Richard BF

From scriptable clock radios to the digital hub, the most important issue in the future for appliance manufacturers, is giving their ever more demanding and technically capable users what they want. Interface design, programming languages, electronics and digital media are no longer the domain of unknown engineers in white coats. These technologies have now become hobbies for a new generation of Internet geeks, without much formal training or corresponding choice of career.

I wrote a thesis back in 1992 for my Tonmeister audio engineering course, which was a high level design for a fully digital and extensible recording and mixing desk.

The idea was that a single set of analogue controls, including rotary pots, faders and other bits and pieces, would control whichever channels were currently selected on the desk, serving as generic controllers. EQ and filter controls, as well as signal sends/returns to offboard gear, would be virtually inserted into channel paths as required, meaning the desk could be expanded to any number of channels restricted only by memory, and any external equipment you have can be treated as inline effects for any channel, as if they were built into the desk.

I should have filed a patent, as these techniques are now starting to find their way into production mixers.

However the idea didn’t originate with a mixer, it started back in 1986 when I wanted to program my clock radio. We’d just bought a video recorder and two clock radios, and it was annoying that each had its own interface, and none did everything that I wanted them to.

So I designed a system based upon all household devices being just generic controllers, with an LCD screen and a few generic knobs and dials (rotary pots). This way not only could functionality be shared across different manufacturers, but if you built in a simple scripting language like HyperCard (or it’s current day descendant AppleScript), then users could build their own functionality which will work on any similar device. Want a clock radio that switches stations after the news? Write one and download it to whatever clock radio you own.

Nice idea, but the manufacturers never got behind it, or perhaps they never thought of it.

The electronics industry has gradually moved towards this idea with various bus protocols of course. SCSI was invented to support multiple device types, so any device connected to a SCSI bus could talk to any other, if it understood the command sequences for that particular device type. Hard drives ended up being the typical use for SCSI, with any SCSI capable computer or electonic device being able to use drives from multiple manufacturers. USB and Firewire continued the theme of multi-device buses, with generic protocol profiles for various devices, as did the Rendevous networking protocol and the newer Bluetooth protocol, perhaps not so co-incidentally all either driven or invented by Apple.

With the introduction of Windows Media Centre, we finally see computing technology controlling household devices, which means finally a single common user interface. Apple haters generally think Microsoft initiated the digital hub idea, but it was Apple who started pushing it first, even though they’ve only concentrated to date on networking and software.

The Mac Mini has the potential to lead Apple into the hub space, and compete for the first time head to head with Microsoft. A Mac OS X based device providing a single user interface for all other household devices, would allow advanced home users to develop their own interfaces and even new functionality, with AppleScript. Want to script a virtual TiVo? Sure. Suck down the program schedule from the web, and simply tell the TV to dump the incoming program to the hub’s drive. You can then rip the audio to your stereo, pump it wirelessly to another TV over a video capable Airport Express, burn it to DVD, or file it for later use. All done programatically by the user.

The day of programmable user interfaces for household devices is almost here. And with more and more people learning basic programming skills regardless of their career choice, we should start to see an explosion of capability in the space. Assuming of course that manufacturers give up their DRM restrictions, and embrace a completely open and interoperable digital world. Technologists should be working on advancing technological capability and satisfying users, not competing for who can develop the most restrictive DRM.

Update: 11-Feb-2005. iDash: Mac mini for Your Car