How to Turn Your Bedroom Lights off With Twitter [VIDEO]

by Darren Rowse on December 3, 2008

in Other Twitter Tips

Put this one in the novel uses for Twitter basket - how to use Twitter to turn off your bedroom lights.

I saw this a few months back - but was reminded today about it by Momma. Enjoy!


Control Lights with Twitter from Justin Wickett on Vimeo.

What other fun, novel, bizarre uses have you seen for Twitter?

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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Funky Space Monkey 12.03.08 at 7:54 am @murdamw

yeah this is awesome. I joined twitter ( when i did ) because of this videos lol…. not understanding @ that moment whats all about . I just thought it was cool what this guy did :D

2 Shapes of Sweetness 12.03.08 at 7:59 am @cthomp7777

Woah- that’s crazy. So how long will it be till twitter can cook grilled cheese sandwiches?

3 AverageGal 12.03.08 at 8:00 am @AverageGalDotCo

Oh my gosh! Who knew that Twitter could be so useful? Very innovative idea! Now if only it could get my kids up and ready for school everyday… hum.

4 Glenda Watson Hyatt 12.03.08 at 8:04 am @GlendaWH

Intriguing! I’m curious about the exact technologies used. I’m wondering if this could be used by individuals who are unable to get up and turn off the lights rather than expensive environment control units. What are the ways this could potentially be used?

5 WP Cult 12.03.08 at 8:10 am @thefrosty

What the charlie!
That is so cool and ridiculous at the same time!!

I would never want that!

6 CJ Harley 12.03.08 at 8:18 am @cjharley

That is incredible. If I had that set up I would hook it up to my coffee pot so I could send a text in bed when I wanted my coffee started. And, yes I know they have coffee pots with automatic timers, but mine didn’t come with that feature. :o)

7 all top blogs 12.03.08 at 8:25 am @alltopblogs

Can you share how was this implemented?

how did you connect twitter to your light switch?

8 TheAndySan 12.03.08 at 8:40 am @theandysan

That’s cool as hell!!

9 Momma 12.03.08 at 8:57 am @http://twitter.com/EADFL

Hey Darren, thanks for sharing the link I emailed you earlier! I figured your readers would enjoy it! :)

Now if we can just set this up in our house!!!

Momma
Feature blogger at Engineer a Debt Free Life (lots of bargains, freebies, and money saving/frugal tips)
http://www.engineeradebtfreelife.com/

10 Pamela 12.03.08 at 10:50 am @pamelafa

Darren, wow what will they think of next. Entrepreneurial minds can’t go wrong. I will be trying this. Thanks so much for the tip.

11 Hector A. Henry S 12.03.08 at 11:40 am @hectorhenry17

jajajaj what else we gonna see whit tweeterrrrr. lol

12 Kolin 12.03.08 at 12:36 pm @specialkolin

oh my god… wow, I should have never seen this, my life has now become lazier.

13 Sean 12.03.08 at 1:36 pm @akrage

This is beyond beyond.

14 Swizec 12.03.08 at 2:18 pm @swizec

I want a buttler that’s constantly hooked up to my twitter stream and intuitively figuring out what I want. So when they notice I’m starting to get a tad tired they bring me tea, peckish - food etc.

Wouldn’t THAT be cool!?

15 Ricky Buchanan 12.03.08 at 2:19 pm @atmacjournal

Looks like it’s probably done with X10 or Insteon technology - check out http://x10.com/ for one distributor, or websearch for “x10″ and “insteon”.

And yes, it can be used by people with disabilities instead of more expensive methods. I don’t know why more PWDs don’t use it - I do!

16 moinuddin14 12.03.08 at 5:35 pm @moinuddin14

Unbelievable!!!! Where is the technology heading towards…. well its just amazing, i thought twitter is just a simple thing but now i could understand its greatness to an extent. Fantastic video.

17 jennine 12.03.08 at 9:42 pm @thecoveted

the next thing you know, twitter will be asking us ‘what are you doing dave?’
what? my name’s not dave!

18 Christie @ fig&cherry 12.03.08 at 9:55 pm @figandcherry

Um, does anyone else think this is incredibly lazy?

I mean, it’s cool. I’m not denying that. But lazy too. Really lazy.

19 Hendry Lee 12.03.08 at 10:05 pm @hendrylee

At Justin’s site there is a downloadable guide on how to accomplish this setup. Looks like he uses a Python script that runs endlessly to fetch the feed every one second and see if there in an instruction to turn the light on and off.

He is using Insteon switch to control lights (and possibly other appliances) with PC, connected via USB.

If you’d like to try that, at least create a special Twitter account so people who follow are not confused about those bizarre commands, especially if you use it to control multiple lights and appliances. :)

20 MMA Gear Blog 12.04.08 at 12:40 am @gymtops

So. I can use my finger to do that. What’s the purpose?

21 Cristhian Bedon 12.04.08 at 12:04 pm @cbedon

Wow, the things people do, so they can have more time for other things. I wonder what else is possible for twitter…maybe tweet to start your car?….that would be good…nah. We have fingers like the person above said, and it doesn’t take that much to turn off the lights.

22 Al 12.06.08 at 2:11 am @agdm

Hey what if he left his house and forgot to make sure certain things were off.
I think its a novel idea.

Imagine, “Turn off iron”.

23 InternetGeek 12.08.08 at 12:37 am @luckyb52

Hey Darren,

How does the computer recognize the “turn off lights” tweet? I went to Momma’s site but didn’t find anything on the Twitter-lights project…

Cheers,

Lucky

24 Paul 12.08.08 at 7:43 am @teamness

I have no other bizarre uses of Twitter to share, but listen to this: today I pressed the On button on my tv remote control and suddenly I saw a few people trapped in the tv talking to each other.

Duh …

25 Juliet Johnson 03.25.09 at 11:33 pm @JulietJohnson

I know a couple who are so busy that they take their laptops to bed. They sit side by side working into the night, and when they start IM-ing each other exclusively, they know they’re done and it’s time to turn the light off. If they don’t have this way of turning all the lights off already without getting out of bed, I’m sure it’s on their to-do list to get it!!

What a fun concept! This techno-internet thing is making life magical, no?

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