GPL'd Home Automation

Via 'Home automation has gone open source', I found the video to the left and tracked down Virtual Crib ([t:vCrib]). Considering I had blogged about Smart Homes in South Korea recently, this brings it to the do-it-yourself ([t:DIY])sort of geek. The control of homes possible within SecondLife is rapidly approaching reality these days.

I doubt there is a need for hiding poseballs just yet, but things one can do with a home in a virtual world are things you can do in the real world- thus giving ideas for design in the real world.

As for vCrib itself - it's licensed under the GPL, which means that it's not just Open Source - it is also Free Software. By watching the video, it seems that the demo itself has some redundancy in it; rather than monitoring voltages to see whether the light is on, the photovoltaic cells are mentioned to detect whether a light is actually on - which means that something as simple as that could be linked in to your shopping list, telling you not only that you need a lightbulb, but where to put it... and that reminds me of Eric Rice and his comment related to Manna when I wrote about the CICS being connected to SecondLife.

Suddenly, we're not in Kansas anymore. In a way, people may become more direct life support systems for their homes.

None of this is really new - statistical process control has been around for quite a while, and a lot of this leads to what W. Edwards Deming advocated - only in the context of Robert M. Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values: increasing quality of life through technology by evolving better and better ways to assist us in managing time.

Of course, the real problem is that we always seem to find ways to use more of our time. Constant improvement... and in this scenario, while vCrib doesn't have the hardware for you to make it happen - the cost of the software itself ($0) certainly allows a better return on investment for home automation. And it means it's easier for electricians to create custom home automation systems, which means - more competition, which means an even better return on investment.

By raising the bar for everyone, it gives us all more time to do fun stuff... like make something else better, for those of us interested in doing that.