Sony Outlets Control Electricity Through Authentication 284
itwbennett writes "Sony on Tuesday demonstrated new 'smart sockets' that 'perform authentication whenever a device is plugged in,' said Taro Tadano, a general manager in Sony's technology development division. The company also demoed a home power grid that tracks electricity use by time and appliance."
This has led to speculation that the technology will be used in some places to charge consumers for the use of electricity.
Re:TL;DR (Score:5, Informative)
Of course it is. Sony made it
FTFY
Re:Airports about to screw us, but not coffee shop (Score:5, Informative)
>>Airports however are fee crazy and may very well charge for this
Yeah, trying to find power outlets in some airports is like a game of Where's Waldo. My local airport has all of the power outlets literally locked down under plates so that you can't get at them. In San Diego, I found a single open outlet behind a bunch of benches. I had to camp out next to the bathroom in SFO to recharge my phone while on a business trip. Etc.
Some places have paid-by-ads (usually Samsung) charging stations, which are nice... when they work. Typically half the outlets on them will be broken.
In all seriousness, airports are some of the least traveler-friendly places in America.
Re:Power piracy (Score:5, Informative)
Even if you could do this, why would you want to? Do you want to pay the hotel every time you use your pay-for-power enabled toaster at home?
This isn't a device to let the power company monitor your power usage, it's a way for the facility owner to do so (and possible to charge you for usage). It requires an on-premises controller to communicate with the outlets. When you bring the hotel's outlet home, it won't talk to your controller (well, probably not) and certainly won't send a bill for your usage to the hotel.
Re:Much More Important -- Smart Socket can save li (Score:4, Informative)
Yeah, right. Arc fault circuit interrupters have been required in new construction the US since 2005. These circuit breakers detect not just current leakage to ground like a GFCI, but noisy current draw that indicates arcing. No need for an Internet connection.
Re:Power piracy (Score:4, Informative)
I can't speak for the guy you're responding to, but I did read it all. FYI, I work in the electric/utilities industry and am a Smart Grid specialist. No, not at a Sony lookalike, I'm in the wholesale electric quadrant (WEQ).
There are a lot of people taking this very seriously. For instance, NIST is holding a conference in Chicago next month to talk about cyber physical security design at the engineering (think CAD CAM jockeys) level. That's being followed up by a two day conference at their HQ in Gaithersburg MD to talk about CPS at a more strategic level. The first day will be hearing from other industries what they do in CPS space. The second day will be discussing how it applies to the electric industry. That's being followed by another two day workshop by the Cyber Security Working Group of the SGIP to start the next revision of the NIST IR 7628. That's just off the top of my head of what's coming up in the next few weeks.
Clasma this year started a new conference in their schedule, Grid Sec (or something like that). Clasma, if you don't recognize the name, is the crowd that runs Grid Week, Grid Interop, and Connectivity Week.
If you can think about problems and vulnerabilities, it's not that much of a stretch to imagine there are a bunch of people who do this day in, day out, and are passionate about it, who are also thinking about those same problems and more issues that you wouldn't begin to think about unless you are in the WEQ or REQ.