Domestic communications networks for rehabilitation.

Among the more serious consequences of disabilities of many sorts is the need to depend on other people for many services which most people can manage by themselves. While the horror of dependency can be exaggerated by enthusiasts of political correctness ( all of us in industrial societies are totally dependent on other people for most of the necessities of life, and aristocrats of many cultures have for centuries contrived to be even more dependent without feeling inferior ), there is a solid residue of real difficulty for people who physically cannot perform certain necessary tasks for themselves.

Difficulties with moving things about can sometimes be ameliorated by using machines - wheelchairs, robots, or other automata of various sorts. But there are also tasks for which motion is not essential provided that control can be exercised : answering the door, adjusting the heating, turning on the lights, and so on. For tasks of this sort, a domestic communications network can be a satisfactory substitute for mechanical assistance.

My experience of this area is limited to one MSc thesis topic investigated by Mike Diack. Mike designed and constructed an impressive system which used the mains wiring to carry signals between fixed devices and infrared links to mobile devices. His network surpassed the performance of popular networks available at the time, both in transmission speed and in the ability for the controlled devices to respond to the controller.

It would have been interesting to continue the development of this system, but once again resources - particularly students - were not forthcoming.

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