[stephengillie]

Arduinos can (supposedly) host webpages, and pins can be powered or depowered by (properly parsed) HTML POST commands. Combining this with a relay means we can create WIFI website interfaces for anything that uses electricity.

The opportunities to improve current products are so endless that I become overwhelmed whenever I think about this. We all have the parts to do this today, but so few are assembling them.

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Want to set an outlet to turn on or off at different times? No need to buy a timer, just goto that outlet's website on your WIFI LAN, and set it on a timer. Or you could depower the outlet to make it child-safe.

Are you going on a trip and you're afraid you left the toaster plugged in and your house might burn down? Just VPN to your home LAN, sign into your kitchen's website and have it power off all outlets.

Locked out of your car? Pull out your phone, securely sign into your car's website, and tell it to unlock the doors.

Power and depower garage door openers, sprinklers, RC cars, even industrial equipment from a simple web interface.

[noonespecial]

Couldn't agree more. I wrote a blog post about it a while back demonstrating my take on this. Here's common household appliances getting web interfaces that can be accessed with any smartphone by QR Code. No arduino or soldering mains current required. I think every electronic thing in my house should have a little QR Code next to it so I can just point my phone at it and get its interface.

http://www.thesinglestep.org/thoughts/qrcontrol/

The video halfway down shows it in action.