Dorkbot summary

As some of you know, I attended the latest Seattle Dorkbot meeting. Here is my summary:

The main lecture was give by a PhD student who has developed a unit which you plug into one single electricity outlet in your house. Then it sniffs the EMF noise on your lines, and lo and behold, each thing you turn on has it's own fingerprint in frequency space.

So he can tell that you turned on such and such lamp, and that the dishwasher just started, and that your TV went on or off. So you can get energy usage broken down by appliance by the second. Of course identical products have identical signatures, so you may not be able to tell which floor lamp you turned on, but that's ok. Still.

Ultimate goal... this device will know the brand of appliances you have, and how often you use them, and in what order... an information gold mine.

Say every Tuesday the freezer door opens, then the Microwave goes on. then the TV. Sounds like you need a Pizza advertisement. Wait, you have all high-end appliances? Thai delivers too.

The dorks were incandescent with the cleverness of it. There were some information security concerns, but again, the incandescence out-shown the concern. Leave that for BizBot, or LawBot. Dorkbot remains untainted by such things.

Also they have stuff which listens via a microphone to your gas meter flow regulator, and can tell when thing go on and off based on rise and fall times if it was your oven, or your fireplace, or furnace and give you data there.

Then on the water line, you can attach a gizmo to your water spigot, and the pressure from water hammer effects moves a little servo which powers a device to send a tiny signal saying that you have turned on some water. Again the signatures of the different water using "devices events" are unique.

Belkin has bought all of it. Look for products in 2012. I, for one, am tired of privacy as it means I get way too many ads for things I will never buy, like Chevy Sliverados. If they only knew....soon, they will.