chapter 9
HIGH TECH AND DAILY LIFE

Since the early 1980s, high tech has been creeping into every aspect of life, becoming as invisible in many Americans' everyday lives as running water or refrigeration. Many Americans think nothing of going online to check the weather, buy tickets, plan holidays, look for religious inspiration, or find information on hobbies from coin collecting to rock climbing. The Internet also contains an endless list of resources that most people would never have room for on the bookshelf but take for granted nonetheless, including maps, dictionaries, phone books, and even manuals on most products. The Internet has become a great way to communicate with others, and millions have used it to make a date, schedule appointments, or find old friends. In August 2004 Deborah Fallows reported in The Internet and Daily Life (Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project) that 88% of online Americans surveyed said that the Internet had become part of their daily routines.

The Internet is not the only new technology to have become ubiquitous in everyday American life. Microchips, sensors, and display screens can be found on or in just about every appliance in the home. They allow people to do everything from control the home thermostat from a remote computer to heat water with microwave radiation. Complex sensors and systems also control most American automobiles, monitoring engine performance, regulating gas flow, sensing obstacles, and in some instances pinpointing the car's location. As of 2004 robots were also beginning to make their way into American homes to complete time-consuming tasks such as mowing the lawn or vacuuming the living room.

EVERYDAY ACTIVITIES AND THE INTERNET

The more Americans are exposed to the Internet, the more the Internet comes into play a role in seemingly every facet of day-to-day American life. According to Fallows in The Internet and Daily Life, nine out of ten (92%)

TABLE 9.1

online Americans surveyed during November and December 2003 believed the Internet was good for obtaining everyday information. Three-quarters (75%) considered the Internet a great way to conduct everyday transactions. Table 9.1 lists some of the specific everyday activities online Americans engaged in on the Internet. (Each percentage on the right side of the table represents the percentage of Internet users who take part in the activity who have at some point gone on the Internet to do so.) Many of the activities involved referencing practical information. Over two-thirds (69%) of Internet users who checked the weather regularly checked it on the Internet. Half (50%) of

TABLE 9.2

online adults who typically found themselves looking up addresses, zip codes, and numbers did so on the Internet.

Communications were a big part of people's everyday Web experience as well. In the 2003 survey conducted by Pew/Internet, eight out of ten (79%) Web users who usually communicated with friends and family used the Web to communicate with them. Over one-quarter (26%) of online Americans who were dating or interested in meeting someone new did so on the Internet. The type of Internet service Americans had also greatly affected the likelihood of their engaging in online activities. As Table 9.2 displays, the percentage of people who took part in activities online jumped significantly when people had access to broadband.

According to Fallows in the August 2004 Pew/Internet report, quite a few online Americans used the Internet exclusively to take part in everyday activities during 2003. (See Table 9.3.) In fact, far more Internet users found maps or directions exclusively online than offline. A full 20% of Internet users (thirty-five million people) did all their banking and paid all their bills online, and 9% of Internet users (fifteen million Americans) bought such everyday items as groceries, kitchen utensils, and appliances on the Internet. Only 4% to 5% of those who participated in the Pew/Internet survey said they read for fun or watched videos exclusively on the Web.

A third of the people surveyed for The Internet and Daily Life reported that the Internet plays a major role in

TABLE 9.3

their lives. (As opposed to the two-thirds who felt it played a minor role.) Fallows labeled these people "major players." Major players tended to be wealthier, more educated, and online longer than other American Internetusers. Forty-nine percent of major players graduated from college, versus 30% of the other people on the Internet. Only 21% of nonmajor players had a household income exceeding $75,000. Some 38% of major players, on the other hand, brought in that much money. Roughly three-quarters (76%) of major players had broadband, compared with under half (42%) of other Internet users. As Table 9.4 predictably displays, major players were much more likely to do everyday activities online.

Parenting and the Internet

The Internet has aided parents in their efforts to plan the daily activities of their children. According to Parents Online, a November 2002 Pew/Internet report by Katherine Allen and Lee Rainie, 26% of parents said that the Internet has improved the manner in which they spent time with their children. Parents went online to look for everything from parental ratings on television shows to advice on how to pacify children afraid of the dark. Thirty-four percent of parents said the Internet was helpful in planning weekend outings for the family. Twenty-seven percent of parents said the Internet made finding birthday and holiday gifts for the family easier. Parents also employed the Internet to get in touch with their children's teachers and the

TABLE 9.4

parents of their children's friends. In a December 2000 Pew/Internet survey discussed in Parents Online, nearly one-third of parents (28%) replied that they keep in touch with their children's teachers through e-mail.

Parents also relied on the Internet to care for their children's health. Parents Online revealed that nearly 67% of online parents said they surfed the Internet for online health information, compared with 60% of adults without children. Parents were also generally more likely than adults without children to say the Internet improved the level of health care in their homes. More mothers than fathers logged onto the Internet to look for heath advice. Some 72% of wired mothers said they went online to find health and medical information, versus 57% of fathers. In a 2001 survey cited in Parents Online, mothers who went online to look for health information were asked about their most recent health search. Thirty-four percent of the health-seeking mothers said they went online on behalf of their children. Some 27% said they went online for their husbands, and 16% of these mothers went online for their parents.

Holidays and the Internet

The holiday season is a hectic time for any household, and the Internet provides an easy and convenient way to send holiday greetings, buy gifts, and stay in touch with family members. In fact, 78% of wired adults in America used the Web or e-mail to engage in some sort of holiday activity, according to Holidays Online—2002,a January

TABLE 9.5

2003 Pew/Internet study by Lee Rainie and John Horrigan. E-mail was among the most popular applications, and Table 9.5 lists the ways e-mailing Americans employed their e-mail over the holiday season. Over onequarter (27%) of e-mail users decided to save the expense and hassle of paper cards and instead opted to send them out electronically in 2002. Roughly half (48%) of e-mail users sent or received e-mail to and from family to arrange holiday plans, and slightly fewer (45%) employed e-mail to discuss plans with friends. Sixteen percent in 2002 said they had gotten in touch with someone via e-mail who they had not spoken to in years.

The World Wide Web also proved useful in planning holiday activities and trips. According to Rainie and Horrigan in Holidays Online—2002, 25% of wired adults, primarily women, went on the Internet to find ideas about crafts, food, or other ways to celebrate the holidays. Roughly 33% of online Americans used the Internet to plan seasonal activities, such as looking up the hours for Santa's workshop or a holiday light show. Another 11% of online Americans, typically heavy users of the Internet, made travel plans and reservations for the holidays online.

As most major retailers now have a Web site, shopping online has become easier than ever. Holidays Online—2002 revealed that some 46% of wired adults (forty-seven million people) used the Internet to look for gifts, and 28% (twenty-nine million people) actually bought something. (See Table 9.6 for a breakdown of who shopped online for the holidays.) A majority of adults (75%) who took part in e-commerce pointed to convenience and saving time as among their main reasons for shopping online. Roughly half (51%) said that the reason they shopped online was because they could find hard-to-locate gifts, and another one-third (31%) reported cost savings as their main reason for purchasing items on the Internet. All together, Americans spent close to $11 billion online during the 2002 holiday season, according to the January 2003 Pew/Internet

TABLE 9.6

report. Online holiday shoppers spent an average of $407 in 2002. More than one-third (34%) of these shoppers spent more than $300 on Web retail. As can be seen in Table 9.7, more apparel and accessories sold online throughout the 2002 holiday season than any other product, according to data from comScore Networks cited by Rainie and Horrigan. Consumer electronics came in second, and sales in home and garden grew by the largest percentage from the year before.

Religion, Spirituality, and the Internet

Nearly 64% (eighty-two million people) of Internet users as of late 2003 had taken part in religious or spiritual activities online. An April 2004 Pew/Internet report entitled Faith Online by Stewart Hoover, Lynn Clark, and Lee Rainie revealed that 38% of wired American adults sent, received, or forwarded e-mail with spiritual content. (See Table 9.8.) Thirty-two percent of Internet users went online to read religious news, and 17% searched for places to attend religious services. More online people seemed interested in activities that enhanced their spiritual and religious lives (e.g., sending a spiritual or religious e-mail) rather than those related solely to the organizational side of religion such as scheduling church workshops. At the same time, those who attended church once a week were much more likely to engage in online activities for spiritual or religious reasons. (See Table 9.9.)

TABLE 9.7

According to Faith Online, those who used the Internet for religion or spirituality were more likely than general Internet users to be white, female, college-educated, and married. They were also more likely to live in the South or Midwest and to reside in households earning an income of $75,000 or more. Not all of the online faithful used the Internet to focus on their own religion. A little more than one-quarter (26%) said they had utilized the Internet to explore faiths other than their own. Of those, a little over half (51%) said they were curious about other religions, and 13% said that they did it to enhance spiritual growth. The study also found that most online believers (54%) described themselves as religious and spiritual, as opposed to spiritual but not religious (33%), religious but not spiritual (6%), or not religious and not spiritual (4%). Overall, online religious and spiritual people considered the Internet to be a supplement to rather than a substitute for their everyday religious life.

THE HOME ELECTRONICS REVOLUTION

In the 1970s and early 1980s, advances in circuit manufacturing lowered the price of integrated electronic components from hundreds of dollars to less than $10 in some instances. Since then electronics chips, displays, and sensors have worked their way into everything from washing machines to hair dryers to coffeemakers. Overall, such electronics have given people more control over the settings on their appliances, lighting, and heating and cooling systems.

High Tech Home Features

By late 2004, many home appliances and systems had become fully programmable and even Internet accessible.

TABLE 9.8

Interactive, online thermostats, for instance, were installed in many new homes. These thermostats, which can be connected to the Web, give the homeowner the option of setting and monitoring the temperature of the house remotely from a computer or a laptop. The thermostat also alerts the user of a malfunction or a gas leak in the system. Zone lighting systems contain electronics that enable homeowners to program lighting configurations for multiple areas of the same room. With the touch of a button, one side of a room can be illuminated for reading while the other side remains dark for watching television.

Another programmable fixture that was available in many newer homes was the electronic keypad locking system. The advantage of the keypad over the normal lock is that it can be reprogrammed easily. If a homeowner wants to keep someone out, it can be done by changing the lock code. The lock can also be set to let in certain people, such as a painter, only during certain times of the day. Some keypad locks contain circuit boards that can be plugged into a broadband connection, which gives the homeowner the option of changing the lock codes remotely or keeping a record of who came and went. By 2004 some companies offered automated home systems that tied the lights, the door locks, the thermostat, and home security system into one control center that could be accessed by the Internet. According to "Building an Electronic Fortress" by Charlie Wardell in the November 2004 issue of Popular Science, these systems can be placed in different modes for when the homeowner is awake, asleep, or away. When the homeowner goes out of town all that he or she has to do is press a button and the lights are turned off, the alarm is set, and the thermostat is turned down. These systems could be installed for $1 to $2 per square foot in 2004.

TABLE 9.9

Smart Appliances

As technologies progress and electronics become even more affordable, makers of appliances will likely continue to add additional electronic features. Whirlpool, for instance, has been working with engineers at Michigan State University to create a talking washing machine to aid blind people when they do their laundry, according to "Students Make Washing Machine Talk" by Geoff Adams-Spink (BBC News World Edition, September 12, 2004). In addition to containing Braille instructions, the washing machine tells the user what command he or she has selected as each button is pushed or knob is turned. A status button has also been incorporated, which reads back the current settings when pressed. The additional circuitry costs only about $30 to install, and the prototype unit was being tested in the home of a blind couple as of September 2004.

A number of technologies were emerging in 2004 that may someday allow people to operate every major and minor appliance via a remote control or telephone. One such device, known as the ZigBee, was being developed by the ZigBee Alliance, a consortium of seventy companies that included Motorola, Honeywell, Samsung, and Mitsubishi Electric. According to "Radio Chip Heralds the Smarter Home" by Duncan Graham-Rowe (New Scientist, August 7, 2004), the ZigBee is a networkable, low-power, two-way radio microchip with a range of about 250 feet that can receive and send data. Such chips could be implanted into everyday appliances and tied into their controls. A PDA (personal digital assistant) or some type of universal remote control would then be employed by the homeowner to transmit and receive signal to and from the chips. In this way, every appliance or entertainment system in the house could be monitored and activated via remote control. A base station capable of communicating with the ZigBee chips could easily be attached to a phone line as well. By calling into the base station via phone, the homeowner could check the status of an oven or a coffeemaker using the touch-tone commands.

ROBOTS

Around the turn of the twenty-first century, the first practical, automated robots went on sale for the consumer market. Far from the convenient marvels depicted on futuristic television shows, these robots could perform only simple tasks such as vacuuming. As of October 2004, five models of robotic vacuum cleaners were on the market. Most of these vacuum cleaners use various sensors to feel their way around the room, picking up dirt as they go. The Electrolux Trilobite, for instance, shoots out ultrasonic signals like a bat to detect and avoid obstacles in its way as it goes back and forth across the room for forty-five minutes, sucking up dirt and recording where it has been. In "Run for Your Lives, Dust Bunnies!" (Popular Science, October 2004), Jonathon Keats found the performance of most of the robot vacuum cleaners lacking, with the exception of the Trilobite.

Another robotic device available in 2004 was the Robomower by Friendly Robotics. True to its name, the Robomower automatically zigzags back and forth over a lawn, cutting the grass as it goes. Sensors are imbedded in bumpers that surround the entire mower, and if it bangs into something bigger than a large piece of bark, it backs off. A low voltage guide wire set up by the user around the perimeter of the yard lets the mower know if it is crossing the boundaries of the lawn, in which case it turns around.

Programmable Robots

Yet another type of robot that made its debut in 2005 was the PC-Bot by White Box Robotics. In "Plug-and-Play Robots" (Scientific American, April 2004), W. Wayt Gibbs remarked that the knee-high robots "look like R2-D2 droids that have been redesigned by Cadillac." These PC-Bots are built from everyday computer components and accessories. Each one has a digital camera, speakers, slots for peripheral components such as a disc drive, and sensors mounted on the outside. A standard hard drive, microprocessor, a drive motor, and a stabilizer are contained within the chassis. The whole thing is mounted on wheels. The innovation behind the PC-Bots, however, does not lie in its components, but rather in the fact that the machine is fully programmable. Face and object recognition software, for instance, can be placed on a PC-Bot, which allow it to recognize various people and objects in its environment and then act on that information, according to Gibbs. One variation of the PCBot that White Box Electronics sold was the 912 HMV. This robot was designed to roam around the owner's house when the owner is out of town. If the robot spots a strange figure or detects a loud noise, it can e-mail or send a page to the owner.

Humanoid Robots

Several large companies and academic labs around the world have been experimenting with complex humanoid robots as well. The most famous of these is probably Honda's ASIMO (Advanced Step in Innovation Mobility) robot. Researchers at Honda have been working on the ASIMO design since 1986. As of late 2004 the robot could recognize up to ten faces, run at a clip of three kilometers an hour, respond to a handshake, and even climb stairs, according to the Honda Web site (http://asimo.honda.com). Honda's goal was to create a robot that could be controlled remotely by a handicapped person to complete basic chores around the house such as retrieving the mail, doing the dishes, or moving items from one place to another.

Another group of robot scientists at Purdue University and Japan's Advanced Institute of Science and Technology were working on ways to design robots that had the agility and precision of humans. According to Natalie Goel in "Will New Robots Kick Honda's ASIMO?" (PC Magazine, December 8, 2004), Purdue scientists were placing sensors on human bodies (the same used to create human animation in video games and movies) and then recording precisely how people performed simple tasks in three dimensions. They planned to use these computer analyses of human movement to design robots that moved more like humans. However, given the current cost to produce and maintain humanoid robots, the immediate future of robots will likely resemble the PC-Bot more than the ASIMO.

HIGH TECH AUTOMOBILES

Technological innovations for everyday life are not just occurring in the home. Many advanced IT technologies have made it into the car as well. As of 2004, car buyers had the option to choose certain models of sedans and minivans with proximity sensors in their bumpers. These sensors help to prevent accidents by alerting the driver if something such as a parked car or a small child is too close to the bumper. Global positioning systems (GPS) have also become an option on just about any new car. GPS systems continuously pick up signals broadcast from a network of stationary (nonorbiting) satellites positioned above the Earth. By analyzing its proximity in relation to three of the satellites in the network, the GPS system can pinpoint its location on the surface of the Earth. Most systems then combine this information with an up-to-date map of the local roads to display the car's position on a street map.

In-Vehicle Communications Systems

Combining GPS, cell phone, and sensor technology, several companies have developed what are known as in-vehicle communications systems. In the United States, OnStar was the most widely used of these in-vehicle systems, with over two million subscribers as of 2004. OnStar, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, was first offered on GM vehicles in 1996. The system is activated when the user either presses either a red or a blue button in the car or when the car's airbags are deployed. Pressing the blue button instructs the OnStar cellular unit to dial the main OnStar switchboard. A GPS then relays the vehicle's coordinates through the built-in mobile phone to the operator, telling him or her exactly where the car is. Sensors planted on the car's major systems let the operator know how the car is functioning. The car owner can then request roadside assistance, directions, or information on the status of the car. In the event of a life-threatening emergency, the red button contacts an OnStar emergency service operator who then calls the nearest emergency service provider. The system is also triggered if the air bags go off. In this event, the emergency OnStar operator is called. The operator then notifies the nearest emergency service provider, telling them where the accident took place, as well as the make and model of the car. Finally, the user can call the operator from a phone outside the car to open the car door locks or to report a stolen car. The OnStar operator can assist the police in tracking down a stolen car.

Advances in Safety and Vehicle Communications

According to "The Future of the Car: Intelligence" by Paul Horrell (Popular Science, September 2004), cars will not only likely continue to become more fuel efficient and faster, but more intelligent as well. Companies were experimenting with numerous ways of using external sensors to inform the driver and systems within the car of impending danger. French carmaker Peugeot Citroën, for instance, was experimenting with a system of infrared sensors that scan painted road markings on each side of the car and alert the driver if he or she is straying out of the lane. If the blinker is not on and the driver strays left, the sensors perceive the car crossing the line in the road and the left side of the driver's seat vibrates. If the driver strays right, the right side of the seat vibrates.

Other car companies are tinkering with systems that allow cars to communicate with one another in order to warn drivers of delays or dangerous road conditions ahead. DaimlerChrysler was experimenting with such a system in their European Smart cars. The system employs a bevy of sensors and wireless local area networks (WLAN) much like those used in wireless home computing set-ups. When this intelligent car encounters a traffic jam or black ice, for instance, sensors on the car would detect the problem. The car then would send the information via the WLAN to another car equipped with the system some 500 feet away, which would relay the information on to another car and so on until every car and driver in the area would be made aware of the traffic jam or the black ice.