GE HomeMinder

In 1984, General Electric introduced the HomeMinder, a significant milestone in the Home Automation industry. Being housed in a VCR styled package, it connected to the TV and was controlled by an infrared remote. By "talking" to special modules plugged into typical home outlets through the home's electrical system (by sending unique coded pulses higher than 60 HZ), the user could program things like lights or appliances to turn on or off whenever they wished, as long as they had a module for each device... This was made "easy" to do through a series of graphic menus navigated by the user on their television.

The GE HomeMinder "How To" video I created was meant to detail the experience and specific interactions a user might go through to connect their system and use it to program their first devices. As the video progresses, it quickly becomes evident that home automation doesn't necessarily make life easier. From the intrusiveness of the large modules that are plugged in, to the complexity of the menus for simply turning on and off lights, to arriving home or going to bed "not on schedule," the user may find him or herself shaping their life around the technology, rather than the other way around.

California College of the Arts, MFA Design
IXD+2D Project 1
September 13, 2012

[VideoNOLA]

I MISS MY HOMEMINDER so much! It went tits up in the late 1990s, but I kept all of my old X10 equipment, even though kids today think it's obsolete.

[JeffDeWitt]

Oh... and I like the simulated Homeminder and on this video, well done, the wheels to set the codes on the controllers was an especially nice touch.

[JeffDeWitt]

I had one of these, you could also plug it into the phone line. You could call your house, the Homeminder would answer, you punch in a code with a touch tone phone and turn off or on that device you wanted to control. I'd call home before leaving work and turn the heat up. What REALLY drives me nuts is 30 years later there STILL isn't anything on the market that worked as well as that bit of 1980's technology.

[nomajon]

actually you could also control it from keypads that you could set on end tables which was easier to do, the main thing the homeminder unit was used for was timed events or telephone transpondence to turn things on or off. now they also have remote controls that fit on your key fob to controll the system

[doodledee]

Um, you are lacking more pictures of how cute the display looked. There were icons for chandeliers, sconces, table-lamps, carriage lights. The light modules could also remotely or programmably dim lights. One could use the modules as volume controls for audio devices.