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The Internet of Way Too Many Things

nytimes.com

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Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#121

Post by adventured »

_asummers wrote: post #113
speleding wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I renovated my house a few months ago and also had to decide whether or not to go "smart" on the lighting, switches thermostat, etc. Did a lot of research and came to the same conclusion that there was little benefit and large chance that I would have obsolete technology next year. However, I did go for an electronic doorlock (with finger print reader) and after just a few months I can not imagine ever going back to…

In general, fingerprints should not be treated as a password or key. They unfortunately are being used as such by Apple and Samsung and these fingerprint locks. A key is something you keep private, but you leave your fingerprint on everything, including the doorknob you're trying to keep locked. Additionally, once compromised, the key cannot be revoked. I don't doubt it is much more convenient, but I would personally…

The only type of people that door locks keep out, are mostly honest people. That's why fingerprint locks are mostly about convenience, not drastically boosted security.

If you have a normal door lock, a professional thief of the sort that would be able to (or try to) steal + use your fingerprint is already a threat. It's no worse than the ways a pro can break into your house without a fingerprint lock.

If someone has procured your finger print, and is now targeting your house, you've got much bigger problems than what a key lock can prevent. It means you're being specifically targeted, they've cased you and your house.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#122

Post by germinalphrase »

antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

Can anyone speak to the difficulty of homebrew automating some very simple processes?

For instance, I have no interest in buying into an ecosystem or any sort of smart appliance - but I would love to have low-watt floor lights turn on as I half-asleep stumble to the kitchen for a glass of water at 3am.

I want my idiosyncratic needs to drive 'smart' home additions - not the shared needs of target population Y.

Is there a community around this sort of thing I could link up with?

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#123

Post by oupsmigthidkk »

Duhck wrote: post #39

As someone actively working in the smart home space, I refrain from calling our business IoT for exactly this reason. I've even challenged the team to stay away from smart home. We do very little "smart" home stuff and instead rely on cleverly designing a set of devices that don't require an application or future technology (AI, voice control) to work properly. They also don't take up space in your home and combine t…

Tried to go on your profile to know more..can you provide a link of what you're building?

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#124

Post by semi-extrinsic »

antr wrote: post #17
hessenwolf wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.childtrends.org/?indicators=infant-child-and-teen... Looks to me like infant mortality (under age one) has halved between 1977 and 2013. I understand the argument of "it worked fine for me", but, well, on a portfolio basis, you and I were dying a bit faster back then. Outpatient care is a big field these days. Something that, with extremely little effort, can reduce the odds of death or disability, is quit…

Maybe you are right... but a onesie that "knows that when a baby wakes up, the parents will, too -- so it turns on lights and music and even makes the coffee." ... is of no use to fight infant mortality.

As a father of two, my youngest being 4 months old, those features sound unusually stupid. When the baby wakes up at 3am, any device that subsequently turned on lights and music would be taken out back and shot. As for the coffee, my bog-standard Philips coffee maker has a built-in timer already, set for 6:30 am.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#125

Post by adventured »

Spooky23 wrote: post #118

Home automation always was and continues to be a puttering around hobby or suckers game. A friend bought a house that had a late 70s state of the art home system. Central radio/vinyl/8track player, intercoms, and a broken CCTV setup. Also cool stuff like central vacuum. The big difference between that house and the modern gadgetry is that the 70s stuff was hard wired and still works. None of the IoT crap that is on t…

My house also came with a 1970s central vacuum system (among other things).

It still works amazingly well for a system that is 40 years old. I've only used it one time, just to test it out, because it's obnoxious to drag a long hose around the house and connect up to each port. In my opinion the concept was bad from the start because of that one thing.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#126

Post by rm445 »

azatris wrote: post #74
Duhck wrote: post #39

As someone actively working in the smart home space, I refrain from calling our business IoT for exactly this reason. I've even challenged the team to stay away from smart home. We do very little "smart" home stuff and instead rely on cleverly designing a set of devices that don't require an application or future technology (AI, voice control) to work properly. They also don't take up space in your home and combine t…

Hi :-) This is very interesting. What exactly are you doing then? Designing (software, hardware, both?) dumb devices for home?

Parent poster's bio link points to https://www.hellotwist.com/ which does multi-room speaker systems.

What I was going to say before thinking to check the link, is that there must be a wealth of applications available to the instrumentation engineer, using modern microcontrollers without making the full step to Internet of Things.

The smoke alarm with the "I'm cooking for the next ten minutes" button. The simple alarm clock that knows weekends from weekdays, or even your work shifts. The thermostat with a few dozen more available states than the traditional ones and a sane interface. Electric showers that deliver a pleasant showering experience. Smart dumb devices.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#127

Post by dalke »

hessenwolf wrote: post #42
tptacek wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not fair. He didn't say "children should be raised to exactly the same standards as they were in 1977". He said "we were raised without the benefits of smart-onesies, and we came out fine". Those are two different arguments. Meanwhile, the reality is that the bulk of the decline in US infant mortality is attributable to improved prenatal care. If you want to keep arguing about the value of modernizing parentin…

It's not 'unfair'. (are you implying I was unduly harsh on the gent?) Let's take sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Because of SIDS, it is now recommended in the videos I watched yesterday, that infants be put down on their backs with no pillows in the parents' bedroom but not in their bed. This has no bearing on prenatal care or wealth, but has an effect, which could probably be enhanced by a smart baby monitor.

So you disagree with articles like http://www.slate.com/articles/life/family/2014/02/mimo_and_o... "Selling Fear: Smart monitors cannot protect babies from SIDS, so what are they for?" Or the Policy Statement at http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/5/1030.ful... which says:

> Do not use home cardiorespiratory monitors as a strategy to reduce the risk of SIDS—Although cardiorespiratory monitors can be used at home to detect apnea, bradycardia, and, when pulse oximetry is used, decreases in oxyhemoglobin saturation, there is no evidence that use of such devices decreases the incidence of SIDS.84,–,87 They might be of value for selected infants but should not be used routinely. There is also no evidence that routine in-hospital cardiorespiratory monitoring before discharge from the hospital can identify newborn infants at risk of SIDS.

When you say "probably be enhanced", was that speaking only from optimism in technology, or did it have some other basis?

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#128

Post by tdfw »

germinalphrase wrote: post #122
antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

Can anyone speak to the difficulty of homebrew automating some very simple processes? For instance, I have no interest in buying into an ecosystem or any sort of smart appliance - but I would love to have low-watt floor lights turn on as I half-asleep stumble to the kitchen for a glass of water at 3am. I want my idiosyncratic needs to drive 'smart' home additions - not the shared needs of target population Y. Is ther…

I think the safest way to go is to purchase products with open standards, namely Z-Wave and Zigbee. They're open protocols that can be used with any number of HA products; SmartThings, Wink, Vera, etc.

You can purchase Z-Wave thermostats from Honeywell, switches from Leviton, locks from Schlage and so on. I use OpenHAB in my home, which is an open-source home automation server. It can run on anything from a RPi to a blade with just a few necessary additions (namely a Z-Wave dongle and some sort of network connection.)

OpenHAB requires a fair bit of programming knowledge and the learning curve can be steep for some, but overall it's very functional. A few things I do in my house:

- When the garage door opens and it's after sunset, the hallway lights turn on and set themselves to 50% brightness.

- When I start watching a show on PleX, the living room lights fade out. If the show is paused, they'll come up enough for me to navigate around and refill my drink.

- When both my girlfriend and I are gone from the house, the A/C shuts off. When it detects we're within 1/2 mile of the house, it'll come back on so it's comfortable when we arrive.

There's a million other things you can do with OpenHAB. It has hundreds of "bindings" to different HA products and supports HTTP endpoints, etc. Proprietary standards are bound to go away eventually, but open standards with open-source software will always be around.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#129

Post by detaro »

antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

Yeah, and the more long-term players in the automation space give you reliable parts with long-term availability from different sources... but they are even more expensive, don't integrate well with fancy gadgets (apps) and, biggest show-stopper, don't make the configuration tools easily available, so you need to call a tech for nearly everything instead of doing it yourself, which is stupid for a private home.

Re: The Internet of Way Too Many Things

#130

Post by legulere »

s_baby wrote: post #8
antr wrote: post #2

I just bought a home, and just started a considerable renovation. I'm putting in new water pipes, new electrical wiring, etc. I thought of putting "smart" devices (i.e. switches, alarms, thermostats, etc.) given the "advantages" these promise. After considerable research, it's not worth the hussle or money. Let's put aside the fact that these are considerable more expensive, and won't breakeven in years (some devices…

I would still run cat6 as if I was going to use smart devices. You're already inside the walls.

Empty conduits seem like a better idea than cables. Tech changes way to fast to put cables directly into the wall (except for 110/230V~ power which seems to stay stable until now)
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