IVB
Senior Member
pete, i totally agree on the "VR is not automation", which is why I put it into the "method of access". If you recall, even in 2006 when I was doing all those HA webinars, the first thing I said was that pretty little screens weren't HA, they were alternate methods of manual control. To me, automation is having a rules-based engine where the house knows what you're going to do so you don't have to do it.
But 9 years after that first delivering that presentation, I still don't see us being that much closer. My new VRCOP is coming today (from automated outlet, hopefully this one works as the one from amazon never did), I might do some cutesy nit stuff like "trap the code sent to the zWave door lock and use it to disarm the security system" but not sure what else.
In hindsight, I think the goal of AI for an HA system is potentially inappropriate as humans are rarely rules-oriented people. Or perhaps better put, any given rule is only applicable for 50% of the time, and the other 50% is a multitude of edge cases that are impossible to accurately predict based on inputs. I'm not sure anything more than VR or gesture control (ie Kinect) will be successful.
Even if i'm wrong about AI, we'll always need forms of manual control (VR, gesture, or touchscreen), and HA still isn't going to take off until there's interoperability.
Which makes me wonder: If Insteon/UPB are so much better, why don't those manufacturers just build a tiny bridge/1 way controller so they can send commands to zWave devices and make the transition path simpler? If zWave is so much crappier that sounds like an easy customer acquisition play as people won't have to give up their investment.
BTW from what I had last read, Insteon/UPB/any PLC weren't an option for me. I don't have 3 wire everywhere, some parts of my house are still 80+ year old knob & tube. Plus the troubleshooting checklist, at least from 2007, was all but a list of stuff I had in my house. I need a wireless technology, and the WAF won't support RadioRA at $200/switch. At $70/switch, Vizia RF+ zWave with active notification is about as far as I can push it.
But 9 years after that first delivering that presentation, I still don't see us being that much closer. My new VRCOP is coming today (from automated outlet, hopefully this one works as the one from amazon never did), I might do some cutesy nit stuff like "trap the code sent to the zWave door lock and use it to disarm the security system" but not sure what else.
In hindsight, I think the goal of AI for an HA system is potentially inappropriate as humans are rarely rules-oriented people. Or perhaps better put, any given rule is only applicable for 50% of the time, and the other 50% is a multitude of edge cases that are impossible to accurately predict based on inputs. I'm not sure anything more than VR or gesture control (ie Kinect) will be successful.
Even if i'm wrong about AI, we'll always need forms of manual control (VR, gesture, or touchscreen), and HA still isn't going to take off until there's interoperability.
Which makes me wonder: If Insteon/UPB are so much better, why don't those manufacturers just build a tiny bridge/1 way controller so they can send commands to zWave devices and make the transition path simpler? If zWave is so much crappier that sounds like an easy customer acquisition play as people won't have to give up their investment.
BTW from what I had last read, Insteon/UPB/any PLC weren't an option for me. I don't have 3 wire everywhere, some parts of my house are still 80+ year old knob & tube. Plus the troubleshooting checklist, at least from 2007, was all but a list of stuff I had in my house. I need a wireless technology, and the WAF won't support RadioRA at $200/switch. At $70/switch, Vizia RF+ zWave with active notification is about as far as I can push it.