See me, feel me, hear me, touch me

See me, feel me, hear me, touch me
Other neat touchpanels are ideal for whole home wireless control. You’re
probably familiar with touchscreens, if you’ve ever used a kiosk in a mall to
find a store or at a hotel to find a restaurant. Touchpanels are smaller (typically
6–10" screens) and are wall mounted or simply lie on a table; you touch
the screen to accomplish certain things.
Touchpanels have become a real centerpiece for expensive home control
installations, where touchpanels allow you to turn on and off the air conditioning,
set the alarm, turn off the lights, select music, change channels on
the TV . . . and the list goes on. These are merely user interfaces into often
PC-driven functionality that can control almost anything in your house, even
the coffee maker.
Crestron (www.crestron.com) rules the upper end of touchpanel options
with a whole product line for home control that includes wireless-enabled
touchpanels. Crestron’s color touchpad systems are to die for (or at least to
second-mortgage for). We’d say, “The only thing these touchpanels cannot do
is let the dog out on cold nights,” but as soon as we said it, someone would
retort, “Well, actually, they can.”
Although some of Crestron’s current products use 434 MHz wireless RF to
communicate with each other, Crestron also has many 802.11 wireless solutions,
including PDA control of Crestron via 802.11 using any PocketPC 2002-
powered device, as well as full support for Microsoft Tablet PC OS. You can
design your own graphical layouts for the devices using Crestron’s touchpanel
design software, VTPRO-e, so you can use a PDA/Web tablet for control,
just like you would a wall-mounted Crestron touchpanel. In addition, Crestron
is working very closely with Viewsonic to allow use of Viewsonic 802.11benabled
Web tablets to control the home’s systems.
Crestron is definitely high end — the average Crestron installation tops
$50,000. But if you’re installing a home theater, a wireless computing network,
a slew of A/V, and home automation on top of that, you’re probably going to
talk to Crestron at one point or another.
An up-and-coming, lower-cost alternative to Crestron is CorAccess
(www.coraccess.com), which offers a line of products that are 802.11b (and
soon 802.11g) enabled. Dubbed the CorAccess Companion, these products
are a pretty sleek and convenient way to interface with various home automation
products, such as the HAI Omni and OnQ HMS home control software
systems that allow you to manage the systems in your home (see Figure 14-4).
CorAccess also has added some nifty applications to boost this from just
being a touchpanel for controls. Its PhotoMate software turns the Companion
into a digital picture frame. When not in control mode, it displays a single picture
or slideshow; images of the kids, your last vacation, or even updates of
news and weather downloaded from the Internet. You can manage your
Companion and its photo presentations from CorPhoto
(www.corphoto.com), which is the CorAccess digital photo exchange site.
The Companion also comes equipped with a full Camera Monitoring application
where you can view as many cameras as you’d like, one or four at a time.
With just a touch, you can go to full screen, stop on particular cameras, or
change the delay time between camera views. Or you can add camera views
available through the Internet to see local traffic, weather, or any other IPbased
camera (such as the Panasonic or D-Link cameras that we discuss earlier
in the chapter).
The optional AudioMate application from CorAccess can be used to play
music from your home network or streaming content from the Internet and
can even become your home intercom system. An AudioMate intercom isn’t
limited to just inside the home, however. The CorAccess Voice over IP- (VoIP)
based communication system allows Companion to talk to a multitude of
other devices . . . from the Companion in the entryway to a laptop downtown
or a PC halfway around the world.
When linked to the HAI Omni system (www.homeauto.com), you add in an
automation and security controller. Omni coordinates lighting, heating and air,
security, scenes, and messaging based on activity and schedules. Omni comes
with several standard modes, such as Day, Night, Away, and Vacation, and
can accept customized scenes such as Good Night, Good Morning, or Entertainment
that set temperatures, lights, and security to the desired levels — all
with just one touch. Security and temperature sensors can be used to adjust
lights, appliances, and thermostats; monitor activity; and track events.
So much control, so little time. The CorAccess products come in a wall mount
or tablet version. Pricing ranges from $1,999 to $2,499. An HAI system adds
about $1,500 to $3,500 to the mix.
If you’re really interested in home automation and linking the various aspects
of your home together, try Smart Homes For Dummies, by Wiley Publishing,
Inc. It’s the best book on the topic. (Can you tell that Pat and Danny wrote it?)
Sit, Ubu, Sit . . . Speak!
Your wireless network can help with your pet tricks, too! Although we’re not
sure that this is what the pet trainer meant when she said that she’d teach
your dog to speak, but speak he can if he’s Sony’s AIBO robotic dog
(www.aibo.com; $1,500 and up). Don’t be misled and think of this as a cute
expensive toy — this is one incredible robot. If you don’t know much about
the AIBO, check out its Web site to find out about this robotic puppy. It’s neat
how Sony has wirelessly enabled its robo-dog with 802.11b.
All you need to do is buy an AIBO wireless LAN 802.11b card and a programming
Memory Stick (assuming that you’ve already got an AIBO), and your
pooch roves about constantly linked to your home wireless network. With
AIBO Messenger software, AIBO can read your e-mail and home pages. AIBO
will tell you when your receive e-mail in your inbox. AIBO will read your e-mail
messages to you. (“Hey, Master, you got an e-mail from your girlfriend. She
dumped you.”) AIBO can read up to five pre-registered Web sites for you. And
AIBO will remind you of important events.
With AIBO Navigator software, your computer becomes AIBO’s remote-control
unit. From the cockpit view on your PC, you can experience the world from
AIBO’s eyes in real-time. (You know, there are just some things that a dog sees
that we really would rather not see!)
Through the control graphical user interface (GUI) on your PC, you can
move your AIBO anywhere that you want. Use a joystick or your keyboard
and mouse to move AIBO about. By using the sound transmission feature,
you can make AIBO speak instead of you from a remote location. (“Hey, baby,
how’s about you and me going out for a cup of coffee?”)
We’re not sure that you’re ready to start telling people that your dog has an
SSID (“AIBONET”), but this is one good example today of robots using your
home wireless highway. Above all, make sure that you turn on WEP and follow
the security suggestions that we give you in Chapter 10. (Could you imagine
taking control of your neighbor’s un-secured AIBO — now THAT could be
fun!) You can find out more about setting up an AIBO on your wireless LAN
at www.us.aibo.com/lan/ers_210_lan_21.php.