This article was first published in the August 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online
Hardware designer Alexia McKenzie is surrounded by chronic time-wasters. They check their mail when they return home. (Typical.) They answer their front door when someone knocks. (Lame!) They even do their own laundry. (Why?) McKenzie doesn't want any of this.
If there's a way to eliminate an inefficiency, McKenzie will find it. She installed a sensor that tells her when a letter arrives. A webcam live-streams a view of her doorstep to her phone, so she always knows who's knocking. As for laundry, she doesn't bother -- don't you know there's an app for that? After years of testing and tinkering, McKenzie has transformed her life into a smooth operation managed by apps and hardware. She Lyfts to work, keeps a tablet open to Instacart on her fridge (she never runs out of eggs), and waters her plants remotely. Rigging all this stuff can get complicated, though, so she's taken optimisation one step beyond: McKenzie had a tattoo artist implant a magnet under the skin of her left hand to hold metal parts as she works. "I'll be fiddling with a wire or a screw, and I'll be like, live there for a moment," she says, pointing to the spot. Then she shows off, using another magnet to make the one in her hand spin in circles: "I can make it dance!"
Now San Francisco-based McKenzie is helping others better streamline their lives. For example, her mum doesn't like getting out of the shower, so McKenzie made her a heated bath-mat to ease the transition. And when people invaded a local community centre, she set up an electronic lock system and distributed keycards to the other members. Of course, McKenzie doesn't need one herself, as she has a radio tag embedded next to her magnet -- the key is always in her hand.
How McKenzie has automated her life
- A DIY "brainbox" emits soundwaves to help her sleep
- Her room fan switches on at a set temperature
- Instacartstays permanently open on her fridge
- A homemade irrigation system waters her plants
- A webcam tells her who's at the front door
- A sensor pings her when a letter arrives.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
