RE: Re: NOT OT: Remote Control Socket.

["Broadfoot, Kieran J" <Kieran.Broadfoot@xxxxxxx>]

Apologies for the lateness in my response.  Ive been away on holiday.

The irony of course is that its two years on and in my mind we are still no
real closer to an intuitive house rather than a controlled house.  Heres my
latest HA bugbears list!

i. Integration costs are too high.  The amoount of gaffe tape we use to
bolt
distinct software tools, hardware components etc is too high and can so
often cause unreliability.  The average person shouldn't need to jump
through hoops to make X work with Y and hence this is often a barrier to
creating integrated solutions rather than just installing distinct
controlled components within a home.  xAP is certainly the answer here
(well
that's where Im betting my money).

ii. Lack of control devices that don't need programming in the traditional
sense.  I should not need to write a HV schedule (although I certainly
should be able to if I want to) but rather the control system I choose
should be able to help me program.  For instance I switch on the hall light
at 10.30 every night followed by my bedroom light at 10.31, rather than
program this specific task the controller should be able to spot these
patterns and either program them directly or offer them as suggestions.  In
some cases its less control but equally your swmbo can program her house
(you did remember its her house right?) without needing to care about any
wizardry.  HA is always seen as complex hence scary hence out of reach
which
stops people getting comfortable with it.

iii. Low power connected devices for controlling components around the
house
should be cheap, cheerful and drop in replacements for what we have now.
The average house owner should not need to run a cat5 cable to every light
switch, window etc in their home but they might be willing to run one to
each room.  Low power radio connectivty intra room, ethernet inter room.

iv. Power over ethernet.  Almost at odds with iii. but anything that
simplifies the installtion of control devices in their correct locations
has
got to be a good thing.

v. Moving home shouldn't be an issue.  HA should add value to a home when
its purchased rather than being seen as a set of bolt ons to the house
which
add complexity.  I should be able to drop the rule set from the house as I
leave and it work like a regular house for the new owners.  At some point
they connect to the controller from their pc and just like we did they can
start accepting suggestions for rules/programs etc from the system or
develop their own extensions as they see fit.

Don't get me wrong, there are a ton of great ideas and beautiful houses
being built by ukha_d guys with excellent HA benefits but I just think we
will be out there on our own till the market steps up and simplifies its
approach and drops some of the barriers to entry.

heres to more user friendly HA!

kieran


-----Original Message-----
From: mark_harrison_uk2 [mailto:mph@xxxxxxx]
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: NOT OT: Remote Control Socket.

It all stems from a UKHA London mini-meet at a pub on the river back
in June 2001...

... at the time, the world of HA in the UK was all about remote
control. Prontos were new, sexy, and expensive - and lighting control
was done by (computer) timers or remotes.

We had a discussion, in which Kieran came up with some forward-
thinking stuff.

In the meeting write-up, on the 22nd June, 2001, I wrote:

> Kieran has some interesting ideas about sensing, and automatic
> control of what happens in the house based on what the house
> detects is going on, rather than everything being
> remote-control-centric

<snip>

4: This is all xAP-controllable as well. By virtue of this, I have MY
look-feel on the house Intranet, which sends a xAP message that the
HomeVision xAP-plugin picks up. Nothing wrong with the HomeVision
built in website, but doing it this way means that the visual
identity of the house Intranet is far more cohesive.

Basically, Kieran's premise was that houses that REACTED to you being
there and doing things, rather than waiting till you had to make a
control action has proved very good for living with.

Mary likes it, since it means I leave the volume down in the master
bedroom when I'm dressing, because I've a local, automated system in
the dressing room. Previously, I used to turn the volume up :-)

Haven't set up the Sonance's yet - got a subwoofer as part of the
same delivery this afternoon, which took priority :-)

Regards,

Mark