CastleOS - new home automation software with Kinect voice control

Hey Folks! I'm Chris Cicchitelli, the founder and engineer behind CastleOS. I hope it's okay for me to post here, I'm trying to reach out to enthusiasts to let them know about the software. CastleOS is focused on improving home automation with an easy to use and eye-pleasing app, energy management, and the worlds first whole-house voice control by using the Microsoft Kinect! It's designed to work with all open protocols, but this release supports Insteon and X10 only. Z-Wave and ZigBee will follow soon!

I'm not trying to make a sales pitch, so instead of listing out all the features and capabilities, if you're interested, please join us over at www.CastleOS.com. I'll also monitor this thread for any questions and reply here.

These are sample screenshots of the app:

I believe one requires a certain number of posts before images or attachments are allowed. Which brings up this question: If you've been into home automation (and enough so to create your own program) why have you just now subscribed to Cocoontech?

I'm just curious as I see this frequently on boards that specialize in a particular area of an industry but are product neutral; a new user comes in to promote a product that they've designed/coded but they've never been a member of the largest sites specific to that industry? (This goes for cocoontech for HA, AVS Forum for AV, xda-developers for Android, et cetera).

This isn't a personal attack, just an honest question. I'll definitely check out your website and product though as I believe competition in this area is good and wish you all the best with it.

M

EDIT: The product looks interesting but unfortunately, as it's Insteon only at the moment, I cannot try it out. When you plan on adding support for Z-wave, how do you propose to do this? Have you looked into controllers, APIs, etc already?

Call me curious..

You have a very valid question! The answer is simply that I was reading plenty, just not posting. I was trying not to distract myself from the task at hand, writing the tens of thousands of lines of code that run CastleOS

manxam said:

EDIT: The product looks interesting but unfortunately, as it's Insteon only at the moment, I cannot try it out. When you plan on adding support for Z-wave, how do you propose to do this? Have you looked into controllers, APIs, etc already?

Call me curious..

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We have been looking at which controllers to support, so let me take this opportunity to ask: what Z-Wave controllers would you like to see us support?

So we are supposed to put a Kinect attached to a computer in every room? Maybe I'm not getting it here.

Also, and again maybe I don't know enough about Kinect to get it...what is advantageous about using a somewhat unsightly camera type device such as Kinect as a microphone instead of a discreet mic built into the ceiling?

I always welcome additional players to the home automation space - especially ones who integrate instead of just make new proprietary stuff that starts from scratch - but help us understand why this is better than what exists or than using more standardized, affordable hardware.

chedemefedeme said:

So we are supposed to put a Kinect attached to a computer in every room? Maybe I'm not getting it here.

Also, and again maybe I don't know enough about Kinect to get it...what is advantageous about using a somewhat unsightly camera type device such as Kinect as a microphone instead of a discreet mic built into the ceiling?

I always welcome additional players to the home automation space - especially ones who integrate instead of just make new proprietary stuff that starts from scratch - but help us understand why this is better than what exists or than using more standardized, affordable hardware.

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You would need a Kinect in every room you'd like to voice enable, yes. You don't need a computer for each, however, as one PC can support multiple Kinects, and they can be connected over a distance with USB over Ethernet. So for homes already wired for Ethernet, only a Kinect and the adapter is needed for each room. With the wall mount that's available, very nice looking installs are possible.

As far as why Kinect over regular microphones, the answer simply is that regular microphones don't have the capabilities that Kinect has to aid voice recognition. This includes beam steering, echo cancellation, noise suppression, and other features. The Kinect itself actually has four microphones within it, spread along the length of the device. It's the microphone array, not the 3D sensor, that actually drives the size and shape of the Kinect. And without those capabilities, CastleOS would fail at two very important things: reducing false positives from background noise to effectively zero, and accurately providing coverage for medium and large rooms, like living rooms.

Also, we don't plan to only use the audio capabilities of the Kinect, we have big plans (currently unannounced) for the 3D sensor as well (and it's not to motion control lighting ).

Finally, I personally don't like proprietary systems any more than you seem to. I invented CastleOS because the proprietary systems were overpriced and locked users into their model, while open systems like Insteon, Z-Wave, etc., had very lacking software options (in terms of usability, not feature sets).

Because the Kinect is a microphone array with some intelligence built in. I use it on my XBox and can pause/play movies from across the room. A dumb microphone isn't the same thing, and if you are going to deploy multiple dumb microphones you will need to gate them etc.

This and the other post with SIRI are what whole-home VR needs to progress. Some intelligence needs to be at the mic not just at the server, IMHO. Then you can eliminate half the problem which is the gating/interference, multiple speakers in multiple rooms, etc.

@chris

aside from the additional required hardware and a computer on 24/7, I'm curious what your business model will be when the software is out of beta?

DIYers like myself despise recurring monthly extortion fees and perpetual licenses.

I don't see any Z-Wave support. Am I just missing it?

elvisimprsntr said:

@chris

aside from the additional required hardware and a computer on 24/7, I'm curious what your business model will be when the software is out of beta?

DIYers like myself despise recurring monthly extortion fees and perpetual licenses.

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I'm with you on that one! No monthly fees, once you buy it, you don't need to pay to use it. We are looking to offer an upgrade subscription, however it would be completely optional.

Deane Johnson said:

I don't see any Z-Wave support. Am I just missing it?

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Coming in about a month!

Chris - I'm excited by the voice control and intrigued in your use of the Kinect. Unfortunately, I doubt you'll be supporting my lighting choice anytime soon, which is Lutron's RadioRa2. Which brings me to my question. Does CastleOS allow others to write drivers? Wish you much success on this endeavor.

dgage said:

Chris - I'm excited by the voice control and intrigued in your use of the Kinect. Unfortunately, I doubt you'll be supporting my lighting choice anytime soon, which is Lutron's RadioRa2. Which brings me to my question. Does CastleOS allow others to write drivers? Wish you much success on this endeavor.

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Thanks dgage! Unfortunately you are correct that RadioRa 2 is not on the immediate horizon. Next up is Z-Wave, then ZigBee, and we are still evaluating what will come next. There is a manufacturer in Europe that's interested in us adding ENOCEAN support soon as well. It's going to depend on the level of effort required to implement the API for the protocol, and how many users are looking for it.

In the case of Z-Wave, it's very easy because we can use OpenZWave and integrate quickly. For RadioRa, I do not know enough about that specific system to say what is required.

As far as plugins, we decided against adding that capability simply because we had limited time. However, that's not to say we wouldn't accept a community contribution, especially for some of the less common devices and protocols. So long as the contributor has no problem turning their code over for use in a commercial product, adding APIs for protocols like RadioRa is pretty simple, we really just need a class that exposes the API, similar to what OpenZWave does. CastleOS already has filters to send and receive the proper command based on the protocol type, so it's about as bare basic as plugin development gets.

ChrisCicc said:

Next up is Z-Wave, then ZigBee

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Which ZigBee adapter(s) will you support? Is there something comparable to OpenZwave you will use with ZigBee? There's the Xbee API but it seems to be vendor specific.

Automate said:

Which ZigBee adapter(s) will you support? Is there something comparable to OpenZwave you will use with ZigBee? There's the Xbee API but it seems to be vendor specific.

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One option we're looking at is the SimpleHomeNet ZigBee and Insteon adapter. We also intend to ask our users and fans which adapters they would like us to support, do you have any preference?