Not a bad idea, but why does it have to physically remove the cord from the wall. In my view it would be much more user friendly if you it just disconnected the power from the socket. Smart homes have this capability even now. This won\'t take off.

Uh, what about the electricity used to sense whether anything is plugged in? That may exceed the power used by electronics with ever more efficient sleep states. That\'s on top of the shortcomings listed in the article. If this is really necessary, why not just have the control circuits cut power to the outlet rather than having electromechanical devices that can jam or fail?

I have a better idea. Stop being lazy. It takes less than 2 seconds of minimal effort to unplug a cord. Do we really need the added expenses of these mechanisms that needs energy to build? I bet the energy saved would be negligible compared to the amount of energy need to be produce, transport and maintain/operate.
And what happens to the \'old\' plug being replaced that works perfectly if you use common sense? Right... to the land fill.
If designers can design/invent/innovate something, doesn\'t mean that something needs to be invented. Common sense is the best invention a man would ever need before anything else needs to be invented/innovated.

It\'s cool, could potentially be a good pranking device, but it\'s not the most practical solution to the problem of energy consumption. It would be better to use the sensor and apply it to a wall outlet that has an on/off switch. They\'ve been making those forever (always found them annoying, never saw a point to them), plus flipping the switch would be easier than plugging a device in again every time you want to use it.

It\'s a case of a solution looking for a problem to solve. But the problem is only temporary, and can be solved in the long run by better designing the domestic electric circuit.
eg
Since many power spike sensitive devices need to be left on, either completely or on standby, new housing should have duplicate wall sockets throughout, one with surge protection, the other without, colour coded appropriately. The non-protected sockets are all controlled by a single wall switch inside the house, and every device which doesn\'t need to left plugged in goes into the non-protected sockets, so flicking the single switch will automatically \"unplug\" every non-essential device throughout the house.
The householder can decide which device should go in which coloured socket and apply appropriately coloured tape insulation tape or paint or ... whatever.
The other alternative which I use is to have two power boards, colour coded, and just do the same thing. By just unplugging one board, I can turn off several items simultaneously. It\'s probably a less costly solution than having the house re-wired.

This is a good Idea however I have to agree with some of the other posters. This is not very practical for most items as it is a huge pain to have to plug in everything in your entertainment system when you want to say watch a movie.
How about this... A completely automated way of unplugging and re-plugging in devices when not in use. It\'s called the Smart Strip. http://bitsltd.net/ These Surge Protectors will *Automatically* stop the flow of power to some of its outlets when one main device is not in use. Check them out. They protect your equipment while saving you energy and therefore money!

The best thing about this is it\'s a poor idea that\'s encouraging a brainstorm of good ideas from readers. I was wondering when we\'ll merge from traditional power sockets to USB connections or even go completely wireless - all controlled from a smart device (iPad?) on the wall, which would also allow full control of lights, music, curtains, etc.

Isn\'t this over-engineered? Wouldn\'t it be much easier to just build some sort of circuit breaker in the device (like circuit breakers found in the cords of hair-blowers?)? When the circuit breaks, there\'d be an LED indicator indicating that the circuit has been broken and that if they need to use the device, simply press a button to connect the circuit.
This thing is also dangerous around kids. What if there\'s something in the way (perhaps a backpack was left next to the outlet), and the plug only ejected half-way as a result? I could see some little kid sticking his finger or something in the half-ejected powercord and getting electrocuted. This product is already a bust.

Is the presumption here that a device plugged in, but switched off at the wall, still uses power? Weird.

Why on earth would you unplug it if its not using any electricity?
Most power supplies for laptop chargers, phone and other battery chargers use a transformer which keeps drawing current when not in use. That is why its recommended to unplug these power supplies.
Lights don\'t use any power when off and like a previous person said, it would sure suck to have to plug a light every time you want to use it.
The ultimate solution is for power supplies to sense when the battery operated device is plugged in and use the battery power to close the incoming wall circuit to start the charge. It wouldn\'t work for non battery powered devices. Some body else can figure that one out.
Just my two cents.