All I Wanted Was an Ice-Maker
by David Currie

My family is in the midst of constructing a new home on our farm in southwest Virginia. My wife, whose family is obsessed with "appliance technology fever," is anxious to draw this backwards scribe into the 21st century. And thus begins her search for "web ready appliances."

Obviously, every electronic appliance company worth their salt have been installing microprocessors of one sort or another into their appliances for two decades. But over the last 3 years, a number of appliance manufacturers have sought to make their appliances communication not only with one another, but also with the Internet.

Aristron Digital and Electrolux Group are two corporations at the leading edge. These companies are using web ready appliance protocol (WRAP) technology to produce "plug and play" appliances that are ready to communicate with one another the second they are plugged into the power grid. The appliances can communicate continuously with the Internet through the powergrid, using a conveyor wave modem; in other words, your fridge and washing machine are not fighting with you for access to the phone line.

The Aristron system is interesting in that it allows you to access appliance home pages that allow you to operate appliances from distant locations. For example, you could visit your oven and tell it not to start cooking that roast at 2 pm as the boss is not coming over for dinner after all. Click on Aristron . . . to learn more about its products.

You wanted a fridge that gave you large volumes of clean, cold filtered water and ice, with an easy access filter, more cubic feet in a smaller outer shell, and easier to clean shelves… well, Frigidaire gave you all that. So now, Frigidaire (of the Electrolux Group) has an even further reaching idea. They have brought interactive broadband communications technology directly to their new "Screenfridge."

That means that the screen fridge can access the Internet, television and radio. While everyone else is making Internet access smaller, Frigidaire is banking on the general public wanting to have continuous, easy access to the Internet in a central location in the home, namely the kitchen. If Frigidaire is right, friends and family will soon be leaving video messages on your fridge door, where you are sure to find them while sneaking that midnight snack.

But keep in mind, Screenfridge is not a fridge with a simple microprocessor; Screenfridge means complete Internet access. The links below are to a pdf document posted by Frigidaire containing additional information about the Screenfridge and to a website with a collection of low and high resolution pictures of the Screenfridge.

http://www.frigidaire.com/images/documents/press/2001_screenfridge.pdf

http://www.sthlms-reprografen.se/electrolux/scrfri.html

The Electrolux Group is also developing the "Live-In" appliance system, to allow you to access and control home appliances from various locations within the home, or from outside the home. This roving rural reporter, who still heats his home with a wood furnace, can't wait for Husqvarna (another member of the Electrolux Group of corporations) to develop the E-mail compatible chain saw!