Nokia has today announced its intention to increase its control over your life from your pocket and ear through to your home.

The firm is developing a smart home platform, dubbed the Home Control Center. Although this sounds like something out of The Truman Show or some other dystopian nightmare, it is actually the basis for next generation security, smart home solutions and household energy management systems, according to the handset giant.

Nokia will be looking for third parties to develop on the platform. It also mentions the magic word - green - explaining that by using the system, consumers could monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects such as temperature, camera and motion. In the future, "entire systems within the home can be connected to the Nokia platform, including security, heating, and ventilation systems", the firm explains.

Oh no, here we go again. Have they never seen a sci-fi movie? This can only turn out badly with the machines realising that they are better than their lazy, energy wasting users and deciding that the best way to save unnecessary power is to shut us off and leave everything else to hum away merrily.

It's not like the machines need us anyway, something Nokia knows already. "We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home," said Teppo Paavola, vice president and head of Corporate Business Development at Nokia.

Ssssh, Teppo. Can't we pretend that these machines need us more than we need them, in the short term at least?

28 Nov 2008