I read some of your pages with great interest. I'm also planning to "automate" and even "semantic webalize" my house (being a PhD-student, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in that field).

This requires not only theoretical, but also practical work. My ideal is that every machine in my house is connected to my computer, that then can act as a central processing and coordination unit, which allows for an infinite range of configuration-possibilities.

It is a shame that most normal equipment within the normal consumer price-range bought at shops is still not equipped with USB ports (like washing machines, phones, blood pressure monitors, heart rate monitors (which I want to use for bio-feedback experiments), weather-stations, central heating controls, light switching circuits etc.).

I'm wondering whether is a simple basic set of cheap electronic "hacks" which makes it very easy to transform equipment to being connected with the computer. I assume that classical interfaces (like LED displays, or pushing buttons) can be devided into categories which can be hacked with their own approach. So that you don't have to make a complete study of each particular item you bought. For example: * equipment with LCD screens (is there a electronic hack with which works in 99% of these screens) * equipment with specific types of buttons (is there a general electronic hack to allow your computer to "press" them)

It would be great when buying a machine, being able to transform it to peripheral equipment of your computer within the hour.

Any ideas?