The New Home Network

It occurred to me today that the New Century Home will have a wireless network, and for now that network is used almost exclusively for data and internet connectivity, but the proliferation of home networks provides an opportunity for home appliance manufacturers to up the ante and integrate their products.

My proposal is this. Someone, somewhere will develop an Integrated Home Appliance Data Interchange Standard (IHDIS XML), probably using XML as the basis. The result will be a standard that all appliance manufacturers can build into their products. Your coffee machine can be programmed using a web interface. No, they don't log into the coffee machine. The Coffee Machine registers itself with your Home Management Server by exchanging its IHDIS XML information with the server. This includes a set of encryption keys to prevent hijacking. The IHDIS XML information will contain information about the coffee maker's features, programmable settings, etc. The home owner logs into their Home Management Server and programs their preferences for the coffee maker and the server updates the coffee maker. If the home owner changes the settings on the coffee maker, the coffee machine will ping the server and initiate an update, etc. Want to program your DVR from a computer? If your DVR is IHDIS capable, it can be programmed via a web interface and updated. Stereo systems, TV's, lights, home automation equipment, garage doors, electronic locks, home alarm systems...

Just be sure the encryption is up to snuff and I think it is more likely that people will probably use USB electronic keys to access their home networks remotely. Imagine a VPN standard that requires a hardware key and biometric fingerprint dongle to connect to a home network remotely? I can imagine it.