I love this instructable that I found through Make magazine: converting your wall outlet to a permanent, in-wall USB charger.
I mean, you could simply get a USB plug power adapter with cord, plug that sucker into your existing wall outlet, and staple-gun the cord to the wall. But that would just be ugly. This is way more elegant, more fun, and more dangerous.
The author of the article also makes a fascinating point, however dubious it may be, that one day all wall outlets will be USB. This makes me think of a smart grid with smart appliances sharing data on energy consumption and using sophisticated algorithms to allocate power just where it’s needed, when it’s needed. Since 26% of the cost of our electricity comes from distribution (not counting loss through transmission), this could be a real boon.
However, it also makes me a little nervous to think of my household appliances having the ability to share data. While it’s totally innocuous, do I want the electric company (or, theoretically, any good hacker with a USB connection) knowing how many times I used my toaster this month? With the immense amount of personal information that is now being bartered without our consent from our internet use, TV viewing habits, and credit card purchases, I kind of cringe when I think of data on every household appliance use being available for some marketer to collect and sell.
Imagine your washing machine saying, “hello! I notice it’s been a few days since you’ve done the wash. Welcome back! You haven’t been using fabric softener lately. Did you know that Snuggle fabric softener is on sale at your local supermarket? Push the green button to have some Snuggle fabric softener shipped to you right now!”
To some people, this may seem like we finally have reached the Jetsons-esque world of the foodarackacycle and appliances that are our pals. To me, it seems like digital marketing hell.
If we ever get to the days of data sharing over the power lines, you might see hackers doing the opposite – posting DIY articles about converting their ubiquitous USB smart power outlets back into good ol’ fashioned “dumb” power.
In the mean time, though, this outlet looks pretty sharp. There’s nothing wrong with being ahead of the curve, until the curve catches up with you.
Good points made. The extent of my desire for smart house capabilities would be getting informed when I’m low on milk or beer perhaps. But I can easily see that when my open my fridge. I figure there might be some other benefits of a “smart” refrigerator as well, like items that might be spoiled. Maybe the program logic is: probably spoiled = last date moved > 60 :)