CES: The Missing Protocol

Link: CES: The Missing Protocol

Jean-Louis Gassée on what’s missing from electronic devices today: the ability to talk back. I think he’s absolutely right:

This being the Consumer Electronics Show, we’ll see a flood of new and improved entertainment devices, TVs, home theaters systems, security cameras and other home control products. All of which have a terrible time talking to one another and being centrally controlled, or even simply controlled.

Why can’t TVs, receivers and DVD players answer questions? Some devices have Ethernet or even WiFi connections and they all contain one or more micro-controllers, but they still resist interrogation. How hard would it be to program a device to provide some feedback?