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USA Today

New technologies make for smarter homes,

February 05, 2002

USA Today IBM recently aired a television commercial that featured a repairman arriving at a house unannounced. A futuristic refrigerator with smart technology did a self-diagnostic test, uncovered a problem, and called a repairman.

The commercial wasn't a huge hit with consumers, said Kurt Scherf, an analyst with Parks Associates, a Dallas firm that follows emerging home technology.

"That might make a lot of sense in restaurants and warehouses," he said. "But for a home, how often do refrigerators fail?"

And Scherf said he believes that it's only a matter of time before hackers break into smart home systems. Imagine a hacker turning the lights, heat and the microwave in a house on and off at will — kind of like a poltergeist, he suggested.

From the article "New technologies make for smarter homes," by Greg Wright.

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