The Ultimate Universal Remote Control 277
TheMayor writes: "CNN.com has a story about how researchers at Maya Designs, Inc. and Carnegie-Mellon are trying to come up with a remote control that controls everything in your house. From the TV to the blender, these guys want to make an all-in-one piece to turn everything on and off. Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?"
Re:A better question: (Score:4, Informative)
The idea is to have a 12 volts 2 coil latching-relay on each lighting circuit. Since they are latching relays (one coil to turn it on, and the other to turn it off), they can be controlled by as many momentary SPDT switches as needed; you can also have as many "master consoles" as you need which consist of two rotary dials, one to turn on and the other to turn off the light.
Some relays even offer a low-voltage "indicator" line, so the master console can have pilot lights to indicate which lights are on.
I am surprised that this system is not more widespread in fancy homes, as I remember going to a school more than 30 years ago that had it's lighting controlled by that system.
What's neat about it is that the big expensive high-votage wire (which has to be installed by a qualified electrician) only goes from the breaker panel to the light fixtures, instead of snaking through the walls to the light switches (and don't get me stated on the 3 or 4 way switches!!!). As the control is done through low-voltage, light switches can be extremely small and unobtrusive.
Of course, it goes without saying that interfacing those to a computer would be an outright breeze...
Re: an I/R LED at the end of your cell phone (Score:2, Informative)
OmniRemote [pacificneotek.com] is the first one to come to mind, but it's not the only one out there...
Better technology is already available for sale. (Score:3, Informative)
The Philips Pronto [philips.com] is the most popular of the fully programmable universal remote. You can control thousands of devices with the Pronto, including X10 modules to control lamps, fans, and other appliances.
It has a PC application to set set the GUI for controlling all the devices. It comes pre-programmed for many devices, and just about any other can be downloaded from various internet sites or manufacturers.
The GUI to program it has a bit of a learning curve. If they wanted to make that process even easier, they could have saved a lot of effort by just making a better config GUI, rather than re-inventing the hardware.
Another option, if you really want a PDA as your remote is the Nevo [remotecentral.com] software for the new iPaq, which includes a more powerful IR transmitter.
Re:I notice it's running WinCE Pocket PC Edition (Score:2, Informative)
Anyway, the important facet of the system is the XML specification [cmu.edu] and protocol [cmu.edu], which could be implemented on any platform. We'd love to do a cellphone...
Using ConnectedTV pie menus with with one hand (Score:2, Informative)
ConnectedTV [connected.tv] for the Palm is a universal remote control integrated with a personalized television guide, that's designed to be easily used with one hand.
Like Mozilla and The Sims, it features "pie menus [piemenu.com]", which enable you to easily and reliably select several different functions from each button, without using (and losing) the stylus. Pie menus make ConnectedTV more powerful per square inch than physical remotes that only support one function per button.
The buttons are big enough to easily select with your finger, and have useful functions in different directions. For example, stroking left or right scrolls to the previous or next page. You can stroke up on the name of a show to find out more about it, or stroke down to watch it, and ConnectedTV sends the numbers to change the channel, without you having to know or press any digits.
"Touch Tuning" with ConnectedTV is like speed dialing for the remote control. It also functions as a hot list and spam filter, so you can easily mark and find your favorite shows, while hiding shows you don't like. It's much better than the slowly scrolling on-screen guide, because it doesn't block the tv screen, you can take it anywhere with up to two weeks of guide, and use it at your own pace.
-info@Connected.TV [mailto]
Re:A better question: (Score:3, Informative)
Lonworks on the other hand is VERY reliable, secure, OPEN, mature, works over many media such as RF, IR, twisted pair, power line, fiber, etc. Lonworks nodes are peers. Any node can control / communicate with any other node. Each node has a global unique ID much like an ethernet card's MAC address (except that it's longer.) The TYPES on control is virtually unlimited - it's not just "On, Off, Dim up and down." It's used in commercial and industrial environments as well as residential, so it's not going away anytime soon. Every house in Italy is being wired together with Lonworks.
So it depends on what technology you go with. You can go with a dedicated residential nitch technology, or something more universal with massive industry support. THAT will define whether you have a white elephant that becomes obsolete in a couple years or not.
I think you are overestimating the maintenance issues. Solid state electronics are quite reliable. Look at your clock radio. I've had the same one for 20 years or so. They just last forever. Node cost is something like $20, so it's similar. Your dishwasher, refrig, or furnace will probably die from a mechanical failure before electronic failure. A smart appliance could actually end up saving you money because it may be able to tell when a part is close to failure before it causes a domino type cascading failure in other parts. Not to mention that it can call your repair service for you when it DOES fail.
Large companies can take advantage of cheaper power rates at different times of the day. With a smart meter and smart home, you will be able to do so as well. We wouldn't HAVE a power issue in california if we could manage even just half our electical usage. In a situation where you have variable rates depending on the current grid load / market, a smart home investment could pay for itself in just a few years.
This is a technology I've been keeping an eye on for over 10 years. It's solid at this point.
real toilet remote control (Score:2, Informative)
Crestron panels (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Better technology is already available for sale (Score:3, Informative)
The omniremote module also can optionally come with a blue LED for use as a flashlight. It's pretty damn cool stuff. I have one, and if my visor screen weren't cracked I'd use it nonstop.
Re:Toilet Remote (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.bathpro.net/jasmin.htm