confusing, but the best way to sum it up in one sentence. Simply put, I want to be able to control any electronic device with my phone. I want to be able to set the temperature of my thermostat by logging into it wirelessly with my phone. I want to start preheating the oven from the couch, from my phone, because in ten minutes I plan to get up and pop in a pizza. I want to be able to turn off or dim the lights in the room from my phone. I want to be able to schedule a start time for my coffeemaker from the calendar and alarm system on my phone. I want to be able to turn on my television, adjust channels or volume, que up a TiVo recording, and control it from my phone. I want to be able to set my bedside clock from my phone. I want to be able to log in to my computer to watch media, or write a quick note, or turn it on and off, from my phone. See the trend?

I want my mobile phone, that computer I carry in my pocket, to be the hub of my interface with technology of all sorts. I don’t want smart devices, I want devices that will interface with a smart phone.

Here’s the deal – devices can be made more cheaply if they have no physical controls. Buttons require additional manufacturing time, more moving parts, can make for some ugly devices if they are designed poorly. Even more annoying, physical controls mean more possibility for mechanical failure. Since consumers want the functionality that adding electronic and circuitry components to electronic devices provides, but the addition of all that additional hardware to a device can make it unfeasible, why not just adapt devices to take direction from a user interface already in the user’s pocket?

Take my coffeemaker, for instance. Right now, my coffeemaker has a clock that needs to be set, a complicated system for scheduling morning brews, and a tiny LCD screen to display the time. It has 5 buttons that allow users to set the time, start making coffee, and to schedule brews. Every time the power goes out, even for a few seconds, I have to reset the time and reschedule the morning brew alarm. Reentering this information is annoying and inconsistent with the time entering procedures on my alarm clock. Invariably, I always have to get out the manual to remember that I need to hit the clock button twice, not once, then hold down the alarm button down for five seconds, and blah, blah, you get the idea. It doesn’t happen often, but often enough to be annoying.

The problem is that my coffee maker is trying to be too smart. I want it to be stupid, but I want it to interface with something my smarter: my phone.
I want my coffeemaker on my wifi network. Or controllable via Bluetooth, or some more secure wireless method. I don’t want it to have any buttons at all. I don’t want it to have any physical controls at all. I want to open an application on my phone to schedule or start a brew. I don’t want my coffeemaker to have any technology except a wireless device and a way to carry out instructions sent to it. It won’t start brewing until it gets the signal to brew. If I’ve scheduled a brew on my phone, my phone sends out the notification to the coffeemaker when it’s time to brew.

What’s interesting about this system is that if I stay out somewhere, on vacation or something like that, my phone is not on the same wireless network with my coffeemaker, thus, no signal is sent to brew and no coffee is brewed.

This is a silly example, obviously. Coffeemakers don’t really need brew scheduling, because, damn it, you can just turn the friggin’ thing on if you want coffee, but some models already have brew alarms.

However, if you buy a coffeemaker with a wireless switch, something controlled and scheduled from your phone, since the phone does all the work, brew scheduling can be added to a physical device with just a software update. Think about that for a minute. That’s huge. Software can be added to control device features by patching the control unit, the phone. No updates are required to the device itself.

Okay, so that’s kind of exciting, right? Now, let’s move on to climate control and lighting next.

Thermostat control and lights don’t need physical controls anymore if you’ve got the controls in your pocket, so those don’t need to be included in houses. Why put physical switches in rooms just to break, or be flipped on and off by the kids? Why get up from the couch when watching a movie to turn off the lights? The switch is way over there, next to the door. Luckily your phone is in your pocket. Why buy one of those expensive thermostats that can schedule ups and down in the house temperature (like turning it down at night, or up when you get home from work) when you can just let your phone do all that? When your phone isn’t on the wireless network to send the signals, the temp can default to 65 (in the winter) or (78 in the summer) or whatever saves you energy – because, hell, you’re not home anyway, right?

But home devices aren’t all I’m concerned with. That’s easy low hanging stuff to pluck from the growing awesomeness tree. There’s so much more – using the phone as a device for controlling public interfaces, especially with respect to commerce.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t carry cash anymore. I use debit transactions instead. It’s easier, more secure against physical theft, faster than cash transactions (all that change counting takes awhile), and doesn’t leave me with a fat wallet (which makes me sit lopsided) on payday. I prefer almost every aspect of a card to cash, except for dealing with the few remaining vestiges of cash transactions – vending machines, parking meters, and all the annoying things associated with them. I don’t have cash, so I don’t have a change pocket full of parking meter change. Sometimes I still park downtown, though. So what do I do? Usually, I get by, but sometimes I get parking tickets because all the change I could find in my car ashtray was a nickel and 48 billion pennies, which the meters don’t take. That nickel buys me about 8 minutes on the meter.

But what if there was a better way? Wireless, interface with your phone, use your debit account without having to swipe your card, that kind of thing. Just log on to the meter, pay your two bucks, and walk away. It’s difficult to do right now because electronic commerce requires LCD screens (which are easily damaged or stolen), card readers (which get gummed up), and some type of hardware to process the transactions. All this technology is pretty expensive for a parking meter which stays out in the weather, is subject to theft, and probably only makes about ten bucks or less a day.

However, if the phone provided the LCD screen (which is the most expensive part) and the “card reading” was digital, all the technology required in the parking meter (which doesn’t even have to be a “meter” anymore – it can be a concrete pole with a number on it) is a wireless connection. One connection can work for the whole block – just park, type the space number into your phone, enter your payment information (which will probably be saved on your phone for your convenience) and away you go – no physical money required.

What about ordering at the drive through? Why need a sign and a scratchy speaker connected to some pimply kid? Why not just a menu you can access on your phone to make your selection and pay? Sure, you’ll probably still have to talk to the pimply kid when he hands you your Big Mac, but it would still make the process easier and less prone to error (since you can check the “No Onions” check box in the menu, instead of trying to speak it over the junky microphone).

So that’s the gist of the idea – I’m sure I’m not the first to suggest something like it, but I adding my voice to the clamor. There are a myriad of logistics. privacy, and security issues to be worked out, of course, not to mention standardization (which always takes a about 7-10 years of companies trying to own the process until a public standard usually wins out, but then, companies probably would rather wait longer for more smartphone adoption anyway), but overall I think the idea is sound.

So, what’s taking so long? We have all the technology we need to implement this kind of thing, why aren’t we seeing more of it? Leave me a comment and we’ll TALK about this.