NTT-Neomeit: Control your Home from Your Cell

The other day, I wrote about how the cell phone could easily take the place of your wallet. That is, all money transactions, identification, and even the photos could easily be made to work at your digital fingertips. I also wrote about how some European techies somehow programmed their Bluetooth cellphone to drive an automobile by remote control.

Clearly, I must have cellphone control on my mind lately, but today I found this article confirming my suspicions that cellphones are becoming the Universal (and I do mean panaceas) Remote. NTT-Neomeit has found a way of controlling your home via your cellphone. It uses a web-interface that you send from your cell to a wireless router inside your home. From there, the router sends commands via remote control power switch or infrared transmitter.

This service, scheduled for launch sometime in September, is known as U-Consento. I can only guess it is named as such because you consent to have it, but it doesn't require any major home renovation or new devices for it to work properly.

The possibilities of this service are so endless, that I want this in my home right now. For example, you can control the room temperature of your house. Ever left the heat on as you left for work because it was chilly that morning? Then it warms up, and you get home to find your house is an oven. Well, with the U-Consento system, all you would have to do is lower the temperature and even turn on the air conditioning on your cell during lunchbreak.

The U-Consento system is also designed to work with audio and visual equipment. So if you go to a party, and then forget to set the DVR to record the latest Grey's Anatomy, the U-Consento has you covered. Just enter in the programming information and relax, your show will be waiting for you to watch by the time you get home.

Not only does this system allow you to control your own electronic devices from a distance, but it allows you to monitor them as well. So if you are caring for an elderly person, you can check the operating status of each device and view records of how each one has been used.

Personally, I think a device like this would be instrumental in lowering your electric bill. Now your devices could be turned on or off whenever and wherever you want them to. No more burnt out bulbs or wasted energy, because you can monitor everything that is using electricity in your home from wherever you are!

Believe it or not, this service is only 500 yen a month, which is equal to about 4 USD. Unfortunately, it is only being offered in certain areas of Japan only. That is really too bad, because I would love one of these, especially at that price!