Re: HA Object Model or Taxonomy?

[alan.trevennor@xxxxxxxxxx]

Hi Gavin,

Thanks for your response and proposal.

First of all, yes, it's amazing that there is nothing like this for the
hobbyist. The Home Automation/Smart Home aspiration is well over 30 years
old now (well, the computer-using version of it anyway) and Object Oriented
programming is probably, what? 20 years in the mainstream now? Amazing that
nobody has put together a truly public-domain object model and ontology.

It's good that you came to the conclusion that you had to invent your own
too 8-) the reason I posted my question here in the first place was that I
thought my extensive Googling must surely have missed something! I had
imagined that - for one example - the X.10 world would have had to develop
such a model, but although there is a mountain of X10 info around, there
doesn't seem to be any formal object model, only a protocol. I guess that's
probably because X10 pre-dates Oop?

Thank you so much for offering to share and for starting the wiki, I
apologise for the delay in responding, I've been completely eaten up by a
work deadline for the last few days. Which brings me to my next point.

Yes, it would be fantastic for us to group-develop a full model along the
lines you suggest and I am totally up for that, I have a start point too,
but only a simple one. However, I have to put one thing "out
there" & put my cards on the table before I participate.

I am currently writing a book on AVR Microcontrollers, for publication
later this year. This is a book of general AVR projects with a whole lot of
background stuff on subjects like serial communication, prototyping
techniques, using AVR away from Arduino hardware, helper chips and so on.
Several of the projects in this book touch the HA area, and need
communication to a desktop or to one another, but only in a comparatively
simplistic way. So, luckily, a full HA object model is not a requirement
for this book, but I was expecting to be able to just instance something in
the public domain that existed and refer readers to the full details of
that, if they wanted a deeper dive into the subject. As you know, I didn't
find any such thing.

Instead, I will now provide an outline of how an object model might work,
just at a basic level. So, I have drafted a short section on a theoretical
model that I have called SHOM (Smart Home Object Model) that only fleshes
out a little bit of the \fittings\illumination\lighting branch of one
possible model, by way of an example.

Now, the main thing I need to make you aware of is this: I have interest
from a different publisher for another book that I will write subsequently:
This would be a book of AVR (note AVR, not Arduino) home automation
projects. Clearly, if we all cooperate together and if we produce something
worthwhile and if we contribute the work to the public domain and if this
second book of mine goes ahead (count the "ifs"!) I would wish
for the HA projects in that book to make extensive use of the model we
develop. So, what I'm saying is that my participation would be conditional
on the understanding that I would be using the model in this way sometime
in the future.

If that's acceptable to everybody (Gavin, principally you, since it seems
like you may have already put a lot of work into this and kindly offered to
share it) then I am in. If you have a problem with this, then I completely
understand and no hard feelings at all.

Best regards
Alan T



--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, Gavin Sallery <gavin@...> wrote:
>
> 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@... 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]
> >>
> >
> >
>




------------------------------------

<*> Join the Automated Home Forums
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/vbulletin/