John La Grou plugs smart power outlets

[PhattyMo]

That's great,but it only address part of the problem. The outlet and everything *after* it (ie,the appliance) will be 'protected'..but what about *BEFORE* the outlet? note,at 0:48 there is a picture of a melted outlet...note that it's the wiring on the back of the outlet (ie,before the 'smart tag") that is melted. the wiring and connections in the walls also need protection.(IOW,his smart plug wouldn't have helped.) Currently that is done by circuit breakers.

[dinogrower]

This technology is not for safety. This is smart technology to allow the government to control how much electricity you are allowed to use. It does not matter if you have the ability to pay the electricity you use. They friendlier dictator will inform you how much you are allowed to use. Bullshit technology. The people will hack it and destroy it for sure.

[cheeseit126]

i love smart inventions

[dev0random]

Worst TED presentation yet. What a way to spin things around to sell your crap product. Lets just pretend GFCI's don't exist and ultra-sensitive circuit breakers (which are just barely coming into the US and Canada) don't exist either.

[alphax999]

It's stupid how he spins the circuit breaker. The fact that most fires happen below the limit is evidence that circuit breakers WORK - if they didn't, the percentage of fires over the limit - as well as the total number of fires - would be much higher. We use old technology because fail-safe mechanisms aren't supposed to depend on anything else working; to maximize reliability they should be self-contained and rely only on basic physics.

[FoundationBreaker]

I don't think the point was to say that a circuit breaker is bad, or even needs to be expunged. The idea is that more safety can be added with the new invention.

[woshinwb]

is this even cost effective to make

that crap at the end is so annoying

[ccm800]

make it affordable

[gandalph54]

thats really cool, such a smart idea

[danno1111]

Not much of a talk - just a marketing presentation.

I assume all extension cords and power bars are going to be similarly outfitted?

[williamn6133]

We've had technology here for a long time that achieves the same result - a fuse in each plug, coupled with a power switch on every socket.

[HecKaTorN]

this actually is bretty brilliant

[TheBestNameEverMade]

When are we simply going to switch to a world standardized USB power like outlet rather then this very old power technology?

[anothergazman]

Nice idea but the differing voltages across the world would create saftey issues with that. The USA is on 110V and the UK is on 240V for instance. That said, having seen the kind of plugs and sockets used in the US they could certainly use updating to make them safer.

[TheBestNameEverMade]

That doesn't make sense. USB's are standard in all counties except they are low power. However they can adjust their power automatically. I don't see why we can't had an power outlet that will give whatever voltage and currency the device requests as well has having the option of connecting to all other devices in the house hold.

[anothergazman]

yes but you can't run high power devices off of usb (they're far to small and won't provide the needed current without burning out). The problem concerning power sockets all being the same is that you could easily plug a 110v device into a 240v socket. In order to do so safley requires what is called a "step down transformer" a rather chunky piece of equipment if you require it to provide more than a couple of amps (think of the size of your phone charger which only provides milliamps).

[BraksnenProductions]

valid point, but I'm sure they would have common sense enough to make a different model depending on what voltage the circuit breaker runs. not to sound rude, but that's elementary in this work. you're going under the assumption that they think EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE is the exact same. Give these guys alittle more credt.

[anothergazman]

No offence taken. If you look again though i didn't say the tecnology couldn't be applied to different regions just that worldwide standardisation of power outlets themselves (as TheBedtNameEverMade suggested) to one type of plug and socket design is inpractical.

[dev0random]

lol? Updating in what way? the US plugs are pretty idiot proof compared to others, while the British have to use their brilliant fused plugs because of extremely outdated electrical loops being used in the country. I see you know nothing of electrical outlets so best shut your mouth son.

[anothergazman]

I simply meant that the pins on a us plug are uninsulated unlike uk ones which have only the lower half exposed, this is so that you cant touch the pins whilst the plug is in far enough to touch the live connections in the socket. FYI I am a qualified electrician and have experience with both us and uk plugs and sockets and plugs from when i was producing machines for both markets. Oh and I never said our system was perfect. Nice manners you have by the way, way to represent your country.

[freesk8]

The only concern I can see about this technology is that politicians may require that a back-door be installed in the software so that governments may control appliances remotely without warrants or probable cause. Initially, it could be sold to an unwary public as a safety feature, so that fire departments could shut off appliances, or an ecological feature, to cut down peak demand.

But eventually, this power could corrupt, and erode our civil liberties. The ACLU folks should look in to this.

[david0aloha]

Another concern is that there could be a point where only "approved" appliances could be used on "approved" outlets, making it incredibly difficult for small start ups and new products - unless of course they're from a company like general electric that can both easily fund an approval process and twist the arms it needs to twist.

[Kargoneth]

Saving electricity? How? The chips suck electricity when nothing is plugged in.

[Newradical78]

you realize that the chips themselves dont have to draw power at all until activated, say by the act of a switch that is engaged when you plug something in, and that chips this size would use such a rediculously small amount of electricity that it wouldnt even come close by a billionnth of that saved... your point is baseless

[lordmetroid]

Did you know that all the standby leds that exists in Germany in total consumes the output of worth of a nuclear plant...

[danno1111]

It's not just LEDs that consume that standby power. Any device that has an internal clock, for example, requires power to maintain the correct time. A refrigerator needs to monitor temperatures constantly to be able to turn on when it needs to.

[conoba]

Most fridges have not electronics in them. The temperature control is purely mechanic. Unless you have one that has an LCD display and is connected to the Internet.

[hoplahey]

No I did not know that. Lets do the math.

Take a 500 MW nuclear plant

Add some 30 mW LEDs

Divide by population.

That gives us that every man, woman, old, young, and baby each own 200 appliances that are on standby.

Likely? Not very...

[DauthiPsycho]

good idea. now i can't shock myself anymore! YAY!!!!

[javierenchina]

how do the devices know when they're drawing too much current...?

[cosy18]

heat I suppose

[mtssvnsn]

Bad design.

The communication parts cant be placed in the plugs and outlets, since cords are mostly separate items form the appliances, and there can also o be all kinds of extensions between.

[conoba]

Impractical and it carries the burden of patents and royalties. If it was open source it might be a nice idea.

I doubt every manufacturer of electrical appliances will want to apply for a license just to plug their product into the power grid. And what about old appliances? They will not work because they do not have a chip. This guy does not care about safety, he wants to sell semi useless shit.

[int3rl0per]

Greedy, thoughtless profiteering by abusing the good will of the people ("think about how much electricity this'll save!") - you'll save the same amount of electricity by just powering down whatever you use after you're done with it. Very little energy gets wasted just by having cabling around.

Also, like I said earlier, making this tech standard would mean this guy gets to decide what devices can legally get power from the outlets, as he holds the patents...

[phnixlady]

They will be able to make me trash my older appliances, shut off my overloaded plugs if they think it is dangerous, tell me no christmas lights in that area, lots of good things for my home, and they can even shut off my unused rooms! PS If parents made homes child safe...

[rflosi]

It's too bad you are getting patents on this. More people would benefit if you opened up your research data for free or for a charge.

[laalillaa]

What was that "SAVES ENERGY" part at the end ?? Just crappy green sale words of today. Maybe people should just check out EUROPEAN stantards with electricity(like plugs etc.) ?? Come on people this is not five star stuff. Two stars at most. I will give 1 because of the mislead !

[lordmetroid]

Those patents will kill the invention.

If it would have been open source many many many more people could produce and deliver the product. But nooo, they had to put an electric fence with guard dogs around their idea so it doesn't spread.

Stupidity!

[int3rl0per]

Making this tech standard would make these people a lot of money and power - they'd be the ones to decide what electrical device can get juice and what can't. :)

I also wonder how this would work with, say, computer power cables, as the power draw of a modern computer can be anywhere from 50 to 1200 watts depending on the situation and hardware. Obviously you couldn't just swap cables around like you can nowadays, as the chips would be rated for the wrong loads.

[intrepgun]

this doesn't have to be in every product, in every cable, in every outlet. it's just a great idea.

[librophile]

Few invent anything to truly serve humanity. It's all about making a "buck".

It's like comparing Thomas Edison ... BUCK-BUCK-BUCK ... to Nikola Tesla ... HUMANITY-HUMANITY-HUMANITY.

Tesla---possibly the greatest genius who ever walked this earth---wanted to provide "free" wireless energy to the world. He gave us the technology for the 20th, 21st & 22nd centuries.

But conservative J.P. Morgan & Thomas Edison destroyed his humanitarian dream.

Sadly very few know of this great genius.

[kyledrum15]

well I highly doubt tesla coils could be built around the world to the extent that there would be no need for wired electricity

[librophile]

Read on wireless electricty and on Tesla's experiments.

The satellites in spaces, providing us with worlwide wireless communication are based on his idea.

He could visualize in his mind complex futuristic & advanced concepts that elude most people ... even today.

He was limited by the non-existent technology of his era. Bear in mind that Tesla formulated his advanced concepts back in the 1800's.

[WPM1414]

Tesla's idea was far too advanced for his time and still is. Not to mention that an industry dominated by companies like A Southern Company, such technology would never be allowed. For now, it is far too expensive for such a novel and, dare I say, useless technology.

[freesk8]

Each manufacturer would set a certain current limit based on engineering analysis for each product. For a blender, for instance, just put a food with a lot of drag (crushed nuts?) in the blender and set the motor to "high." This would be the normal current limit. This would be encoded in to the chip in the end of the plug. Exceed that limit by some reasonable safety factor and the wall outlet shuts down the power.

Kargoneth points out that the chips would always suck power... troubling.

[freesk8]

Adam Smith pointed out that in a truly free market, people pursuing their individual self-interests very often result in a better outcome for all of society than would central control.

FA Hayek pointed out that well-meaning regulators can never have enough information to control behavior, and will tend to create bad outcomes for society through unintended consequences. With all it's flaws, a profit-oriented system tends to yield the best outcomes for the poor.

[mockingarab]

It's all about money, green my ass.

[gothicowl]

but money is green

[lordmetroid]

Not the notes I use, those are in so many colors I can not start to describe all of them.

[farnium]

Haha. Its a free market baby! Green is the only way you'll make people go green!

[Monchanger]

So is your philosophy never to purchase something from which someone will profit, even if it ends up saving you money?

I'm a big fan of helping out your neighbor for free, but the biggest obstacle to changing the world for the better is always "that would be too expensive". You can't disregard something because it's a business venture. Scrutinize- sure, but don't outright dismiss.

PS- you should probably get that checked out by a doctor :)

[adamredwine]

I love this idea. People always suggest unplugging devices when you're not using them, but no one does. With this, you don't even have to think about it.

[lordmetroid]

I do... I got my extension cords with an on/off switch. A button and my electronics has no power at all.

[awerner2007]

sounds good. But, this aint gonna be like those toilets you have to flush three times is it?

[pieface1726]

its... a good idea and it will save lives... is it economically feasible? and how easy would it be to install in a GLOBAL scale? from what i see, this would be rendered useless with any old appliance...and lets be honest no one wants that.

[glassandsteel]

Having worked at Leviton Mfg. in the past, I can say that this sort of innovation has HUGE potential. Hopefully, it'll be manufactured in the U.S.

[cfrend]

ideas that will change the world! My taupe is off to you!

[superchan]

...wait that would mean we would have to change every power outlet and plug that we have. Not to mention the fact that it would be impossible to use older things which don't have the chip right?

[elspoko]

Yes it would, but it would be worth it. The price of electronics would go up maybe a dollar, but think of the reward.

[superchan]

it may be worth it, but the cost associated with converting every plug in your house would be costly and once converted u cant use any of your old electronics that has the original old plug. So in the end if this actually happens it would just turn into a huge headache/ waste of time, therefore never gonna happen.... good intention impossible execution

[SchinTeth]

It doesn´t have to happen all in one year...I think this is a process that can start now and continue over time until everyone has it. Light bulbs replaced laterns in this way too, there was much to change out

[Mornys]

Whee. Should also decrease the cost of fire insurance and amount of insurance frauds. Great invention, great benefits.

[edwar666]

excelent!!!

[bd593]

amazing.

[mikol08mikol08]

interesting...

[dakotamorgany106]

sounds useful