Good technology is tedious to build, especially when we’re trying to replicate behavior in the real world.
Many of us old-timers may remember the behind-the-scenes videos of The Lion King, where Disney brought in real-life animals for the artists to study. It’s painful and slow, but that’s how you study the nuances of real-life–same with technology. Those are simply lions–understanding the complex and unpredictable idiosyncrasies of the evolved primates is no simple task.
And so this morning when Calvin was brushing his teeth and going to the bathroom, he was taking a little bit longer than usual. When I opened the door, he had filled the toilet with the remaining toilet paper and he was flushing it, watching it fill up. And that is why I’m very hesitant to relying on overnight technology without fully testing it first. If it was 2 a.m., he could have easily flooded the bathroom–and probably would have laughed while he did it.
But we’ve got to get him going to the bathroom at night. So tonight I’m going to setup alerts to wake me up if he gets out of bed. And when he does, I’ll trigger the system to unlock his door and tell him to go to the bathroom. After waiting a few minutes, the system will re-lock his door and tell him to go back to bed. It’ll take time to understand what other issues we need to worry about, so I’ll need to watch him several nights in a row consistently before I feel comfortable putting my full weight an on automated solution. Cross your fingers.
Leave a Reply