VNIITE of the planet of the whole: how in the USSR they came up with the “smart home” system

In the mid-1980s, the USSR not only played perestroika and remade Simca 1307 in Moskvich-2141, but also tried to predict the future of the ordinary consumer. It was quite difficult, especially in conditions of total deficit. However, Soviet scientists were able to predict the appearance of laptops, smartphones, smart glasses and wireless headphones.

It's funny that already then, 30 years ago, elements of wearable electronics were well thought out:

“The most unexpected decisions are possible here: for example, sunglasses, which, on the user's command, turn into a display showing time or other necessary information (heart rate, body temperature or ambient air).”

This is a project born in the bowels of the All-Union Research Institute of Technical Aesthetics (VNIITE). With some reservations, this project can be called a “smart home” system. The institute calculated the main drawback of all household devices - the lack of a single system that could combine a TV, tape recorder, VCR, computer, printer, speakers. And they proposed a solution to this problem in the journal " Technical Aesthetics " for September 1987.

So, get acquainted. Here is the Superfunctional Integrated Communicative System - SPHINX, created by Igor Lysenko, Alexei and Maria Kolotushkins, Marina Mikheeva, Elena Ruzova under the leadership of Dmitry Azrikan. The developers described the project as one of the possible design solutions for the 2000 home television and radio complex. It was not so much a project of things as a draft of the principle of interaction of consumers with information sources.


Almost all devices are easy to identify, right?

The idea seems pretty simple and rational. The SPHINX was to combine all the input and output devices with a common processor, which also acts as a data warehouse and a means of receiving and transmitting them outside. The information received by the processor was distributed across screens, columns and other blocks. So that these blocks could be placed throughout the apartment (for example, a film with an audio track is displayed on one screen, a video game in the other, a computer with work tasks works in the office, and an audio book is read in the kitchen), it was suggested to lay in the apartment (possibly even during the construction of the house) the so-called "busbars". That is, some universal cables that could power the electronics and control it through the processor.

Quote from the article:

“SPHINX - electronic equipment of the home of the future. All work on the reception, recording, storage and distribution of various types of information is carried out by the central apartment processor with a universal storage device. The latest research gives reason to hope for the emergence of such a universal carrier in the near future. It will replace (first supplement) phonograph records, audio and video cassettes, current CDs, photographs and slides (still pictures), printed texts, etc. ”

On the left is a block with a central processor SPHINX. These are the strange “petals” in the tail unit - information carriers, analogues of modern SSDs, HDDs, flash drives, or, in extreme cases, CDs. In the USSR, they were sure that at first the universal data carrier would be disk, and then crystalline, without moving mechanisms in the reading devices.

In the middle, there were two options for a large control panel. Blue - touch, in the recess has an additional small manual remote control. White - pseudosensory, in the recess - the handset. It could be connected to the screen in the form of a tablet and get something that resembles a modern laptop. To the right of the keyboard is a pair of “more - less” keys to adjust any parameters.

On right- Small handheld with docked display. The diagonal arrangement of buttons, as was then thought, is extremely convenient for working with the remote control. Each key should have been highlighted; if necessary, it was possible to activate an audible response to a press.

Note that the SPHINX devices were divided into three groups:

1. Wearable
2. Housing related
3. Transport Related

It’s easy to find out “smart bracelets” and watches, “smart home” and car on-board computers.

What could be done with the help of SPHINX? ” Yes, the same thing that we do today: watch TV and movies from the music library, listen to music, receive weather data, make video calls.

“Here you can watch movies, video programs, television shows, works of art, other images and phonograms, collective computer games, fragments of a family album can also be displayed here. The family can arrange friendly teleconference or business meetings. Additional information (time, weather, information, other channels, etc.) may be presented on a cut-in frame ”,

- dreamed in the USSR.

Both wired and wireless connection of the remaining devices was provided. The developers were confident that the processor would be able to receive information and relay it to other household devices through a radio signal (Wi-Fi prototype). The central processor had to contain a unit that converted various types of signals into digital form.

The processor itself acted only as a means to distribute tasks to other devices. Therefore, it was not required to be stored in a conspicuous place. True, if you push the device somewhere far away, then it will be difficult to insert "petals" into it - the keepers of information. It was assumed that each such drive is responsible for leisure or workload for one family member. That is, for example, films and games are recorded on one medium, music and training programs on the other, business and creative applications on the third, etc.



The central processor had to transmit the necessary content to the display.

“SPHINX allows you to start equipping an apartment with any of the primary monofunction. The number of devices is not growing in direct proportion to the number of users and functions, but very slightly. ”

- in fact, this is the idea of ​​a smartphone. How many applications (functions) do not install, and the size of the device does not change. Unless a larger memory card will have to be inserted.

The system looked very beautiful , but all the features of the SPHINX, like the system itself, at that time looked good only on the pages of magazines. On the creation of a workable layout, not to mention the implementation of ideas in life, there was no question. The Soviet Union was rapidly approaching the final stage of collapse, with coupons for sugar, soap and meat, with aggravated ethnic conflicts and impoverishment of the population. Who was interested in the fantasies of some designers and engineers?

And then what?

As for VNIITE, nothing interesting happened there until the mid-2000s. The state has changed, and if before almost all products manufactured in the USSR passed through VNIITE, now this was not the case. The institute became impoverished, lost branches in other cities and many employees, and closed the design center on Pushkinskaya Square. The staff was engaged mainly in scientific work with almost the same composition as in the 80s.

However, in the mid-zero, the situation has changed. New people came, new ideas appeared. And in 2013, the research institute was attached to the University of RTU MIREA by order of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation No. 461. This did not end its activity. On the contrary, since 2014, the annual International Day of Industrial Design (including on the territory of Skolkovo) has been held. The ergonomic laboratory was launched again, the theory and methodology department and the design department were resumed, state tasks and educational projects appeared. Among the most anticipated projects, we highlight the Ergonomic Atlas. Why is it important? Says Sergey Moiseev, Director for Development of the Institute:

“Since 1971, anthropometric indicators have not been measured in our country, and their physical parameters change over time. Atlas is already at the final stage of work, it will be released soon. This is an important thing, because now in Russia there are standards for clothes, labor protection standards, workplaces - all this corresponds to the 1971 measurements. ”

As for the SPHINX project manager Dmitry Azrikan, he moved to the United States, where he became the design director of International Promotion Inc. In Chicago, and received more than a hundred certificates for industrial designs and patents in Russia and the United States. And the author’s designer training program developed by him at Western Michigan University (USA) was approved and received a certificate from NASAD (National Association of Schools of Art and Design).

Dmitry, by the way, finalized his idea. In 1990, Spain introduced its concept of " electronic office " Furnitronics . And at an exhibition in 1992 in Japan, a flurry of emotions triggered the futurological concept of Floating Islands .

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