Disney Innoventions Dream Home

Posted By: Laura Foy | Jul 25th @ 9:13 AM
What could possibly make the happiest place on Earth even happier? A collaboration with Microsoft! The Disney Innoventions Dream Home just opened at Disnleyland in Anaheim, CA. and it's and it's a peek into your home of the future while also showing off some really cool technologies we have available to us today. They've pimped out this home with all your favorite Microsoft toys like Zune, Surface, Windows Media Center and, of course, a few Xbox 360's. Then, they added a few extra touches to really make us all get excited about the future. I went behind the scenes to bring you the 411.
Tags:
Rating:
2
0
#Jul 26th @ 5:17 AM
Googleman81
Googleman81
I would want the home for the technology but the furniture is totally not my taste. Something similar or maybe even the exact same virtual wallpaper was shown at this years WinHEC keynote I think and its amazing, but for  a lot of people it might be too much too fast. Do they have the Dream Home in Disneyland Paris?
#Jul 28th @ 12:28 AM
quikboy
quikboy

I guess people's visions of the future differ. Because I'm not like most of the stuff I see in this home. The home automation (life-ware!) thing is viable, the retractable sink is awesome, but the other stuff is not so cool.

1. Do you really need that many digital photo frames? - Wouldn't 3 or less be fine? Since photos are continuously going in a slideshow mode, you'll probably seen a ton of picture than you would see on a static frame. But does anybody ever look at every single photo as it passes? It's just a waste of energy to me, and distracting.
2. What happened to the sun? - Is it me, or is the house really dim? I don't know if it was taken at nightime, but a house in darkness, with a bunch of lights twinkling on and off is nuts. Sunlight bring a natural atmosphere, and makes it feel less stuffy inside.
3. Old furniture? - Ok, I was laughing at this one. Who chose the furniture? Was some of it used from the old Monsanto House? Because I expected the home of the future to be full of IKEA furniture, sleek finishes, touch sensors, and good lighting. Quite the opposite. Ugly clash of furniture from the decades.
4.  Tad too many screens? - Isn't the use of screens a bit overdone? First the photo frames, and now the mirror? I'd probably only need a big TV screen, tablet, all-in-one portable (phone, remote, PMP, etc.), and a Surface wall would do fine. I don't see how useful Surface at the dining table would be. People would be playing, instead of eating. Think about the energy costs!
5. Who can afford this? - This looks more like an overdone mansion with all the latest and the greatest technology. It has to cost a fortune to put this in your home. What about people with modest paychecks? Don't they have a future?

Ok, so I'm a complainer. The technology seems nice, but the way it's implemented seems over excessive. Technology is great, but too much of a good thing can make a dependence on this stuff, and make you a couch potato. Not to mention the energy wasted to power all this.  

#Jul 28th @ 11:54 AM
northerngeek
northerngeek
I don't completely disagree with you but it does come down to personal taste. I personally like what they did and feel that in general it does seem quite affordable given approximately 5 years. So much of what was demonstrated was cheap enough hardware mixed with really good use of software- people see MS competing for the consumer space with Apple, Sony and Linux etc for so long but personally I see their vision being much grander with software controlling elements throughout life- be it reading, car journeys (e.g. Sync... which seriously needs speeding up in it's rollout before manufacturers just go their own way) and the home.... very few big companies seem to have noticed this potential market.

I love the solutions shown from CES particuarly... e.g. the virtual wallpaper- which is cheap enough being a few rear projection screens and a low performance PC- imagine that thing hooked up to your Xbox 360? What about virtual workouts on that? I have a small set-up at home very similar to the virtual wallpaper which admittedly cost me about £2000 but I see it as an investment and a fond farewell to the paintbrush.

I really do hope we see this technology more and more as time progresses- I want to see the world change in my lifetime not just because of wars and climate change but because we as human beings are inventine and can do all these amazing things. Virtual mirrors could revolutionise internet shopping- try on any outfit, any colour as much as you like- it could change the fashion industry, imagine people creating their own custom clothes trying it on, changing elements and ordering the outfit with or without the sleeves depending on what they think is best from their own room.

I love this and I know it is risking making the population couch-potatoes but frankly we're doing that to ourselves anyway and we shouldn't get so worried about it as Wall-e makes people feel. Indeed that house is excessive but I hope it gives a lasting impression on children who see it today and gives them something to work towards being able to help create.