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Freshman MIT Students Automate Dorm Room

Posted by Hemos on Mon May 29, 2006 10:01 AM
from the kraftwerk-would-be-proud dept.
Robotics
Inessa writes "Two freshman MIT students have automated their dorm room, complete with a big red party button which generates an instant party. Their custom-engineered system is called MIDAS, the Multi-Function In Dorm Automation System. According to the MIT News office, "Gone are the light switches and glaring fluorescent lights of a typical dorm room. Zack Anderson and RJ Ryan's room has several lighting schemes, remote web access, voice activation, a security system, electric blinds and more ... With the touch of one red button, their dorm room becomes a rave. The lights go out, the blinds close, the displays read, "feel the energy" as a voice repeats the same phrase over a deep bass beat.""
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  • What a couple of nerds... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2006, @10:03AM (#15424596)
    And I mean that in the good way, not in the bad at sports way.

  • Otherwise it wouldn't be MIT... would it? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ravee (201020) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:06AM (#15424607) Homepage Journal
    This inculcation of curiosity and resourcefulness is what makes studying at MIT truly unique. No wonder it is one of the premier educational institutions in the world.

      • Re:MIT's drug abuse problem (Score:5, Insightful)

        by kimvette (919543) on Monday May 29 2006, @12:36PM (#15425164) Homepage
        Sorry, but I would not dump all MIT grads in the same bucket. They're just like anyone else - there are the folks who can't work with others and need to do things their own way, even when their way is the hard way, and then there are the truly brilliant and personal folks. I've worked with MIT grads at software companies and some of them have been simply amazing - although not the best. The absolute best architects and programmers I have worked with were the folks who picked up programming out of necessity on the job back when standards were only beginning to emerge, and loved the work so much they went to technical schools to immerse themselves in good programming and design courses. I suppose it comes down to experience and practicality; if all you know is theory you're not going to be any good in solving real-world problems.

        I would not discount all MIT grads based on one negative experience you've had.

        • Re:MIT's drug abuse problem (Score:4, Insightful)

          by Sage Gaspar (688563) on Monday May 29 2006, @04:58PM (#15425974)
          I'd imagine MIT grads are a lot like grads from other schools. They have a couple advantages: the reputation and difficulty of courses that they passed, and the environment. Being surrounded by people as talented and enthusiastic as you works wonders.

          However, what's vastly more important than simply getting good grades for the top jobs and especially graduate work is demonstrating your ability. Come out of any halfway respectable school having published a paper in a decent journal (or at least written a good paper), done some sort of other neat research, written (and sold!) some great programs, etc, and you have a huge advantage over someone who's merely got the grades and the school rep.

          Professors in college are mainly there to teach you how to properly teach yourself and give you the fundamentals in the field you've finally chosen. As long as you got a couple professors who know what it is to research and work in industry that aren't total bums, they should be able to impart all the necessary wisdom to you. Being instructed by Nobel Laureate Professor X. Winnar or Fields Medalist Q. Bert Hawtsauce is nice for letters of recommendation, I'll give them that, but in my experience hasn't shown much of a difference as far as undergrad learning.

          To make up for the environment at my smaller and less tech-oriented school, I spent semesters and summers abroad at programs targeted to people in my situation. Going to those programs were invaluable, they were funded by the government, and they gave me a chance to really get immersed in my subject with students who felt as passionately about it as I did. It also gave me some amazing contacts in terms of notable names in my field, one of whom has offered to fund my grad studies.

          So really, like most other things, it's your talent, the effort you put in, and lots of plain dumb luck. Had I chosen a more highly ranked school I would've come out of undergrad with amazing amounts of debt, and I don't know if I would've really improved on my grad outlook. This way, I have something like $10k in low-interest government loans and I'm getting fully funded with a very nice stipend at a good grad school.
      • I've spoken to a lot of managers at high-tech companies that won't hire fresh MIT grads because a)they don't know anything actually useful and b)they think they know everything, so when they're doing something wrong, they don't listen to coworkers, team leaders, and managers.

        As a manager at a high tech company, my experience has been entirely different. While we don't get a lot of MIT graduates coming to the west coast, the ones who have worked for me have been fantastic in terms of being bright, energe

  • great, but (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2006, @10:08AM (#15424619)
    they couldn't solve the "where do we get chicks from?" problem. or maybe, these oxygen gas bottles are of some use after all..

  • Thanks, Mom and Dad (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ScentCone (795499) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:09AM (#15424620)
    Why, when we were in college, we couldn't afford to have all of that expensive automation gear. We had to get up off of our asses and actually turn lights off on and on, and we liked it that way. In-room fridge? Hah! We were so poor, we had to keep a little piece of Velveeta frozen on the dorm room window sill, saving it up for our big Friday night celebrations. But tell that to kids today, and they won't believe you. No sir.
  • Why is it I get the feeling that there is a reason these guys have that much time on their hands?

    Nice work and all that, but most decent parties at college include three staple ingredients

    1) Alcohol
    2) Women
    3) Alcohol

    Though alcohol appears twice this is on purpose, once to get you drunk enough to ask, then a woman to ask, the second to get her drunk enough to agree. Now an automated party system that achieved that... the guys would be millionaires by next Wednesday.

  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by sakusha (441986) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:13AM (#15424636)
    I bet their dorm room still smells like dirty laundry.

  • In soviet russia... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2006, @10:14AM (#15424639)
    the party button pushes you!
  • While they're at it, they'd better install that Korean female robot wearing something slinky - because they'll never get any real women in there... and at least she won't collapse in hysterics when told to "feel the energy"...
      • I can see it now...

        MIT guy: And check out my wired dorm! Playing "feel the energy"!
        Girls: Collapse in helpless laughter
        MIT guy: Wait! you can't laugh at me! Think of my huge earning potential!
        -- 2 seconds utter silence --
        Girls: Collapse in even more hysterical laughter...

        ...but no, you're right of course, they'd come round... but I'm not sure the room will really help... and anyway, who's to say the Korean robot chick isn't a better long-term bet?

  • Rave??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 29 2006, @10:26AM (#15424684)
    Hey, 1989 called, they want their party terms back...
    • C'mon, a rave button would be cool. You stair at the big button marked DO NOT TOUCH. It calls to you. DO NOT TOUCH. No one is around. DO NOT TOUCH. Touch me, it seems to say. DO NOT TOUCH. You touch it. Oh GOD what have I done? The lights are dimming. There's techno music with its hypnotic beat: DOUCHE DOUCHE DOUCHE DOUCHE DOUCHE DOUCHE. Glowsticks drop from the ceiling. Ecstasy. Coke. Venereal disease.

      Ah, the best years of my life.

  • Next project... (Score:5, Funny)

    by reset_button (903303) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:30AM (#15424703)
    the "off" button.
  • The lights go out, the blinds close, the displays read, "feel the energy" as a voice repeats the same phrase over a deep bass beat."

    Appearantly, these "freshmen" haven't been out of their dorm room since the early 90's

  • "feel the energy" (Score:3, Funny)

    by d'fim (132296) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:37AM (#15424727)
    "feel the energy" . . . I'll bet THAT never gets old!

  • One Man Party (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Aaron England (681534) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:38AM (#15424731)
    Now comes the hard part: make friends to utilize their party room.

  • Next Story (Score:5, Funny)

    by enrgeeman (867240) <slashdot@enrgeeman.com> on Monday May 29 2006, @10:44AM (#15424752) Homepage
    Someone gets in through remote web access and continually makes it party mode.

  • Video (Score:5, Informative)

    by freaktheclown (826263) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:56AM (#15424796)
    You can watch a video here [youtube.com] of it in action.

  • Also has fleeing female mode.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Beebos (564067) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:07AM (#15424833)
    At a single voice command the door swings shut and locks, bars secure the window, the lights dim, room oxygen is reduced by 20% creating a lightheadedness, and the audio system repeats the phrase "Give in, you know you want me".

  • Instant party, just add... (Score:3, Funny)

    by heatdeath (217147) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:36AM (#15424934)
    friends. Although, judging from how they've tricked out their room, they're probably in short supply of those.

  • "feel the energy"? Fiddlesticks. (Score:3, Funny)

    by marxmarv (30295) on Monday May 29 2006, @02:05PM (#15425474) Homepage
    I'd rather have "The system... is down... [homestarrunner.com]"

    -jhp

  • Stupid kids... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fwwr5007 (977554) on Monday May 29 2006, @02:24PM (#15425531)
    ...I'll build my own party button. With blackjack. And hookers.

    • Re:Bit small for a party (Score:5, Funny)

      by good soldier svejk (571730) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:10AM (#15424628)
      in other words, how does it scale?"

      • how we manage (Score:4, Informative)

        by r00t (33219) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:17AM (#15424857) Journal
        Quickies. Empty classrooms. The shower. Behind the bushes. Right on the main campus lawn if she has the right kind of skirt or dress... not that I'd know about THAT one. :-)

        Usually you can pay extra to ditch the roommate, but this may involve a much longer walk to class. If the school is uncrowded and/or you claim to have some sort of mental issue (Asperger's, severe ADD, etc.) you might be able to get a regular double to yourself, with or without paying double.

        Many places have dorms for married students, regularly visited by the stork.

      • Re:Bit small for a party (Score:5, Insightful)

        by CokeBear (16811) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:28AM (#15424896) Journal
        I'm not sure how other folks do it, but in my year in a dorm, I introduced my roommate to my girlfriend's roommate, and they seemed to get along well enough that by the end of the year, girlfriend and roommate had basically traded rooms.

    • Re:Wow! (Score:5, Funny)

      by DingerX (847589) on Monday May 29 2006, @10:32AM (#15424707) Journal
      Be sarcastic if you must, but their next upgrade is to integrate a chick magnet into the system. Activating 'party mode' by default spawns a Babe-Level Management Routine (BALMER), which controls the Magnet. Preset desired peak and sustained chick levels are set in the Application Data Layer, and MIDAS carefully manages the Chick Magnet to maintain the ambient babeness at the level desired for the activity. When the security cameras, IR sensors, or seismographs determine that levels are exceeded, the Magnet is taken off line or dropped to a lower power level (From "Ferrari" to "Porsche" all the way down to "Ford Fairlane").

      It all looks very impressive on paper, but they're having trouble getting enough juice to those magnets, and as yet have been unable to give the BALMER anything but a dry run.

    • Re:It May Look Nice... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Aerion (705544) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:49AM (#15424997)
      It's all a nice setup, but when happens when these kids have to move out of that dorm? (Due to a pile of dirty laundry growing legs and chewing on wires)

      If they want, they don't have to move out for three years. On most halls at East Campus, you can squat your room as long as you want (except that they'll probably have to keep squatting it as a double).

      I bet everything has been screwed or nailed in, modified and altered to accommodate all this equipment. Who allowed them to do this?

      Joe Graham. ("Kids making illegal modifications to their rooms? I'm on it!")

      Last time I checked you weren't allowed to mess around with dorm rooms.

      At East Campus, you actually are allowed to mess around with dorm rooms. Murals are painted everywhere, and all sorts of cool shit happens. The building is so old that nobody cares anymore, except for the Cambridge Fire Department. And if you keep the room's door locked during inspection, they don't have to know about it.

      Nice system and all, but -10 practicality. Maybe it would have worked better in a house or apartment. They should have worked more in how it looked and how it was to be set up instead of just building it.

      Yeah, but by the time they live in a house or apartment, they won't have the free time to do this kind of stuff. Heck, next term they probably won't have that kind of time.

    • Re:It May Look Nice... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Zackbass (457384) on Monday May 29 2006, @11:52AM (#15425005)
      As a fellow resident of this dorm (East Campus, home of the disco dance floor, time traveler's convention, and numberous other widgets features here at some time) I feel qualified to call you both uniformed and a bit of an ass. :P

      This degree of customization is quite common and encouraged here. The building was built in the 20s and its condition very much reflects that. For that reason students are allowed to do pretty much whatever they can get around the fire code. Many rooms feature lofted beds, weird paint schemes and odd lighting. The hallways are covered completely with student painted murals.

      If they tear it down tomorrow (or Saturday since that was check-out for the summer) and leave big holes in the walls nobody would know the difference. If they leave it in the next residents will take it over since they'll be the same type of person. Also, most people live on the same floor for all four of their years, many staying in the same room.

      My floor, 2E, features a lounge with a lofted couch, hacked together projection system, a water cooled media center, and a 16 processor Alpha (4x ES40) cluster in our kitchen.

      • Re:Where did they get the money for this? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by flooey (695860) on Monday May 29 2006, @12:20PM (#15425097)
        Those things aren't cheap, and most college students are about as destitute as one can be.

        If you read the article, it mentions they got most of the gear off the "reuse" mailing list at MIT. Apparently, it's the equivalent of institutionalized dumpster diving, where they cut out the middleman and just hand equipment to people directly.

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