Print

[KENRAD]

  The S.A.R.A idea by DaveX10L is what  led me to start looking for ways to make my house more intelligent.  I have been a heavy user of Tuicemens software for a few years now as well as Ihouse.  I started with bluewatch WIFI as a simple way to allow me to let the Ha system know if I was home or not, but then as you started looking into S.A.R.A I began to think more and more on how I could make the house more interactive with me and my family.  Of course this led to a Google search where I found some information about nitrogen logic and a controller that connects to a microsoft kinect and can detect occupancy in the room based on zones.  I contacted the developer of the nitrogen logic controller and started talking with him about how to get his controller to communicate with Ihouse and PCC.  he developed a small program that could send a command line argument so not the nitrogen logic controller can communicate with and program that accepts command lines.  The kinect controller has the ability to trigger zones based on many different parameters. ( occupancy of the zone, surface area of the zone, pixel population of the zone, as well as the center of gravity for the zones based on x,y,z parameters, and brightness).  some of the things that it allows me to do is sense the brightness in the room and only trigger the lights if the light in the room is below the selected light level, when I sit at my desk and the lightlevel is acceptable it will turn on my desk light no matter what the light level is it will use PCC to check my emails and read them to me.  when I get up and leave the light goes out.  also in the same room when I enter the ceiling fan comes on if the lightlevel is appropriate.  there are two desks in this room so when my girl friend sits at her desk the lamp on her desk comes on of course based on room light again.

There is a second controller in my bedroom that allow me to again turn on the ceiling light when I enter the room and off when I leave,  then I created a zone near my closet that when triggered will read my agenda and emails only between as set time frame in the morning,  the  I created 3 more zones two of them just set flags in ihouse that let the Ha PC know if me or my girlfriend are in bed, so that the kinect can't trigger the lights when someone is sleeping and it also disables the next zone I will discuss.  The last zone triggers a macro that will turn off the ceiling light  and turn on when wall sconces on each side of my bed when I get into bed, then with a AHK script developed by ITguy (the qmacro script found at the Ihouse forum) it will turn off the sconces and say good nite two minutes later ( this macro is disabled if either of the bed zones are occupied and only runs during a set time frame so it is not triggered whe it is not bed time.


One other thing that I have been experimenting with is a zone that scans the floors in the kids bedroom,  when the surface area exceeds a preset threshold it will announce for hte kids to clean their rooms because of the mess on the floor    This is working approximately 70% at this time.   I think that there are many more possibilities for this controller and I have just broken the Ice.

I will be posting results and links to you tube videos at the ihouse and here  as well as sample macros that I am running with Ihouse and PCC and how I use them.

Hope more individuals can see the functionality that this adds to HA

  Ken
Edited by Tuicemen to add new link to SARA thread on the X10forum

[KENRAD]

So I have continued my adventure into adding the microsoft kinects to my home automation system.  I currently have 5 of them running in my setup and will be looking to add more in the future.  as of right now I find that they have been a good addition as I added them to my kids rooms.  They work out really well, because there are no more Tv's or lights left on.  Also it works nice to set the macros to a very dim setting and it works as a nite light for the kids when they get out of bed.  Also They have become very nice for reading my agenda and weather reports from PCC.  Now instead of PCC reading the agenda and weather at a set time and waking me up on days I chose to sleep in a little it will only read them when I get out of bed and trigger the zone located near my closet doors so I get the weather report and my agenda for the day while I am getting dressed in the morning.  the next thing that I have been playing with with the kinect is the new Phillips Hue lights.  The kinect controller has a built in interface that is in the works for the phillips hue lights.  The only problem is that this interface at the current time is pretty basic it only allows the lights to be turned on and off with the kinect as well as color selections but as of now it is fairly limited but the developer has stated that there are many more adds to come for the phillips hue stuff.  I have been watching the amount of time that the lights were on in my daughters room for a long time because she is the worst when it comes to turning anything off.  Prior to adding the kinects the light was on and average of 7 hrs per day and now it is down to around 2 because of connect occupancy sensing. 

   Ken 

[Tuicemen]

Very cool,
With the X10 forum now down I added a link to your OP pointing to SARA as some newer users will not know all what was originally thought of.
You don't mention this so I was wondering if your utilizing the Kinects built in microphones as well.
since it has an array off mics (not just one) I've read it is possible to do some cool detections with the microphones.

Also since you have many PCs set up I figured you needed a PC for each kinects which many aren't willing to do.
Reading a thread on cocoontec I see this isn't necessary, very cool.

[KENRAD]

Very cool,
With the X10 forum now down I added a link to your OP pointing to SARA as some newer users will not know all what was originally thought of.
You don't mention this so I was wondering if your utilizing the Kinects built in microphones as well.
since it has an array off mics (not just one) I've read it is possible to do some cool detections with the microphones.

Also since you have many PCs set up I figured you needed a PC for each kinects which many aren't willing to do.
Reading a thread on cocoontec I see this isn't necessary, very cool.

At this time I am not using the kinects microphones at this time I would really love to see them implemented and I have mentioned it to the developer from nitrogen logic.  I don't have the kinects hooked to a very big computer they are running on the nitrogen logic depth camera controllers, which is just a sheevaplug with the nitrogenlogic firmware on it.  I will have to look at coontech and see what they are doing   

   Ken

 

[Tuicemen]

Since starting to play with Kinects in windows I've found placement is key for some interaction to take place.
I was planning to mount mine to the top of the PC.
This is fine for simple Voice recognition but for some sensing I find it is to close.
I'm wondering where you have your sensors located.
On average what would be your closest distance to them be.
It seems to me that the maximum distance from them isn't what most users would need to worry about.

[KENRAD]

Since starting to play with Kinects in windows I've found placement is key for some interaction to take place.
I was planning to mount mine to the top of the PC.
This is fine for simple Voice recognition but for some sensing I find it is to close.
I'm wondering where you have your sensors located.
On average what would be your closest distance to them be.
It seems to me that the maximum distance from them isn't what most users would need to worry about.

The Ones that I am using now for occupancy sensing are at the closest probably 4 feet I mount them at ceiling height in the corner of the rooms to give me the best viewing angle.

here is a link to the nitrogen stuff on placement that might help you see what he believes is best placement
http://www.nitrogenlogic.com/docs/depth/

With the current setup that I am using it see from approximately 4 feet to 21 feet

   Ken