Computing in the Home (& for the Family)
Major Concepts
- Visible vs invisible computing (eg Ubiquitous
computing). Should the computer should be everywhere and invisible, many
computers/many person, or should it be central (like a stereo), few
computers to many people? Intel research shows
that computers are used in short blocks of time. They conclude that
computers should be like the family dog -- one to many, but available
anywhere.
- Should computers be large (home PC, your wall is a display
screen, etc) or miniature (ubiquitous computing, work by Philips). Wired compares computers to the electric motor and
suggests that the trend is towards miniaturization.
- Should computers be task specific (eg products by Diba) or general (eg Home PC).
- If a home has multiple computers, should they be independant or
communicate? How should they communicate? Via a shared database of
information, or via a network? (eg "Smart House")
- How can we test the usefulness of our approaches to home
automation? Ethnography is one key research method.
Two opposite trends in Home Automation are -- the bottom up folks who
are wiring their own homes to do stuff usually using X10, with varying
amounts of success and sophistication, and the top down folks (like
the CMU project, Cornell) who probably affect far less people overall
but do (or may) affect what is produced for the less technical savvy
consumer.
Pages about current projects:
Georgia Tech (FCE & Broadband Telecom) Projects
Other Projects
- AT&T press release about
high-tech florida community being built (literally) from the
ground up by AT&T, Disney, and others:
- Document about a "smart" home: the owner of
the house is building it & documenting what he does. He is also the
owner, founder, and sole employee of a company (Optera) that specializes in this
:). He's trying to do as much as possible as cheaply as possible.
Newsgroups to read:
Magazines:
- Electronic House
- Popular Home Automation (coming in august, not online):
'how-to' magazine
Papers and Articles:
- Some News Articles
- HomeNet: A
Field Trial of Residential Internet Services
(Kraut, Scherlis, Mukhopadhyay, Manning, and Kiesler)
CHI 96 Conference Proceedings, pp 284-291
- Engineering Ethnography in the Home
(Mateas, Salvador, Scholtz, Sorensen -- Intel)
CHI 96 Conference Companion, pp 283-4
-
Mark Weiser's "Open House" talks about dwelling with, not
interacting with, computers music in the morning indicates coming
appointments glowing trails of who has walked by the window ... how
realistic is this?
- A Neural
Network House
Companies:
- Home Automation Toys (HTI Home Toys) has a shareware site, as well as
for-pay soft & hard ware
- X10 produces
hardware/software for leveraging of your home power network
Hardware in use:
- X10 (uses
electrical system for communication, can control power flow from
outlets) (also see their FAQ)
- To control X10, check out these unix daemons ...
- Computer serial port interface for X10
- A serial infrared remote controller
- Motion activated switches...
- Caretaker: a long distance home monitorirng system. Has sensors for
temp, flooding, electrical power loss. phone in to ask about it
- Call-in power outlet control ...
- Sensor chips (eg for sensing location of people(badges) visiting
house) -- used by Bill Gates in his new techno-home.
Networking Protocols
I don't really have any pages for these yet but ... (ask Ken Calvert)
- Echelon's LonWorks is being
used by several companies in Home Automation products, as is
... They've got a useful
HREF="http://www.lonworks.echelon.com/about/02lwfaq.html">FAQ
CEBus (Consumer Electronics
Bus) Also see hometeam's information.
EIA R4.1
DAVIC
IEEE
serial connector, fast, but max 28 meter cable range
ATM Forum
VESA (set top) - VOST
Works with existing technology (cable), enables separation between
home service provider & internet providor
X10 ... Primitive, but it works *now*: it's the standard for
low-end development
Other sites with Home Automation Information