Nothing Up My Sleeve

NYT on the Coming Robot Invasion

The ultimate home automation accessory is, of course, Rosie the Robot. The New York Times' Smarter Than You Think - The Boss Is Robotic, and Rolling Up Behind You covers the coming Jetsonian future.

Monitor your home with an Internet camera

One of the most common questions I get about home automation, and a very popular technique from Smart Home Hacks, is how to use a Internet-connected camera to monitor your home, or pet, while you're away. Unfortunately, my tried-and-true technique used IP cameras that are no longer available, and for a lot of years thereafter, there just weren't good, inexpensive alternatives available.

But I recently discovered the Astak Mole camera and am happy to give it solid recommendation. It's easy to use, and has a surprising number of advanced features for the price. In brief, it offers full pan and tilt control, infrared night vision, Wi-Fi and ethernet connectivity, and more, for just $200. ($260 MSRP). This price is astoundingly low, typically a wireless pan/tilt camera would be at least $350. And most of those don't include audio, which the Mole does quite well. (In other words, you can hear, as well as see, the location you're viewing.)

But what moves this camera from the "FYI" to the "recommended" category are the extra features it includes, all of which make it quite flexible, if not fun. The first is built-in support for both Yoics and DynDNS. What this means in plain English is that you'll be able to connect to the camera from anywhere in the world with minimal hassle. Yoics is the easier choice, although in the long term is requires a $30 a year subscription fee. To see your camera feed, all you do is connect to the Yoics.net server and login. Yoics handles all the rest of the details for you. If you're a little more technologically adventurous, you can accomplish a similar result using DynDNS.com. (If you visit these links, don't be intimidated, the client software for these services is built into the Mole, so no downloads to your computer are required.)

Don't worry, geeks, if you're the type who wants total control of your network, as I do, you can easily set up the camera for direct access. It requires only a single open port.

In addition to live streaming video, the Mole can upload periodic snapshots via email or to an FTP server. If you turn on motion detection (it supports one 'watched area' that has appropriate sensitivity adjustment), you can have the camera upload a 30 second video to YouTube, allowing you to see what caused the motion. The videos can be marked as private so that only you can see them. Additionally, the camera can send a tweet that can, via proper Twitter settings, alert your cell phone to the situation. Wow, what a nice touch.

In addition to streaming and uploading video, or emailing snapshots (periodically or due to motion detection as discussed), the Mole also features local storage on an SD card. Shockingly, the camera even comes with a 2GB SD card (and an Ethernet cable!). What this means is that you can use the camera to monitor a location that does not have an Internet connection. Not in real time, of course, but the SD card will show you what happened while you were gone, when you return to view the card's contents. You can also view the card images remotely, if you do have an Internet connection.

See the Astak website for more features and live cameras you can demo.

Now, here's what I consider to be the deal clincher. The Mole uses H.264 HTTP streaming. Previously, many consumer-grade IP cameras were unaccessible using a Mac because they relied on an ActiveX or other proprietary software/codecs. The Mole, hower, can be viewed from virtually any web browser, including mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. On the iPhone, the Mole even serves up an optimized mobile interface. This is fantastic.

There are some areas where Astak could make the Mole better. For example, if you have the night vision set to automatic, it turns on when the room is dark. But not just when the camera is active, the IR illuminators are on all the time. This seems unnecessary and could interfere with other IR controls. Also related to lights, I think the Mole has far too many "blinken lights" on it. There's a green light that indicates it has power, a red light that indicates an SD card is installed, and a blue light that flashes with network activity. Small pieces of black tape solved this problem for me. I'd also like the ability to define more than 3 user logins, and to be able to change the user name associated with the accounts. Finally, a note more than a complaint, the camera is not suitable for use outdoors. This is an indoor only toy, please.

So, if you're looking for an IP camera to monitor a pet, office, or a second home, the Astak Mole is well worth considering. I bought mine at my local Costco for $199, the box is shown above so you can know what you're looking for in the store. Also, Amazon sells them for the regular price of $250.

Computer Underground: Word Cloud

I used the super-easy Wordle to create a "word cloud" for my book, The Social Organization of the Computer Underground.

The book is available for free in PDF and ePub, or inexpensively on Kindle or in printed form. Proceeds are donated to the EFF.

Ikea's Perpetual Solar Light

The latest Ikea catalog arrived recently, and I was surprised to find that they've quietly invented a perpetual lighting system. For a mere $20 it appears that the SUNNAN light replenishes its own solar batteries.

More on monitoring elderly at home

The NY Times is back with another article about aging in place: Monitoring Elderly Parents.

For more on tools that can help you know that your parents are active and well see Mac Technology for Aging in Place and this note about an earlier NYT article on the same subject.

Performing at The Magic Cabaret

Tonight! I'm performing at The Magic Cabaret in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood. Magic, mystery, and mischief. Exactly what your Wednesday evening needs.

Local AppleScript execution via the Web

David Dantowitz's new Apache-Apple Event Bridge (AAEB) will be a very handy tool for Mac-based home automation. It allows you to easily execute local (on the web server) AppleScripts from a web browser. In the demo video, you can use this to grab a screen capture of the server. Other uses off the top of my head would be to make announcements, trigger home automation actions, or just about anything else you can cause to happen using AppleScript.

You'll want to consider security, but for a measily $10 this is an easy decision to add to your system.

Approaching Magic Chicago

Preparing for tomorrow night, Wednesday, July 7, 2010, is the big 5th Anniversary show for Magic Chicago. I'll be performing along with Eugene Burger and Ross Johnson.

Performing at Magic Chicago in July

On July 7, 2010 I'll have the distinct pleasure of opening for two of Chicago's modern masters of mystery: Eugene Burger and Ross Johnson. It's sure to be a fantastic show. Tickets are available at the Magic Chicago website. Hope to see you there!

iPad and home automation

Lustrous Musings asks if the iPad might be the ultimate home automation controller. Well, actually, they're looking at it from the perspective of an X10 controller. That's all well and good, as Smart Home Hacks demonstrates, but thinking more generically. opens additional doors. But don't miss the discussion of Shion embedded in the piece too.