From: koen@blade.stack.urc.tue.nl (Koen Holtman)
Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
Subject: smart buildings
Date: 12 Jan 93 14:25:07 GMT


In article <C0Hysr.4oD@NeoSoft.com> claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird) writes:
>Well?  There was a time, only a few years (months?) ago,
>when articles about "smart buildings" filled the popular
>press.  I don't see 'em, now.  Did buildings get smart,
>without me noticing, or is this another trend that's gone
>sideways, or what?

A few months ago my dad got involved in the construction of a smart
buiding, so there is at least one smart building now.

The major smart buiding paradigm is `at least 5 sensors in every room',
and this means that these buidings get *very* expensive. And the point
is (according to my dad) that people do not want 5 sensors in their
room, they want to be able to open the window.

Apart from the obvious snob value, the only selling point of smart
buildings seems to be that it is possible to monitor the condition of
the heating/airco/security/... system over a phone line.  Also, if the
building software discovers a malfunction in the system it can
automatically phone some service people, who can then check out what is
wrong over the phoneline, and even reconfigure the building remotely to
cancel the effect of small malfunctions.  Obviously, this would cause
great savings in transportation costs!

Come to think of it, smart buildings are somewhat like the Enterprise
("Rerout all non-essential power to main deflectors!"), so they can't
be all bad!

But now for the computer folklore part: what programming language do
they use for buildings?

Well, I got a look at a ~200 page listing of (part of?) the buiding's
program, and this is how they would code
 `if the room temperature rises above 30 degrees C, and the humidity is
over 80%, start the ventilation system':

              +-----+
 TEMP --------| >30 |--------\   +---+
              +-----+         ---|   |
              +-----+         ---| & |----------------------------- VENT
 HUM  --------| >80 |--------/   +---+
              +-----+

Yup, the buildings computers were programmed in wiring diagrams! 

You can see that smart buidings are softwarily advanced cutting edge
high-tech artifacts!  Of course they used a plotter to make the
diagrams, and they probably call them `object oriented virtual circuits',
or something like that.

The real program is of course much more complicated than the above
example. The programming language also included things like real time
clocks, timers, and memory elements.

I don't know if all software for the building was written in this way.
It is even possible that the diagrams were only a by-product of the real
program, generated by some CASE tool to satisfy some building safety
rules made up long ago. (But this would not explain why my dad, who had
nothing to do with the software, nor the enforcement of safety rules,
had these listings)

Last thing I heard about it was that the software had already gone
through a (ridiculously expensive) upgrade because a ventilator was
installed in a toilet.

>Cameron Laird

Koen.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Koen Holtman                 TUE  computing science     "Dat zieje wel"
koen@blade.stack.urc.tue.nl   (Ax:*p)==(*p&&p!=&x)          --Multatuli
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