Fugoo-dness sake! Smart appliances at last?

Stephen Withers
Monday, 12 January 2009 08:40

Your IT - Entertainment

A new hardware and software platform called Fugoo may finally bring about the kinds of smart devices and appliances we've been promised for years.

Back in the early 1980s, one of the promises of the "microprocessor revolution" was that relatively inexpensive electronic controllers would be upgradable in a way that their mechanical forebears never could be.

For example, a washing machine could be reprogrammed with an additional wash cycle for a new type of fabric.

A decade or two later, the "Internet revolution" gave us the idea that household devices could be interconnected, but that went about as far as putting an web browser on a fridge door.

As we approach the end of the Noughties, someone's taking another stab at turning these ideas into reality.

A company called Fugoo has used the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to show off its approach to the problem.

The Fugoo platform  - developed in collaboration with Microsoft, VIA and Foxconn - is a WiFi-enabled hardware module plus Windows-based software designed to make it easy to build smart devices.

Suggestions include a coffee grinder that can look up the idea grind size for a specific type of bean, an alarm clock that uses traffic reports to advise how long it will take to drive to your first appointment of the day,  a digital photo frame that can also display online content such as news headlines and sports scores, and a mouse that can monitor blood pressure and upload the readings to the treating doctor's system.

The specification includes a standardised docking port so that manufacturers of appliances and other devices can design products that are ready to accept a Fugoo module, just as today's cars and audio systems often include iPod docks.

Another important characteristic of Fugoo is that it is also designed to provide a user interface for the device.

Who's behind Fugoo? See page 2.