Basic Tasks
- Track users from room to room
- Only track people; don’t be fooled by pets etc.
- Allow privacy modes that pretend a person is invisible
- Track user within room
- Detect user’s proximity to areas of interest within room
- Remember users’ settings
- Automatically remember device settings such as sound volume, preferred temperature
- Learn to associate settings with extra parameters such as time of day, current weather, volume of email (amount of work)
- User Tracking
- Infrared sensors for motion detection between rooms
- Bluetooth to determine position within a room
- RFID for identification and authentication
- Voice recognition for authentication
- Floor sensors to detect presence of actual person
- Home Automation
- Bluetooth to transmit data and control signals
- X10 to control some home appliances
- Voice recognition for simple commands
- Custom Systems
- Gumstix as prototype control unit
- Software to coordinate location tracking and home automation systems
Architecture
The gumstix motherboard is responsible for monitoring one doorway. Each sensor and each appliance is controlled by a single gumstix board. The gumstix boards coordinate with each other to maintain the entire house.
Optionally, other control nodes such as a Bluetooth-enabled computer or cell phone can be added. These would provide more accessible user interfaces to directly control user preferences and settings.