Comments on: Twitter and Home Automation – How Does It Work?

By: Harshit Sekhon

Harshit Sekhon — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 11:48:10 +0000

Interesting concept Hendry! The merit of the idea is accentuated by the fact that you could be sending the instruction via your mobile phone (twitter sms). However, it would be good to have a sort of push based system to avoid overloading an embedded system with periodic processing wastage to poll for instructions. Just a thought!

By: hendrylee

hendrylee — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:28:41 +0000

BrandMover, that certainly is an interesting application.

Richard, you’re right. I can’t wait to see more applications in the future. We can only expect things become easier and faster (to set up) and more reliable.

By: hendrylee

hendrylee — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:25:57 +0000

Graham, I think it’s a sign that this industry is still in its infancy. Personally, I don’t think those examples above are particularly useful, but they demonstrate what could be done with technologies. At least, they are cool once they are setup.

The product itself is not so hard to install. It may come with a remote control. It is the software and computer parts that are harder. For instance, you can post to Twitter via many methods, but how to pull the data and translate them into instructions are not so easy without understanding in simple programming language.

Those are certainly going to change in the future.

Neil, I agree with you. For the bedroom light scenario, I’d prefer switch off the light with my finger. No big deal. But it is not the intention of this article.

By: Graham Richards

Graham Richards — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 09:53:04 +0000

Seems an awful lot of hassle to do something so simple that could easily be done with a cheap electric timer switch! Seems more like horses for courses, or should that be gadgets for geeks?!

By: Hector A. Henry S.

Hector A. Henry S. — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 23:26:12 +0000

Greattt I would like this one Play a song / music / recording. like be in a dinner whit you loved one in my case my wife, and that suthing sung like our firts sung begging to play its owul dbe souch a great thing.

Than you for the gooodd post.

By: Neil Matthews

Neil Matthews — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:16:16 +0000

I’m gonna be run out of Cyberville on a rail but really why !!!!!

I’ve downloaded the latest patch to my hand called a finger and I use it to switch off the lights.

I get that you can tap into the API to use a tweet as an activator for, well, whatever but there are 101 other ways to do this.

There I’ve said it I’m officially a ludite.

By: ModernPainter

ModernPainter — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:56:06 +0000

I’m going to hook Twitter up to my coffee machine:)

By: BrandMover

BrandMover — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:44:10 +0000

Great idea! My PLC controller has even an email server, so I can trigger the air conditioner with twitter or by an email command.

By: Richard Allan Marti Jr

Richard Allan Marti Jr — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 15:53:57 +0000

Back in the 90’s we remodeled a house here in Connecticut with an electronic strike plate on the front door. The idea is old but the list of available devices to connect to is rapidly growing.

By: Jon

Jon — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 14:22:42 +0000

What a great use of technology! The tough part is integrating the hardware into everything you want to control, but, once you have that – the possibilities are great!

Now if I could get twitter to help my kids do their homework…