Re: HA Object Model or Taxonomy?

[Gavin Sallery <gavin@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Alan (and everyone),

This discussion of openly-available home automation object models has
really struck a chord with me. I have been working on such a thing, on and
off, for some time - just like you, I found a lack of truly
"open" standards on the Web, and needed a well-thought-through
object model for some home automation projects I've been working on. I
spent quite some time thinking through the best way of representing all the
various devices and concepts which would be needed in a home automation
system, and captured quite a lot of it in the code I am using for one of
the projects (which is Scala-based, and not quite ready for release).
However, I never took the time to write out what I'd discovered as a
formalised specification.

I am not presumptuous enough to think that the ontology I developed is the
ultimate home automation object model. What this discussion has made me
realise, though, is that there are probably many of us who have thought
about this sort of thing, and this really is one of those areas where many
heads are better than one. The best object model is going to be one which
is open, collaborative, and flexible. To this end, I have set up a wiki
section on the hometechnologyintegration.org site, for the express purpose
of sketching out what our idealised home automation model should look like.
I invite you all to come along and start fleshing it out; I will be adding
documentation for the concepts I can remember, but between us it should
become quite comprehensive!

The wiki is here: http://hometechnologyintegration.org/wiki/home_automation_taxonomy

Looking forward to hearing from you all!

Gavin



P.S. Wiki-style linking is not working at the moment (you need the full URL
in [[url  title]]), I will fix it tomorrow.


On 8 Mar 2012, at 16:52, alan.trevennor@xxxxxxx wrote:

> Thanks for the replies, gents.
>
> Rob, I had a look at Harmony and it seems to be an excellent suite of
software (love the on-screen design of it), but although I looked at the
documentation, I couldn't really see what I was looking for.
>
> Sure, you seem to have included lots of classes for different families
and genres of devices and fittings, but what I am looking for is really a
document (or more likely a set of documents) that provides an overall
object map that can include all possible home automation entities (or be
capable of growing towards that).
>
> The kind of thing I am looking for would have "Home" at the
top, under that it would have things like "Appliances"
"Fittings" "Services", "Spaces" and so on.
Then (for example) under "Appliances" it would things like
"Heating", "Cooling", "Ventilation",
"Climate Control" and so on.
>
> Then, a related document would have individual object definitions. One
object might be an "AirConditioners". The air conditioner object
would have methods and properties and so on. So, in an implementation of
this generic scheme, an HA control system would register a newly discovered
Aircon system as an instance of an object with a path of
"Home\Appliances\ClimateControl"
>
> Now, I think probably that's the kind of organisation you may have
internally within Harmony Server and its companions? But, I can't see a
published formalisation of it in the documentation. Perhaps I am missing
something or being stupid, but an explicit model doesn't jump out at me?
>
> Why am I seeking this? Because I am creating MicroController based
projects aimed at Home Automation, I am keen not to reinvent any wheels. I
want the things I create to be able to participate in a well defined - open
as possible - HA definition. Obviously, developing a full HA object model
is not a trivial task, but it must have been done many times. Problem is,
the results never seem to have been made available in a form accessible to
the hobbyist. As I said before, there seem to be these schemas out there -
but either they are jealously guarded commercial information (which I can
understand) or they are only available from standards bodies at a price
that's too high for hobbyists.
>
> Tom, thanks for the OSA pointer. It does seem interesting, but again
there is no mention of a formal object specification to go with it and the
documentation seems limited to installing it and dealing with interfacing
issues. It looks like an integration framework, which again is great, but
not quite what I am looking for. I have downloaded it to try tomorrow, so
perhaps I will be pleasantly surprised when I load it up 8-) I'll let you
know.
>
> Thanks again for the responses guys.
>
> Regards
> Alan T
>
> --- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Tom Lawrence <tom@...> wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> This seems to be something that might be of interest.
>>
>> http://code.google.com/p/osae/
>>
>> thanks,
>> Tom
>> On 7 Mar 2012, at 00:48, Rob Iles wrote:
>>
>> Hi
>>
>> Harmony. (www.domialifestyle.com<http://www.domialifestyle.com>)
has a fully documented API. You'll need
>> to be running on windows, and have at least a basic understanding
of Dot
>> Net.
>>
>> Info on the website. Feel free to contact me directly if you want
to.
>>
>> Disclosure :- I am the author of Harmony.
>>
>> Rob
>>
>> --
>> Rob Iles
>> Proprietor & Chief Automation Architect
>> Domia Lifestyle
>> www.domialifestyle.com<http://www.domialifestyle.com>
>> On 6 Mar 2012 10:53, <alan.trevennor@...> wrote:
>>
>> **
>>
>>
>> Good morning all.
>>
>> I just joined, so be gentle if this is a silly question, or
reopening old
>> wounds! I did a search of this forum and found nothing much to
answer my
>> question, so here I am asking it!
>>
>> I've been looking for a freely available (non proprietary) object
model
>> for the smart home which is suitable for use by the hobbyist or
home-brew
>> HA enthusiast. I've found some Java classes that relate to HA
which would
>> be useful if using Java (I guess) but seem very language specific.
I've
>> found several useful looking documents issued by standards bodies
(DLNA and
>> others) - but which in fact require you to join them at a fee of
thousands
>> before you can access them. Not at all suitable for the lone
hobbyist on
>> low low budget.
>>
>> I've also found several commercial companies who say their
products all
>> use their standard object model, but who don't actually publish
that object
>> model, thus ignoring the lessons of recent history that say that
publishing
>> interface standards increases market traction.
>>
>> I've found several old stale sites which say they are working on
an open
>> HA object model, but which seem to long ago have failed to
proceed.
>>
>> And so on...
>>
>> So my question is: Does such a thing exist? A freely available and
>> comprehensive object model for the smart home, suitable for use by
the
>> great unwashed?
>>
>> My Googling would seem to suggest to me that there is no such
thing. Am I
>> wrong? I hope I am 8-)
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your help.
>> Alan T
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>>
>
>



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