Live data from Hacker News

Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

kickstarter.com

11–20 of 58 posts

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#11
post #5

I watched the entire video and I still have no idea what it is or does.

Dan from Ninja here. That's what happens when you try and explain something geeky to a broad audience... but for the techies... It's a powerful (same chip as beaglebone black) ARM computer with WiFi, BLE and ZigBee radios. Runs ubuntu. Everything open source. Almost all Node.JS. It uses open source drivers to connect to devices and learns how they operate, building a model. If something is out of place, it notifies y…

Is the service it runs open source so we can run it completely in our home?

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#12
post #5

I watched the entire video and I still have no idea what it is or does.

Dan from Ninja here. That's what happens when you try and explain something geeky to a broad audience... but for the techies... It's a powerful (same chip as beaglebone black) ARM computer with WiFi, BLE and ZigBee radios. Runs ubuntu. Everything open source. Almost all Node.JS. It uses open source drivers to connect to devices and learns how they operate, building a model. If something is out of place, it notifies y…

Can I run it without it having a connection to your servers?

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#14
The reward tiers make it sound like the optimum operating environment is a single-floor apartment. I live in a three-floor house with a basement. I use a single base station that covers my entire house. The reward tier that adds a second floor sounds like a lot of equipment... what's the challenge there and why is it so much more? Is there a square-footage per way-point estimate?

I love the idea and have been experimenting with my own designs but haven't imagined doing the positioning stuff in such a sophisticated way (let alone gesture controls... voice commands work for me so far). I'd love to pitch in on a project like this and let someone else do the work better than I ever could in my spare spare-time. I'm just curious if by "home," you mean, "tiny, controlled environment," like a condo or something.

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#15

I think this is a cool idea and I'm pretty sure something like this will exist in the future. Can we all agree though that its time to start phasing out the use of the word 'Ninja' with everything? How about 'Ranger Sphere' or 'Knight Sphere' or just 'The Sphereamid' - thats a pretty neat word you guys came up with, go with it, enough with the 'Ninjas'

Their company name is Ninja Blocks. It makes perfect sense for them to build on that brand and put forth an association to carry along good will for this new project. They're not just calling it "Ninja" because they think it sounds cool.

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dan from Ninja here. That's what happens when you try and explain something geeky to a broad audience... but for the techies... It's a powerful (same chip as beaglebone black) ARM computer with WiFi, BLE and ZigBee radios. Runs ubuntu. Everything open source. Almost all Node.JS. It uses open source drivers to connect to devices and learns how they operate, building a model. If something is out of place, it notifies y…

Is the service it runs open source so we can run it completely in our home?

Yes one of goals is to open source the entire platform.

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#17
Will it ninja-proof my home? Because we have a real ninja problem in my neighbourhood. Anything that can keep them under control gets my vote.

(Sorry. I'm just sick of this ninja-meme. I'm sure it's a wonderful product, and all that, but using ninjas to sell home-automation??)

Re: Ninja Sphere: Next Generation Control of Your Environment

#19
post #5

I watched the entire video and I still have no idea what it is or does.

Dan from Ninja here. That's what happens when you try and explain something geeky to a broad audience... but for the techies... It's a powerful (same chip as beaglebone black) ARM computer with WiFi, BLE and ZigBee radios. Runs ubuntu. Everything open source. Almost all Node.JS. It uses open source drivers to connect to devices and learns how they operate, building a model. If something is out of place, it notifies y…

I noticed XBMC listed, can I control it via gestures?
Post reply on HN