Re: HA philosphy

[Chris Hunter <cjhunter@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

eg: Beyond the Centralized Mindset

http://llk.media.mit.edu/papers/decentralized/

Chris


Chris Hunter wrote:

>Ian -
>
>'good e-mail ... agree with a lot of what you say ... neural-net
>approaches & loads of sensors, together, seem unavoidable ... but
plus
>complex adaptivity, to make it tractable (to manageable algorithms,
etc)
>...
>
>prescriptive, pre-programmed, anticipating-every-situation, approaches
>are a blind alley, going nowhere ... unless in very restricted
>circumstances ... behavioural approaches look much more hopeful ...
>
>we went for Idratek, as much as anything, because of this ...
>
>Chris
>
>----
>
>Tuesday, 03 Oct'06 - 16:23:23 +0100
>
>from: Ian Lowe ianlowe@xxxxxxx
>
>Nice theory, as far as it goes ... however, theres a long &
ignoble
>history of that sort of intelligent automation. I like the points made
>about reducing interaction - for me, I used to do a stack of things to
>set up the home cinema for watching a movie ... turn-on the projector,
>switch-on the sub-woofer, turn-off the other audio sources in the
>kitchen, close the curtains, dim the lights ... . Now, I press a single
>button, and it all happens. 'thing is, there's nothing intuitive about
>it, not even close. Rather than pressing a mystical button, I might as
>well be waving a wand, whispering a password etc. For a visitor, it's
>obtuse.
>
>Switching the living room into movie mode is just one example of
course,
>another would be my night time routine. It has been refined over many
>attempts, and variously switches-off things like the lights in the
>kitchen, the computer-room lights, the amp' & speakers in the
kitchen,
>turns-on the 'leccy blankets, turns-on the bedroom lamp, and dims it to
>a nice welcoming level ...
>
>The problem is, of course, that our night time routine isn't as set in
>stone as you think ... some nights, we don't want to go to-bed early,
>some nights we want to go to-bed really early, if you catch my drift,
>and really don't want the whole macro thing to kick-off around us ...
>
>So you end-up with more & more & more requirement to take into
account
>... the sorts of stuff that we humans take for granted, but all involve
>more inputs, more sensors, more of everything - all of which have a not
>insignificant cost attached. There are a very large number of
variables,
>and each variable has a tangible cost connected to it.
>
>It's one of my foibles ... I reckon that to do occupancy-detection
>properly for my fairly modest three-bedroom semi', I'd need a couple of
>hundred, or so, digital inputs to a system, not sixteen, not even
>sixty-four ... hundreds. And, even then, we'd probably find the need
for
>another sensor, switch, PIR or contact, to help us distinguish ever
more
>precise sets of circumstances ...
>
>It's easy to describe the principle of a learning HA environment. I
>sketched-out a system of loadings & weightings on the outputs &
inputs
>using very simple stimuli-response reactions - a simple neural-net
using
>one of the very good code samples out there for this sort of thing, but
>gave-up, largely because it was obvious that the number of inputs
needed
>to make any kind of sensible decision was absolutely HUGE ...
>
>That's what makes me think that the technical feasibility of this is,
>IMO, just not there yet. Processing is cheap & getting cheaper all
the
>time, so it's getting there. The number of smart Ethernet nodes that
>have popped-up in recent months is quite thrilling, with ever lower
>price-points. When we have Ethernet connected, IP talking nodes with 64
>& 128 I/O lines available for £20 a throw ... then we can have
the
>richness of sensor information available to start doing really smart
stuff.
>
>Phew. That's a long e-mail.
>
>Ian
>
>----
>
>Tuesday, 03 Oct'06 - 09:57:16 +0100
>
>from: Mark McCall lists@xxxxxxx
>
>We've been sent this interesting essay from Alex Chelmis. Take a few
>minutes to read his ideas and let us know what you think ...
>
>Since I remember myself, I have always been fascinated by robots. As a
>kid, it was my favourite day-dreaming subject & loved all the
movies
>that featured robots of any kind. Soon I realised that I was also
>attracted by other gadgets you could use in order to perform an
>operation that would be too difficult, or need too much time &
effort,
>for a human. At some point it became clear that what actually
fascinated
>me was anything that would automate an operation which otherwise would
>need a human interaction. It was inevitable to fall in love with the
new
>up-coming world of home automation. Unfortunately, every time I tried
to
>follow a project published or advertised about home automation, I found
>myself getting confused and finally bored with the details. During the
>past fifteen-years, I have visited exhibitions & read many articles
& white papers offering all-in-one home automation solutions. After the
>initial excitement, I got confused with unnecessary complicated
>processes, giving me the feeling that they have completely missed the
>point. Everything that currently exists under the title of Home
>Automation or Smart Home is a proprietary idea customised to somebody
>else's requirements who is trying to convince you that his everyday
>needs are similar to yours. Any attempt to create open standards (X-10)
>has failed to get broadly accepted & only appeals to computer &
electronic geeks. I think we got into this situation because people have
>forgotten the reason they wanted to automate something in the
>first-place. This is what this article is all about. Reminding people
>the basics, and help them maintain the focus on satisfying the why
while
>they come up with ideas of how they need to automate an operation. I
>believe there is a need for projects to change the way they are
>developed, in order to become more appealing to the average person. It
>is about time for this industry to hit the mass-market & you can
only
>achieve that by talking to the non-technical person. There is so much
to
>gain from home automation, enough to change our everyday lives, forever
...
>
>www.automatedhome.co.uk/article1764.html
>
>M
>
>
>
>
>
>
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