A fridge that talks to your washing machine and a television that instructs your dishwasher. It’s all possible at CeBIT, the world’s top high-tech fair.
But the question is: what’s the point?
“Well, for example, you could be sitting on your sofa in your living room and you want to turn on your washing machine,” said Christian Prause, a developer of the yet-to-be finalized Hydra software.
“If your smartphone is equipped with our technology, you can send a message to the washing machine to turn itself on.”
“And if for whatever reason it doesn’t work, you can ask your fridge to transmit the order to the washing machine,” he added.
Prause said vacationers too need not lose any sleep if they realise they leave home in haste.
“Imagine you are 200km away, on holiday, and you realised you have forgotten to close your curtains.”
Not to worry. You can send a quick text message to your curtain remote control. If that doesn’t work, you can always get your television or your radio to lend a hand.
The fruit of four years of research by 10 different partners, including the German Fraunhofer Institute, the Hydra project is financially supported by the European Union.
Hydra “saves you time, energy and hassle,” Prause insisted. With a bit of luck, “such a system could perhaps eventually appear in the shops.”(AFP)
冰箱和洗衣機交談，電視對洗碗機下指令。在CeBIT這個全球頂尖高科技會展上，這些都成了可能。
但問題是：重點是...？
尚未開發完成的Hydra軟體研發人員克里斯丁•普洛斯說：「舉例來說，你人坐在臥室的沙發上想要啟動洗衣機。」
「如果你的智慧手機配備這項科技，你就可以傳訊息到洗衣機，讓它自動啟動」
他還說：「而且，如果它因為什麼原因沒有運作，你還可以叫冰箱傳送命令給洗衣機。」
普洛斯表示，外出度假的人如果發現自己離家時走得太匆忙，也無需太擔心。
「想像你在兩百公里外的地方度假，卻發現出門時忘了拉上窗簾的情況。」
別擔心。你可以立刻發送簡訊到窗簾的遙控器，如果行不通，還能讓電視或收音機來傳訊。
歐盟贊助的Hydra系統，由包括德國弗勞恩佛荷學會在內的十所不同機構歷經四年研發而成。
普洛斯表示，Hydra系統「省時、節能、免麻煩」。幸運的話，「以後就能在商店裡看到這樣的系統了」。
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