Community Spotlight: Advanced Home Automation
Remember old episodes of Star Trek where Captain Kirk (or Picard, if you'd prefer) would ask for the Enterprise's computer to dim a room's lights? It was a fascinating example of what future technology would someday be capable of doing. Greg "OverloadUT" Laabs has started investigating the process, in particular, controlling lights with a computer.
The INSTEON outlet
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Shacknews
replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, Community Spotlight: Advanced Home Automation.
Remember old episodes of Star Trek where Captain Kirk (or Picard, if you'd prefer) would ask for the Enterprise's computer to dim a room's lights? It was a fascinating example of what future technology would someday be capable of doing. Greg "OverloadUT" Laabs has started investigating the process, in particular, controlling lights with a computer.-
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I actually wrote this before the big announcement, but congrats, OverloadUT, on getting a Thursday Knights panel at PAX Prime!
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Thank you!
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That's really awesome. I somehow missed all of his threads where he talks about doing this.
Love the community spotlight series too. -
Thanks to OverloadUT for working with us on the story ;)
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So that's what those questions were about
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I specifically wore it just to make this video!
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Really nicely done. I think the Siri stuff is kinda overkill, but I look forward to seeing what you come up with once you start doing NFC. :)
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Oh, the Siri stuff is purely for showing off to friends. It's not practical as grabbing the remote on the table is pretty much always faster and more reliable.
But it's a damn good show-off feature.-
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There are lots of neat things I could do if I actually wrote software for the iPhone itself, but I haven't even considered that yet
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That's really cool that he did this himself, it always feels good when you can put something together on your own that works just the way you want. But it's not like what he's done is that amazing considering there are consumer products out there like Control 4 that lets you control everything from your TV, lights, blinds, security, A/C, home audio and even your irrigation.
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I am using a consumer product like Control 4. I'm just using Insteon instead. Even with a consumer-friendly solution like Control 4, you have to install a lot of stuff and do the event programming yourself, unless you hire a professional to do it. That's why all of these home automation retailers have professional installation packages you can buy along with the products :)
However, I am doing some things that are outside the scope of what any of these systems can do, like SiriProxy (actually that's probably the only bit)
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C->Star, do you think Greg should start a home automation company called Oat Laabs??
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But he's got two A's in his last name. :(
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Yesss
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My first exposure to Star Trek was actually Voyager.
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Haha I noticed that but didn't want to say anything. I'm surprised it took this many replies!
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This is so cool. Ratalon has been saying he is interested in doing it as well since he heard about it from the first thread!
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Should... have sent... a poet :')
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Nice write-up!
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That's a badass setup, man. I can see how others view the Siri stuff as overkill, but it intrigues me the most. I only have an iphone 4, not a 4S, so what else can you automate Siri to do relevant to your home automation?
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I can pretty much make the Siri part do anything. SiriProxy just executes Ruby code based on pattern matches, so anything I can make Ruby do (which is anything) I can make Siri do. The big limitation is that I can't add functionality of what shows up on the phone itself, but that's usually not what I want to do.
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Wait someone has an automated drink thing set up? Who?? I WILL DO THIS.
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I think there were a few that were discussed. This one of intothefray's was pretty awesome: http://www.shacknews.com/chatty?id=26622660#item_26622660
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Holy. Fucking. Shit. I am going to do this. intothefray I hope you are ready to answer my fucking questions because I am going to tea, earl grey, hot my fucking home
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No problem.
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that machine is badass dude
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Holy shit. Is there a guide somewhere to the specific parts you used?
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Haha no I'm not. However, one nice thing about this tech is that it's fairly portable. I mean I have to replace all of the light switches, but if I were to move out I could install the old ones again. So far, I haven't had to install anything more permanent than switches.
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Yeah, the blinds will cost me about $400 for each of my two gigantic floor to ceiling windows, then probably like $100 each for the motors.
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Probably around $700? The brain was pricey at like $400.
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Next step should be recessed lighting instead
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It would be cool if he had subtle led floor lights that lead to the bathroom for those leaving during the film for a toilet break, just like the real cinema :)
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I have been looking at a lot of different solutions for cheap small multicolor lights that I could control with the system. There would be a lot of applications for something like that.
For example, I would like my stairs to be very dimly lit at night.
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So what underrated game are we talking about, Overload?
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Magic the Gathering Battlegrounds
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Yup :)
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