Domotic Thesis questions

[Peter_]

Hi there,

As I'm relatively new to this forum -as a matter of fact, this is my first post here- it might be a good idea to give short introduction.

I am a student at the Rotterdam Art Academie (WDKA) the Netherlands, studying 'Interactive Multimedia'.
For my graduation thesis I'm writing a paper on Domotica.

Lately I wondered myself:
"What domotica projects have really made it in to our livingroom: What projects became a relative success?"
The only project I could come up with was something like the DVR-system "TiVo", but ofcourse I'm not seeing the big pile of projects that 'made it'.


Could you guys name me a few more domotic projects that became 'famous' or are used in a lot of general households?


Greets,
Peter.

[richard naninck]

May I ask what you think is domotic about a TiVo? It records TV programs and mainly functions as a media player.

[Peter_]

Oh, well I always thought that TiVo tried to pick up your TV-watching-patterns and auto-recorded programma's you would maybe like.
Maybe I was off.


Annnyway, what projects did[/] make it into a general household?

[richard naninck]

The word Domotica means Home Automation (Domus = House ...) Generally used for automating household stuff like curtains, lights, heaters and such. Not very much media related if you ask me. Not sure if this is important for your paper but if you ask me domotica and interactive multimedia are two very different things!

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domotica

[Digit]

Just browse this forum and see what everybody's doing...
Controlling lights and appliances, ventilation, central heating, door locks, garage door openers, monitoring washing machines; you name and it has been done And of course being able to control all this from any device of which the name starts with an i and/or a touchscreen in the livingroom or on your lap..

Some people have very informative websites of their own where they show what they're doing (and how), take a look at this topic and the websites listed there: http://www.domoticaforum.eu/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=194

Once you've visited those, I think you'll get the picture.
But I must warn you, most of these houses are not regular

[Tiz]

Of course I am not completely sure, but it seems to me that you are living in the Netherlands and I think so is the majority of the active members on this forum. That means that it is not very likely that Domotica systems would be "famous" to the forum members yet not to you. Can you specify a little bit more what you are looking for? Especially since your study seems to point to multimedia and a lot of Home automation / Domotica might be less multimedia then you anticipated.

Nice subject though!

[airox]

My personal opinion that not a single product has made it into the normal households. A lot of people seem to have a simple kika set for triggering things like lights outside ... but that's it..

[kris2lee]

My personal opinion that not a single product has made it into the normal households. A lot of people seem to have a simple kika set for triggering things like lights outside ... but that's it..

I think that this is not true. There are many normal households that have just used professional installers to do the job. Expensive yes but still normal in means of that it is not done by some fanatic and these are normal contemporary homes using existing available products and not some future homes built with one time prototypes.

I belive that for every special home here, there are at least 10 normal homes built using home automation devices. Difference is that they do not talk about it in the forums, they just live their lives.

[richard naninck]

If you are looking for standards, I guess EIB (KNX) is the one a standard making it to office buildings and even households. More and more large companies support this standard.

Plugwise is doing good work to become a power monitoring standard.
ZWave, X10, FS20, Insteon, Lutron are used for switching lights and appliances etc.
and all of the above are discussed on this forum.

Media does integrate with domotica but media does not qualify as domotica. Crestron, AMX take care of complete installations (hard and software for control of both media and domotica).
CQC, HouseBot, Homeseer, Control4 etc are software packages used as an interface layer between external hardware like X10, Lutron, ZWave but also AV Receivers, Projectors, TV's etc. and even interface with media players like media portal, meedio(s), xbmc etc.

So many stuff has made it to the livingroom these days.

[airox]

My personal opinion that not a single product has made it into the normal households. A lot of people seem to have a simple kika set for triggering things like lights outside ... but that's it..

I think that this is not true. There are many normal households that have just used professional installers to do the job. Expensive yes but still normal in means of that it is not done by some fanatic and these are normal contemporary homes using existing available products and not some future homes built with one time prototypes.

I belive that for every special home here, there are at least 10 normal homes built using home automation devices. Difference is that they do not talk about it in the forums, they just live their lives.

What I meant is not that there aren't any households with domotica, but that in a "normal" household there isn't any domotica around. This excludes those people paying for the stuff or doing it their own. If you count the number of households which do have domotica and the one's that don't then I think (but maybe I'm wrong...) the one's that don't are outnumbering the one's that do.

Dunno... maybe I'm living in a poor area

[Esteban]

Fun subject,

Not to de-rail this thread from its main question, but while 'media' is not necessarly domotica persé in my book, I believe it depends a bit on what exact significance we attribute to the word. The same goes for 'domotica':


If we use 'media' as in the plural for 'medium', then:

Media:
(via thefreedictionary.com)

1. Something, such as an intermediate course of action, that occupies a position or represents a condition midway between extremes.
2. An intervening substance through which something else is transmitted or carried on.
3. An agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred: The train was the usual medium of transportation in those days.
4. pl. media Usage Problem
a. A means of mass communication, such as newpapers, magazines, radio, or television.
b. media (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession.
5. pl. media Computer Science An object or device, such as a disk, on which data is stored.
6. pl. mediums A person thought to have the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead or with agents of another world or dimension. Also called psychic.
7. pl. media
a. A surrounding environment in which something functions and thrives.
b. The substance in which a specific organism lives and thrives.
c. A culture medium.
8.
a. A specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression as determined by the materials used or the creative methods involved: the medium of lithography.
b. The materials used in a specific artistic technique: oils as a medium.
9. A solvent with which paint is thinned to the proper consistency.
10. Chemistry A filtering substance, such as filter paper.
11. A size of paper, usually 18 × 23 inches or 17 1/2 × 22 inches.

On the other hand if we use 'media' as an abbreviation of 'multimedia' then:

(via dictionary.com)

1. the combined use of several media, as sound and full-motion video in computer applications.
2. of, pertaining to, or involving the use of multimedia.
3. having or offering the use of various communications or promotional media: a multimedia corporation that owns TV stations and newspapers.

Going by the latter definition, 'media' could fall under the umbrella of domotica in some cases.

As for the word 'domotica', since it's not that used in english (the preferred term is 'home-automation' ) the english definitions are a little sparse, so I had to turn to dutch, italian, spanish etc as well. Since dutch is what most of us understand best:

Domotica:
(via domotica platform.nl)

Domotica omvat alle apparaten en infrastructuren in en rond woningen, die elektronische informatie gebruiken voor het meten, programmeren en sturen van functies ten behoeve van bewoners en dienstverleners.

Translation: Domotica includes all the apparatus and infrastructure in and around a house, which uses electronic information to measure, program and drive functions for the benefit of its inhabitants and service providers.

(via domotica platform.nl)

Domotica staat voor elektronische communicatie tussen allerlei elektrische toepassingen in de woning en woonomgeving ten behoeve van bewoners en dienstverleners. In een Domotica woning worden zorgtaken, communicatie, ontspanning en andere huiselijke bezigheden door talrijke elektrische apparaten en netwerken gemakkelijker gemaakt.

Domotica omvat alle elektronische toepassingen in de woning om functies te besturen (verwarmen, ventileren, verlichten, etc.) en diensten uit de woonomgeving te gebruiken (alarmeren, telefoneren, televisie kijken, etc.). Dit gebeurt bij voorkeur flexibel: op elke plek en op elk tijdstip dat het de bewoner past, met een gemakkelijke bediening en desgewenst op afstand.

Translation: Domotica means electronic communication between both electrical applications in the home and living-area for the benefit of inhabitants and service-providers. In a Domotica home care-tasks, communication, relaxation and other home-based activities are made easier by a variety of electric devices and networks.

Domotica encompasses all electronic applications in the home, to control features (heating, ventilation, lighting, etc) and other services used in the home (alarming, calling, watching television, etc.). This preferably happens in a flexible way: at any location and point in time that is convenient for the inhabitant, with an easy to use interface, and if so desired remotely.

(via mijnwoordenboek.nl)

Het gebruik van informatica en telematica in en rondom de woning ten behoeve van comfort, energiebesparing, elektronische dienstverlening, verzorging aan huis en aanpassing aan de individuele mens. (Definitie in De Ingenieur).

Translation: The use of IT and telematics in and around the home for comfort, energy-saving, electronic services, care at home and adaption to the tastes/wishes of the individual.

(via kwadraat.be)

Verzamelbegrip voor een hoog niveau aan voorzieningen mbt de elektrotechnische en data-installatie in gebouwen en het automatiseren van functies door middel van elektronica, zodat zaken als ventilatie, verwarming, verlichting, alarmbeveiliging, energiebesparing, ... geïntegreerd en vaak op afstand kunnen worden bestuurd.

Translation: General term for a high level of facilities in the electrotechnical- and data-installations in buildings and the automation of features thru electronics, of things like ventilation, heating, lighting, security, energy-saving, ... Integrated and often can be controlled remotely.

Based on the above definitions, certain audio/video implementations could qualify as domotica. A couple of examples:

• - A Russound multi-room setup that brings spoken house-message to specific locations in the house as well as playing music to specific rooms at preset wake-up times.

• - A video-switch that brings a videofeed from the front door to any point in the house, when the doorbell is rung. Or a TV that jumps to the right camera channel or superimposes the front door camera on the tv image. (PiP)

Myself, I consider domotica everything that is integrated/controllable from/via the controller. Be it lights, doors, cameras, xbmc, music, temperature, phone etc, it being tied together is what makes me classify it under the summarizing term 'domotica'. Having a programmable DVR I wouldn't classify as domotica, but if that DVR was controllable via my domotica controller I would.

That said, based on the definitions shown above, I think you could make a case, that somebody who has a lot of automated functions within his house (scheduling thermostat, digital programmable timer lights, tv energy savers etc), without them all being connected together has some form of domotica as well.

Maybe we need other definitions?


On 'Interactive Multimedia' I found the following:

(via http://tojde.anadolu.edu.tr/tojde17/pdf ... imedia.pdf, page 116)
(by Phillips, 1997)

The term ‘interactive multimedia’ is a catch-all phrase to
describe the new wave of computer software that primarily deals with the
provision of information. The ‘multimedia’ component is characterized by
the presence of text, pictures, sound, animation and video; some or all of
which are organized into some coherent program. The ‘interactive’
component refers to the process of empowering the user to control the
environment usually by a computer

By this definition, it would seem, that the realtime domotica websites or HStouch dashboards some of us have (Regrouping weather-, temperature-, motion-, phone-information, light status etc etc) could fall under interactive multimedia.

Regarding the question of what succesful domotica 'projects' have made it into 'general households'. If you mean Jan-Alleman homes, I can't think of any by my own definition of domotica. But If a stand-alone DVR counts, then lots: the scheduling thermostat, the programmable washing machines, the digital oven and microwave etc. Finally if by 'general households' you mean any class of home, then I would say KNX, Crestron, AMX etc.

[richard naninck]

Such a nice and long post I guess you did all of Peters work for him and just came up with the complete thesis

[Jeroen Bartels]

I think many houses have some kind of basic Domotica available:

- Porch light turning on on a motion sensor
- Thermostats that turn on your heater in the morning
- Lamp on a timer when on vacation
- Gardenlights turn on when it gets dark
- Washing machine that does not turn on before nighttime (low tarrif)

It's so basic that we don't recognize it anymore but they are quite succesfull