Nothing Up My Sleeve

Home notifications on iPhone via Prowl and Growl

The Apple Blog has a nice overview of an interesting new iPhone application named Prowl.

If you're a Mac user, and you're using Growl for notification of interesting events, then Prowl is a no-brainer addition for your iPhone. It's a $3 app that utilizes the push notification ability of iPhone to forward Growl alerts to your device.

If none of this makes any sense to you, see Nifty Notifications in Mac OS X and Growling PhoneValet for background info.

Even more automated twittering devices

It has been over two years since I wrote about how I've integrated Twitter with my home automation system, and since then Twitter has become an Internet darling. A coincidence, of course, but I've long since stopped trying to keep track of all the home automation uses of Twitter, it's simply very common these days. (To the extend that Twitter is common, which of course it isn't, outside of the cultural bubble of the web.)

Anyway, there are still two Twitter deployments that I enjoyed, but haven't noted, so here they are in brief form:

• The Twitter-enabled Toilet


• Twitter-enabled Plants

See also On Twitter, Cupcakes, and Automation, The Automated Cat Door, and Chairs that Tweet.

Web stat spoof inspires home visitor counter

Although intended (I think) to be a spoof of web site statistics, the clever Doorbell with Inbuilt Visitor Statistics Display would make a nice weekend home automation project, perhaps utilizing a Chumby.

INSTEON window and door sensors

The steady stream of useful INSTEON modules continues to flow out of Smarthome. And although I haven't had a chance to try some of their latest, it's great to see the momentum grow. A missing piece has been wireless window/door sensors, and now the TriggerLinc is shipping, which fills that gap.

I was slow to add these kind of sensors to my X10-based automation because they required a different receiver. But when I finally bit the bullet and deployed them, they made a huge difference in the responsiveness and sophistication of my system. They're much better than motion detectors (faster and more reliable) and they have energy-saving implications too. For example, when your a/c turns on, have the system check to see if all the windows are closed. Simple and effective.

XTension adds support for UPB

A couple of weeks ago, users of XTension, the venerable home automation application for Macintosh, were surprised by the announcement of support for UPB (Universal Powerline Bus) devices. Mac support for UPB has been non-existant until now, so this is an interesting development and brings the number of controllers that XTension supports to a whopping 17; but still none that speak INSTEON.

For details about the UPB version, which is in private beta, see the XTension wiki.

Will Obama save home automation?

For decades, home automation has tried (and failed) to reach mainstream society. TechWorldNews looks at the situation in Home Networks: Home Automation: The Unfulfilled Promise and expresses hope that President Obama's energy policies might finally provide the impetus for the technology to succeed on a grand scale. But I think this analysis is missing the point; it's not a technology issue, it's an ease-of-use puzzle and the latest tech has far, far to go in that regard.

R-House details emerge

The Ruby-based home automation software, which I mentioned on Twitter, is detailed in a presentation available at SlideShare. See Fernand Galiana's r-house - Home automation is ruby ?

Home automation on the rise, maybe

IQ Online speculates that home automation will see an overall rise by 2011. DIY home automation is seen as a growth area, where pre-installed systems are likely to stall. The report is here: Home Automation To See Healthy Growth - IQ Online.

However, their notion of "standards-based" home automation shouldn't be confused with an open, documented protocol. Instead, they are licensed, controlled implementations. For that reason, I don't see Z-Wave or ZigBee becoming that which causes the tipping point.

Z-Wave options for the Mac

The website CEPro offers an overview of Z-Wave automation for Mac. I'm glad to see several options listed, the Mac has been completely bereft of Z-Wave based automation software for far too long.

But I have to admit I'm a little skeptical of how many of these actually exist, or are of acceptable quality. Don't get me wrong, I have many Z-Wave modules in my home and really like them, it's just that I haven't yet found home automation software that works with Z-Wave in the same way that X-10 and INSTEON-based applications do. I'm currently using Vera, but it's a struggle.

If you've tried any of the Mac packages mentioned, or others, I'd love to hear from you.

Think, and control your home

The Guardian reports on a scientific study to develop a brain-to-computer interface that allows you to trigger home automation merely by thinking about it. Scary, perhaps?