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Smartphone ≠ smart home

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Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#31

Post by lelandbatey »

seivan wrote: post #28
untog wrote: post #12

Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over. On a similar note, I wanted to love the Chromecast, but I found the phone to be a terrible controller. Now I use a Roku, which has a great remote. Instead of my girlfriend and I crowding ourselves around a tiny smart…

So much wrong with your statement... Unlock with fingerprint. App launches aren't that slow on iPhones :/ How about an extension to do it from the notification center? Or even Siri? Neither requires unlocking. You could technically have an iPhone plugged into a power source and activate Siri with "Hey Siri" and then do your thing. Then.... we have the Watch :)

And yet all of those actions pale in comparison to just picking up a remote with nice tactile buttons and using it immediately, no weird navigation, no apps, nothing.

I mean, I'd still use my smartphone as a remote for other reasons. But the parent does make a good point.

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#32

Post by deminature »

untog wrote: post #12

Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over. On a similar note, I wanted to love the Chromecast, but I found the phone to be a terrible controller. Now I use a Roku, which has a great remote. Instead of my girlfriend and I crowding ourselves around a tiny smart…

Xbox One's voice control would be my preferred input mechanism for controlling my entire home - no unlock, no app launch, not even any picking up a device/remote. Microsoft must have plans about this though, because it seems so obvious after getting used to voice control on the console.

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#34

Post by crazypyro »

I will say that I think Leap motion[0] is another really well made "controller" that would be great for smart homes. It just "works" with their code out of the box. You can easily tell how many fingers someone has, whether they are tapping, grabbing, a couple other gestures, their 3 dim location relative to the camera, etc. I used one at a hackathon a few months back to attempt a Theremin and it was quite fun.

[0]https://www.leapmotion.com/

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#35

Post by coldtea »

>Smart homes are not a thing of the future anymore. Right now, 100 “things” per second are connecting to the internet. By 2020, more than 250 things will connect each second.

Probably unpopular in a programming forum, but, aside for people with physical difficulties, did anyone (e.g. more than a few outliers, not literally anyone as in > 0) ever asked for a "smart home"?

And before someone replies with the quote about "faster horsers", did anyone, AFTER shown one, went anything but "meh"?

Anybody that show not just as "nice to have, ok, move on", on the level of battery powered toothbrushes, but as something that really impacts your life.

Seems more to me, like a few other things in tech, like a solution in search of a problem. In the say way nobody asked or wanted those "if you want to talk about your credit card, press 3", etc, automated speech recognition call services.

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#36

Post by dangrossman »

Instead of a $99 custom button, what about a sub-$99 Android tablet? You can put them anywhere you'd put the button, and leave your home control app running with the screen set to never turn off. Turning on/off a light with a touch will then be no more effort than flicking a light switch -- there's nothing to take out of your pocket, no waiting for an app to open.

This is how my home works. I built the app that runs on the screens all the time (a little node.js server and web app), and have a few tablets mounted on the walls. This is a screenshot from October:

http://www.dangrossman.info/wp-content/uploads/home2.png

Since then, I've added a bunch of new controls for dimmable lights and scenes (e.g. turn off all the first floor lights at once, or dim them all to the same percentage).

I built my own, but there are dozens of free pre-built home control apps in the Play Store. I find Wink's very attractive for example: http://i.imgur.com/DUWIwh3.png

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#37

Post by coldtea »

untog wrote: post #12

Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over. On a similar note, I wanted to love the Chromecast, but I found the phone to be a terrible controller. Now I use a Roku, which has a great remote. Instead of my girlfriend and I crowding ourselves around a tiny smart…

>Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over.

For one, newer smartphones will mostly come with fingerprint sensors. So no code typing there.

Second, apps launch almost instantly in any recent iOS or Android phone. It's not like you'll wait 1 minute for he app to launch or anything.

Third, "it's already over" over typing and app-launching wait time? Oh, the humanity. I've lived in houses where the thermostat was in a specific room, or even in the basement next to the heater.

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#38

Post by coldtea »

lelandbatey wrote: post #31
seivan wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much wrong with your statement... Unlock with fingerprint. App launches aren't that slow on iPhones :/ How about an extension to do it from the notification center? Or even Siri? Neither requires unlocking. You could technically have an iPhone plugged into a power source and activate Siri with "Hey Siri" and then do your thing. Then.... we have the Watch :)

And yet all of those actions pale in comparison to just picking up a remote with nice tactile buttons and using it immediately, no weird navigation, no apps, nothing. I mean, I'd still use my smartphone as a remote for other reasons. But the parent does make a good point.

So, instead of the phone (which for most people is always with you), have an extra task-specific remote, to feed with batteries, lose, and go fetch from another room when you need it.

Plus "nice tactile buttons"? 2005 called. Of all the things one would need those for, setting a thermostat (which takes like 5 seconds) is very low in utility...

Re: Smartphone ≠ smart home

#40

Post by vmarsy »

deminature wrote: post #32
untog wrote: post #12

Smartphone controlled anything never feels great to me. If I have to type in code to unlock my keypad, then wait for an app to launch, just to change the temperature on the thermostat, it's already over. On a similar note, I wanted to love the Chromecast, but I found the phone to be a terrible controller. Now I use a Roku, which has a great remote. Instead of my girlfriend and I crowding ourselves around a tiny smart…

Xbox One's voice control would be my preferred input mechanism for controlling my entire home - no unlock, no app launch, not even any picking up a device/remote. Microsoft must have plans about this though, because it seems so obvious after getting used to voice control on the console.

That's what Cortana is for.

For instance today if you have a Philips hue lights and a windows phone, you pick your phone, screen is off, you press the search button, and says "huestro, set my lights to ..."

Hopefully you'll be able to say that directly from your Xbox one microphone.

But this article is spot on, that's a reason Philips released the pricey "hue tap", a switch that frees you from using a smartphone

http://www.windowsphone.com/en-us/store/app/huetro-for-hue/f...

http://www2.meethue.com/en-us/the-range/hue-tap/

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