Home Automation Dashboard

[kdub]

I have this vision of a real-time dashboard that shows the status of house systems and sensors that is presented using graphical elements. The dashboard would also provide standard controls over these systems. Although tablets would be the target device, it would also work on a computer. I'm aware of existing automation systems like Homeseer and CQC that provide the means to develop a control panel, but it seems a lot of design flexibility is lost at the expense of making it easy to create control interfaces.
 
I'm surprised that nobody is leveraging web technologies to create awesome interactive interfaces. Is there no interest in this? Or is it being done and I haven't discovered it yet?

 

[pete_c]

Or is it being done and I haven't discovered it yet?

 
Yup.  I use weather guages for my home automation screens.
 
There are folks on the Homeseer forum that utilize guages for their touchscreens.
 
Personally I like the flash dynamic guages realism. 
 
 

 

[neillt]

HaikuHelper, which goes along with an HAI panel, has great web APIs to do pretty much whatever you want in an interface.

 

[pete_c]

Yup; here in the middle 2000's I would utilize one with graphing on my cell phone to watch for approaching storms(mostly lightning) while golfing; just in case I had to quit. 
 
Personally here into a truly dynamic gauge versus static display and when to utilize one over the other.  (carpc virtual instruments type stuff).
 
I like the weather dynamic displays and the automotive instrumental virtual displays (well have carpcs). 

 

[tmbrown97]

In a previous life, I spent my days and nights designing dashboards - to the point that they gave me nightmares; especially when one team member would say something to the effect that "he said he wants a dashboard - dashboards have gauges!" and we were forced to try to make data points work in gauges that just couldn't tell the right story...
 
My ultimate wish would be for a 3D picture of the house showing status - I'd like to see the motion sensors, when triggered, fade out over like 3 minutes so you can see at a glance a view of the house as a heatmap for where activity is.  Then around it some key metrics that matter in simple tile / text form; maybe even a camera feed in the corner showing the room with the most recent activity.  Anything *but* a "dashboard".  I'd also like this on a good sized widescreen so that the house status is only a portion of the screen - with plenty of room left for the family status - like who's gotta be where next; what our next week looks like, etc.
 
Just my $.02

 

[kdub]

I suppose my inspiration comes from Sci-Fi movies where they have these neat graphical interfaces which convey all sort of information.
 
pete_c,
Personal preference is clearly a big factor. I much prefer the flat gauges as depicted in your second picture where you seem to prefer glossy analog gauges.
 
neilt,
HaikuHelper looks promising, thanks for sharing. Sadly, I don't use HAI for my main panel.
 
It seems a lot of these home automation systems have an API to extract data, so getting the information wouldn't be difficult. Maybe I'll try mocking up a layout to better conceptualize the ideas floating around in my head.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I had a couple pretty elaborate displays for my security system (shown below); but, we never used them.  Practically, since all our tasks are automated, they never needed to be looked at.
 
When I obtained a new computer for my HA server I didn't even bother to install the graphical interface (Main Lobby with a hook into HomeSeer).

 

[kdub]

Work2Play and BSR make some valid points, obviously from experience.
 
Displaying the data is one thing, but I'm realizing that consolidating and displaying it in a format that is meaningful is the true challenge here. As BSR points out, most things are automated, so manual control isn't as necessary. But how do you know everything is working without finding out the hard way?
 
From a Monitoring perspective, one usage model would be something that's looked at a couple times a day (in the morning and in the evening) and maybe glanced at in passing.
 
The focus could be to provide information such that at a quick look, one could see:

• If Systems are operating normally (real-time values with min/max, connection status, power status, etc)
• System event log (prioritized to bring quick attention to potential issues)
• Household maintenance reminders (replace filters, test alarm, etc)
• Service reminders (trash, recycling, house cleaning, gardener, etc)

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

I do see your point, but just for grins here are some other perspectives (and I actually do most of these things):
 

• If Systems are operating normally (real-time values with min/max, connection status, power status, etc)
  Monitoring company will tell me if any trouble signal is sent from the Elk.  I will also see a 'trouble' status on each keypad
• System event log (prioritized to bring quick attention to potential issues)
  This is automatically done by my Elk and will indeed get looked at if there are any problems
• Household maintenance reminders (replace filters, test alarm, etc)
  This is done by Emails (via HomeSeer) for me.
• Service reminders (trash, recycling, house cleaning, gardener, etc)
  This is done via voice announcements (for the trash I actually announce every half hour past 7:30 PM to take it out to the curb.  It will keep announcing every half hour until 9:30 PM or if the side gate gets opened (system knows I have indeed taken the trash out)).

Again, not trying to thwart your plans, just giving you some other prespectives.

 

[Dean Roddey]

CQC's interface system is FAR from losing flexibility in order to make it easy. If anything it's way too far at the other end for most folks which is why we are providing more tools (layered on top of the highly flexible substrate) to allow them to do it more easily. You can create complete graphical touch screen applications, which will at least match, if not substantially outrun, anything you could create using standard HTML interface elements.

 

[pete_c]

Yup here relating to preference of type of gauge; I have none really.
 
Computer eye candy never really did much for me.  Wondering if its just my age though.
 
I have historically tried to fit as much data on one touch / display screen as I could; which is very low on the WAF.

 

[kdub]

BSR,
 
I appreciate a dose of reality. You have simple and effective solutions, which are usually the best. However, a bigger problem comes into play when there's multiple devices/systems working together to create a complex home automation system. My ELK keypad isn't going to tell me my ISY has locked up or my irrigation controller doesn't have power, for example.
 
Dean,
I will admit my comment about flexibility regarding CQC's interfaces is based purely on observation and not actual experience. I plan on running the trial as I still need something to tie everything together, so I will evaluate the interface builder as well.

 

[Dean Roddey]

It's stupidly powerful actually. If it weren't part of this product, it could be a pretty nice product on its own.