the one of the banks of Washington lake (suburb of Medina, Washington) there is a beautiful house. The price of this house is $55 000 000. Why is it so expensive? Because this is a house of the Microsoft king Bill Gates. It looks like 4 floor building, but in fact there are 8 floors, 4 of them are under ground. Economically this project is reasonable because in USA you pay taxes for the area which is on the ground, and do not pay for underground area. More than 3500 sq meters include twelve rooms, 24 bathrooms, basin, home cinema, library, dance room and picture gallery.underground part of the building is also supplied with daylight. For this purpose there was built 84 kilometer long cable made of optical fiber. On the 4th floor there is an energy supply system. Even if the electricity in the district will go down Mr. Gates still will be able to watch TV. The security of Microsoft’s king is provided by skillfully hidden cameras (there are about 50 of them). There are also 2 cameras that detect the car number when it enters the gates or passes by.
Everyone who is inside the house has a pin with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). If you want to enter the house you need to get such pin from the security, which is not so easy. And after you receive this pin you will have access only to some rooms. For other rooms doors will be closed for you. Identification of the RFID gives for Mr. Gates great opportunity to show his hospitability. Because with this pins he can program that your favorite music or sound effect will follow you in every room of the house, the illumination will be set according to your preferences and even the smell in the room will be your favorite rose or chocolate.of the house can enjoy the beautiful paintings of famous painters such as Van Gogh or Rembrandt. These paintings are shown on the plasma panels. They can also visit picture gallery where Gates keeps some original paintings. But for very rare and valuable paintings access is limited. If the guest turn offs the route, the system will immediately detect it, by reading information from RFID pin and will inform the host with a very loud sound signal.the grass and bushes in front of his house have their own watering system. Each bush is watered with a set amount of water with set pressure.building this house Bill Gates spent 7 years. The best US building company did everything to implement the dream of their famous client. The result is a perfect system, which is controlled by hundreds of computers, by three professional securities and one engineer. Systems of water cleaning provide house with clean water, air-conditioners make the air in the house fresh, vacuum cleaner robots clean the house.people will say, what if something will go wrong? The whole house then will be in chaos. But smart projectors of this house predicted this thing too. If something will happen with a system (which is unlikely to happen) each device has its equivalent manual control.
Of course the secret project of Bill Gate’s house know only he and two more people who helped him to develop this idea. They signed the document which declares that they will never open this secret to anyone. (“Экскурсия в самый дорогой «умный дом» в мире [Excursion to the Most Expensive “Smart Home” in the World].”)
House-friend of elders
looked at all gadgets and systems, that are usually present at Smart houses. Some houses may have all of them some may have just some. If talk about houses designed for aged generation, they are pretty much the same. Everything is done in order to achieve comfort of the elder inhabitant of the house. However, the main emphasis is made on the making life of aged people easier and safer. Let’s look at the first case, where Smart house helps people with memory disorders.
Case #1
According to BBC news, in 2000 year a new gadget was developed to be a part of a smart house technology. Elders are usually tended to forget things. How many times your grandma asked you if you have seen her glasses or bag? Now you have the solution. Engineers created a house adapted to elderly people and also for people with developing dementia.
The idea of such house first came to Professor Jane Gillard of Dementia Voice after she saw a house developed for people with disabilities. Her main purpose was to make a comfortable house for people whose main problem is forgetfulness. "The design philosophy is to emulate what a good live-in carer would do", she says."We're not wanting the house to take control of people's lives but to enable them to live safer and more securely in their own homes for longer."houses are fitted with a wall sensory panel. Unlike in typical smart houses, on this panel every function has a picture. This was made because aged people, as a rule, do not remember all these names, and it is more difficult for them to read than to see the picture. For example if you forgot where did you put your keys, you need just to press the button with a picture of a keys. Special chip in the keys will send a sound signal to inform you where they are.of such houses is in Gloucester. The system is pretty easy. All the switches in the house are fitted with bright lighting stripes, so that elders can easily see and find them. In the kitchen cupboards are without doors. This was made in order for aged people to see what they have in them in case if they forget where they keep things. One interesting thing is that the electric kettle is made of metal. Some elders (usually with dementia) put electric kettle on the hob.are also sensors in the bath. These sensors detect when the bath is full and send signal to the inhabitant. If person does not turn off the tap, system automatically stops water feed. There are also detectors which control the temperature of the water. In during the night your grandfather wants to drink water and gets up, the floor on his way will be illuminated. This is because in the bed there are special sensors which detect when you are in bed and when you get up. After these sensors sense that you stood up, they automatically send signals to the illumination system. Illumination system, by-turn, with a help of its detectors, turns on the light where it is needed.interviewed an old lady, Margaret Morgan. She is 73 years old. Every year she is getting older and her memory gets worth. She is also suffers from developing dementia. She really liked the idea of such house. "It would maintain my independence," she said. The thing that impressed her the most was a wall panel.estimate that buying this house will be more profitable than paying to the carer, who will help and look after elders. (“Smart house unveiled.”)
Case #2
Smart houses improve the quality of life of elders. In these smart houses the main goal is to take care of them. The whole system is programmed so that every signal is recorded in the service center.the whole house there are infrared detectors which detect presence in the room. They are called motion detectors. There are detectors even on the chairs and on the bed, which called pressure sensors. When person enters the room, sensor sends the data to the lamp shaped gateway. This gateway is usually placed in a special room with other controllers. Then gateway gathers the data and sends it to the telecare center. What if, person falls down because of heart attack or any other reason? Then sensors try to find him in all parts of the house. Even the pressure sensors are looking for the inhabitant. Because person is on the floor sensors do not detect him. After some time (usually time programmed by the owner) gateway sends all the data plus an emergency message to telecare service. From there operator immediately calls the doctor. Several minutes later doctor is in the house.
This system prevented a lot of people from death. It was developed by Australian specialists, and became very popular. ("Chapter 4/ Ethical issues facing the use of technologies for the aged community.")
Conclusion
Comparing these two cases, I want to say that there are no main differences there. Both of these houses are taking care of their hosts. The thing I want to mention here is that I think that the systems used in the second case is more useful for the society. Why? Because this system can really help to people who tend to have health problems, which cause fallings. I myself would prefer my grandmother to have such system in her house. Because two years ago she was at home alone, and in the kitchen she slipped in the kitchen and fell on the floor. As everyone was at their work, she tried to creep till phone to call us. After we called to the doctor, they took her to hospital. The diagnosis was a breakage of the hip. Doctor said that if she did not have to creep towards the ph ne she would have only fracture. So I on my experience feel how this house can be useful for aged community.thing I found between these two cases is that, the opinions about smart houses among elder people differ. For example, interviewed woman, Margaret Morgan (Case #1), said that the system will help her to maintain her independence. Whereas in the second case there was raised the problem, that some patients are worrying about their privacy. They do not feel comfortable in the house which is watching them. Some of the elder people are afraid of this technology. The fact that their house can think and may make its own decisions scares them. They are afraid that now on their children forget about them, leaving their elders with a “almighty house”. But I think that this problem can be solved as, children will let their old parents know that they are needed, and they will never forget about them.house, multiroom and all these technologies will not change your way of life, they will change your quality of life. People, including elders, will start loving their house for his understanding them from one touch. In USA and Europe some people already enjoy their new intelligent houses, and they do not regret that they spent money on it.
Works cited page:
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