6. Smart Apartment Technology
The University of Canberra design exercise provided design ideas which may be used in the future. However, the actual implementation was delayed by the late completion of the building and the late installation of the Transact cable:
Transact Cable
Transact Optical
Cable into Basement: The thin black cables carry the signals
for all apartments in the building.
Transact Node in
Basement: This box connects Transact to apartments in the
building. Note the wire sculpture on top of the cabinet. ;-)
Back of
Set-Top-Box: The basement cabinet is connected to a wall
socket in my apartment and then by the red wire to the
set-top-box.
Set-Top-Box and
remote control: Many of the buttons on the remote control do
nothing.
As this apartment is located in Canberra it can use Transact's data network. The average home worker will not need a very high speed connection, so the minimum speed 256kbps Download, 64kbps Upload connection should be adequate. This has the advantage of operating though a digital set top box, which is provided at no extra charge by Transact as part of their domestic service. The set-top-box (STB) also provides digital TV and video on demand, which can be used for entertainment. The STB has a built in web browser, but this is currently limited to providing the electronic program guide for video and has limited performance. However, this would be adequate for most home automation tasks.
Firewall/Router
A personal computer can be connected directly
to the set-top-box. However, it would be prudent to use a
firewall for network security and a router to allow more than
one computer to be connected at a time. Combined
"SOHO" products are available providing these
functions. Some also provide a print server and IEEE 802.11b
Wireless Ethernet. For example such as D-Link's
Air DI-713P (cost: about $790).
Remote Control and Video
Ideally a PDA size device with a Wireless Ethernet
card could be used as a universal home remote
control and cordless telephone. However, for the present
such devices are not affordable or practical. Instead an
infrared (IR) universal remote control, such as SIMA's
Model SUR-20, sold in Australia by Dick Smith as the
Digitor Commander Remote Control (about $162) could be used
(the
manual for this unit is available online). Video and audio can
be transmitted between rooms with a wireless analogue transmitter,
such as the Allthings
Video Sonic TX/RX AV System. As well as transmitting TV and
hi-fi audio, this can be used to operate the web interface of the
STB remotely, saving the cost of an additional web appliance, such
as an Internet fridge.
Telephony
The humble
telephone still has a place in the home office. As the hi-tech
worker will be spending most of their time at the keyboard,
not on the phone, a sophisticated telephone is not required.
For receiving occasional facsimiles a low cost (under $300)
fax machine can be used. These typically include an automatic
paper cutter (to cut the rolls of paper to page size), a multi
page document feeder for sending facsimiles and a telephone
handset.
Cordless telephone: DECT
(Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) standard modestly
priced (about $250) digital cordless telephones have recently been
introduced into Australia. The DECT standard also has provision for
data devices and, in theory, could be used for a remote control and
data access. However, devices for this are not readily
available.
Structured Cabling
An alternative to wireless transmission
for data, telephones and video is to cable the home with
"structured cabling". This runs cable from wall outlets
back to a central patch panel, where they can be connected together
as needed. Telephones and data can use the same type of cable
(commonly called "CAT5e"), while video requires separate
coaxial cable. Some communications hubs require a technician to
rearrange connections. Units, such as such as IntraVisions's
IntraHub Communications
Hub, use standard plugs and cables which the home owner can
move.