Project 2 Interface Ideas

Using technology such as an ipad opens doors to limitless interface designs. Utilizing the functionality of a small maneuverable piece of technology such as the ipad I hope to create an interface that can be completely screen orientated. The use of being able to drag items around the interface is something I would design around.

My first and favourite idea was to have some kind of idle device that could be moved around the home easily. The interface would be circular and constantly stream certain electrical devices around the house on numerous graphs. The user could select specific devices, view its consumption and have the ability to remotely limit its consumption. This way the user has complete control over the electrical currents in the house and has the ability to turn items off when not in use. A timer and alarm system could be integrated into the interface to turn devices on and off at certain times to ease up on doing it manually everyday. 

My second idea was to have a small interface on the outside of the house by the front door that could be used as a safety application to lock doors using pin numbers and also to turn off all energy that doesn't need to be used while the house is empty. This way the user could leave the house, press a few buttons, and instantly the user is saving huge amounts of electricity simply because there is none going to the house! This idea would of course, like the first, require significant advancements in technology. But advancements I could see completely possible in a number of years. 

My third idea was to target university students that were flatting. Having an indoor wall mounted interface that showed the user a system of graphs that represented each flatmates consumption by taking readings from the power points in each bedroom. A graph would then show the percent of the electricity bill that was owed by each flatmate. This way there is a small incentive to save on electricity. This interface would be most useful if energy was hard to come by. Obviously we are not at this stage yet but it could be an idea for future technologies. 

This is the kind of thing I had in mind for a wall mounted monitor.