[HH] Mobile's Next Major Integrated Layer: OS-Level Home Automation

[kkeville]

Home automation, huh? I believe I have been down that road before..  My HeathKit / Tandy X10 experience was quite negative ;-) 

-------- Original message --------
From: Tom Metro <tmetro+hhacking at gmail.com> 
Date:  
To: hardwarehacking at blu.org 
Subject: [HH] Mobile's Next Major Integrated Layer: OS-Level Home Automation 
 
Mobile's Next Major Integrated Layer: OS-Level Home Automation
http://techcrunch.com/2012/12/21/mobiles-next-major-integrated-layer-os-level-home-automation/

  [R2 Studios] first project is an Android app that allows users to
  control their heating and lighting systems via their smartphone
  devices. The company, founded by Blake Krikorian who previously
  founded the Slingbox, also holds some patents related to control of
  electronic devices and control interfaces. Apple, Google and Microsoft
  are all very much interested in making connections between mobile tech
  and the traditional household entertainment hub, the living room, and
  have all introduced technology to prove it.
  [...]
  Why not have the phone use all of its contextual information to also
  help with home automation, but in a way that makes those features tied
  to the OS as a service layer, rather than something people need
  dedicated apps to handle?

  The paradigm here is the same as it was for streaming media: it makes
  much more sense for Apple to build AirPlay and have it work across its
  lineup of devices, independent of individual media app settings, than
  to let each content source try to table their own solution. Likewise,
  a home automation control system that you can then make available to
  hardware makers (as Apple has done with AirPlay) to make sure they
  work with iOS (or Android, or whoever ends up going forward with this
  first) devices out of the box makes more sense, and will engender
  greater general adoption, than relying on manufacturer-specific
  solutions.

The app or smartphone side of automation is the easy part.

The hard part is getting a home automaton controller appliance into
homes, and the even harder part is getting it linked up with the things
you want to control.

In the example of AirPlay, that only became established because Apple
built it into the Apple TV. Only later did it branch out to 3rd party
manufacturers.

While we might see something like the consumer-friendly Mi Casa Verde
Vera[1] home automation controller add support for some smartphone
interface promoted by one of the 3 ecosystems mentioned above (I'm sure
Vera already has some proprietary smartphone interface), it seems more
likely that there won't be much consumer adoption until one of the big 3
players produces their own device and puts their marketing muscle behind it.

Even then, you're still left with the age old problem that assembling a
home automation system is still something that requires geeky skills.
Its gotten a lot easier: buy a Vera, and a few Zwave lamp modules, and
with a bit of fiddling with its web UI, you've got a home automation
system. But that's after a $200+ investment, and what about all the more
interesting stuff that you can't simply plug into a lamp module?

The places where we've seen inroads are in small niches, like the Nest
thermostat, which operates as an island, not as part of a larger system.

Someday, perhaps, appliances and electrical fixtures will come with
Zwave or some other smarts built-in, but that's been part of the vision
for decades (remember the Consumer Electronics Bus (CEBus)[2]?), and it
hasn't happened, though ever decreasing costs for those smarts makes it
more likely.

So far, I don't see evidence that we're poised to turn a corner on home
automation, and that there would be a market as big as the one for
consumers who want to send videos to their TVs from their mobile devices.

Although I have seen numerous phone and cable companies jumping on the
home security and automation bandwagon as a new service they can charge
monthly for. These offerings all have some smartphone integration.
Perhaps these low-capability automation systems, which are painlessly
installed by cable/telco techs, will introduce the idea to a much wider
audience, who will down the road crave a "Google Home Automation
Controller Appliance" that spares them the monthly fee.

We can only hope that if Google does get into this, they take a look at
some of the existing open standards and build on them. Not much chance
Apple or Microsoft will.

1. http://www.micasaverde.com/vera.php
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CEBus


Ming kuo wrote:
> I recently got a raspberry Pi working with siriproxy and ISY plugin
> to do Siri home automation turning on lights etc and also turning on
> songs music using Siri. Replaces numerous remotes in the house.

Neat.

I'd personally be more interested in hearing about similar integration
with Google Now, but sounds like a worthy accomplishment none the less.

-Tom
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