I went to a talk on the Fluid Time Project by Molly Steenson and Michael Keislinger (slides [PDF]) . Some interesting social findings on how time works in groups, but the most interesting part to me was the discussion of instrumenting washing machines in a student housing project and then providing scheduling for them. The system negotiates schedule changes, sends alerts when the laundry's done that depend on how busy the machines are and how prompt the person usually is, and lets users check the status of the machine using their phone. A long time ago, out of frustration, I wanted to build a similar system for scheduling car repairs and doctor's appointments. This is that system.