Ring up your robot

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 20

Ring up your robot

Telephone home if you want a bath drawn or dinner ready when you get back from work. Call to check if you’ve locked the door and turned all the lights off. No matter that nobody is there. Japan’s electronic firms believe they have uncovered the next consumer gold mine — dial-up electronics. The market is young but growing. “You dial home, code in the equipment, and the electric machines will do most of the work you want,” says Takemaro Suzuki, general manager of home automation systems at Toshiba Corporation. “Dial home if you want to switch on the heating or prepare a bath by the

By

YUMI KURAMITSU,

Tokyo.

time you come home. You can check if you locked the door, or if your turned the lights off,” explains Masahito Tezuka, of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. Matsushita, a market leader in dial-up technology, says its home automation system sales reached 5244.5 M last year. They expect double that figure for this year. As well as controlling most household machinery, the systems can also be used in conjunction with fire and crime prevention equipment. If a thief breaks into your

NZPA-Reuter, in

home, your security alarm gets in touch with your telephone, which then pages you to warn of the intruder. Matusushita’s Masahito Tezuka says the systems could also have applications for the elderly or bed-ridden. Spokesmen for major electrical manufacturers Mitsubishi Electric, Sanyo Electric, and NEC say they are also developing dial-up home electronics divisions. “I expect almost all new buildings and apartments will be equipped with such systems in the future,” says a Toshiba spokesman. The system is relatively inexpensive. A system to control the air conditioning, lights, and a rice cooker will cost about

$1630, which is about the same price as a good television in Japan. It can be costly, how-

ever, to set up the system in older homes since a new wiring system must be installed. To turn the air conditioner on by telephone, for example, you just push two digits. The main controller then answers you, indicating the air conditioner is on. You push another button to switch it off. Not all potential cusomers are excited by the prospect of dialing up their rice cooker. Japanese tradition may be threatened. “A male customer told me that if his wife knew about the new system, she would spend more time going out, and would simply tell him to call home from. his office to prepare his own bath and dinner,” says Masahito Tezuka.