Crownstone- die intelligente Lüsterklemme für das SmartHome

[Gast]

aktuell hier zu finden:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...tone?action=Go!

Urteilt selbst!

[BadSmiley]

Wou! Das ist so innovativ und neu und einzigartig... Wie.. Wie digitalstrom.... Verdammt!

[annevanrossum]

Wou! Das ist so innovativ und neu und einzigartig... Wie.. Wie digitalstrom.... Verdammt!

My apologies for not speaking German. I'm Anne from DoBots.

Digitalstrom does not use Bluetooth Low Energy. It cannot respond to your presence. Interactions in which you have lights turned on when you enter the room are not possible. I don't say Digitalstrom is bad or anything like that! However, it is a different product. In our opinion integration with smartphones is key and in particular indoor localization.

[mumpf]

Hi Anne,

welcome to our forum and thanks that you answer here directly. I wish you a lot success and luck with your new product, nevertheless I can't understand, why should anybody

• make his electric installation dependent of a mobile device?
• be urged to use an app to be able to control anything in his home?
• provide external access to his home installation (usually that is what you get with app based solutions)

For me this is a new "no go" internet-of-things-mobile-app-external-server-based-something I would never use in an electrical installation, which should last for at least 30 to 50 years! Just my opinion...

And - I am just curious - using an RF technology (Bluetooth) as presence sensor: How to you ensure, on which side of a wall I am before you switch on the light?

Regards,
Waldemar

[annevanrossum]

Hi Waldemar,

There is of course the fundamental difference between wired and wireless systems. From our perspective, we have chosen the smartphone as integral to the user experience.

• Personally I carry a smartphone with me all the time. To use a separate remote control is not a nice user experience for me. I neither want to have a separate device attached to a wall in one room with inferior screen resolution. I do also like smart watches and fitness bands. The integration with these allows me to walk around without having to monkey around with light switches all the time.
• Pressing buttons in an app is one manner of interaction. It is also possible to have interaction patterns such as shaking your phone near a lamp. Moreover, wireless buttons (such as flic.io) allow you to have physical switches as well.
• Our solution is open-source. We do the analysis on the smartphone. There is no need for external servers.

Our RF technology on the moment pinpoints the location of the power outlets with a resolution of around a meter and a half. This is sufficient for most use cases. However, you're right, this is indeed something that can be improved. Our background is machine learning and we're thinking of using signal patterns during day and night to start to perform inference w.r.t. the existence of doors and walls. If you've good ideas about indoor localization I'd love to hear them.

Kind regards,

Anne

PS: Nice fact. A lot of the algorithms we've developed in collaboration with German partners in robotic projects, such as Replicator. This is for example shot at the university of Stuttgart: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGCRjWBzEpo

[mumpf]

Hi Anne,

Our solution is open-source. We do the analysis on the smartphone. There is no need for external servers.

This is (for me) good news, I must have missed it visiting the kickstart page.

If you've good ideas about indoor localization I'd love to hear them.

Sorry, home automation is just a hobby, and all my amateur experiments with indoor localization and RF failed completely, at least if there is more than one person in the house. The only thing which comes in my mind is light (some frequency, different per room, not visible to humans) and the smartphone camera evaluating this.

Regards,
Waldemar

[heckmannju]

Hi, what happens when the mobile is not charged? I am sitting in the dark? Best Regards,
Jürgen

[annevanrossum]

Hi, what happens when the mobile is not charged? I am sitting in the dark? Best Regards,
Jürgen

Hi Jürgen. This depends on your setup. I use a setup in which I can also use the normal light switches. You can also use a pulse switch which is the best of all worlds.

[heckmannju]

Hi Jürgen. This depends on your setup. I use a setup in which I can also use the normal light switches. You can also use a pulse switch which is the best of all worlds.

Hi Anne,
you should keep in mind that a pulse switch (Stromstoßschalter) ist seldom used in EIB/KNX smarthomes...
Best Regards,
Jürgen

[annevanrossum]

Hi Jürgen,

It is also possible to use a normal light switch, and do the pulse yourself. So flip the light off and on to make it switch state. This is not ideal from the users perspective, but it's coming really close to the ideal case.

Due to the fact that it is a big energy saver to start with devices such as a set-top box, play station, modem, that kind of things makes a lot of sense. I also use the fact that I can group lights. A single switch can turn off everything I group with it. And I like the wake-up light functionality in the morning!

[heckmannju]

Hi Anne,
this are things which we have alrady since years....with a wired bus system.
Best Regards,
Jürgen

[annevanrossum]

Hi Anne,
this are thinks which we have alrady since years....with a wired bus system.
Best Regards,
Jürgen

Of course. I think for people that already have a full-fledged home automation our system doesn't contribute much, except for the indoor localization of course. However, for others who aren't that lucky, it is a very affordable solution that combines a lot of currently existing functionality with the indoor localization function.

I knew beforehand of course that a KNX forum would be a tough crowd for a solution like this. :-D I just hope it makes it possible for more people to be able to get what you guys already have installed in your homes for years, with a little extra by hitchhiking on smartphone tech. Apart from that I find the responses quite pleasant and we obviously share the goal of automating our homes. I'll applaud all efforts that explains people the benefits of home automation. I'll try to do my part. :-)

[cds]

Just my two cents: It's a nice toy, but that's it. Something a geek might like, but not the rest of the family.
So, let's say we are 5 people in our family.
The kids don't have cellphones at all - so they need to live in the dark?
Even the parents never cary their phones around all the time in the house - normally they are sitting somewhere charging.

So - in a typical German family I don't see a real use-case for this product.

[annevanrossum]

Just my two cents: It's a nice toy, but that's it. Something a geek might like, but not the rest of the family.
So, let's say we are 5 people in our family.
The kids don't have cellphones at all - so they need to live in the dark?
Even the parents never cary their phones around all the time in the house - normally they are sitting somewhere charging.

So - in a typical German family I don't see a real use-case for this product.

Maybe, maybe not. :-) As said before you can always overrule behavior with the existing light switches. And it doesn't need to be a smartphone, it can also be an Apple watch, or other types of BLE wearables.

With respect to the bigger picture, people said 20 years ago that they never would carry mobile phones around. Why would you need to be available at all times? I always liked this video from 1999: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FW651kusiBI I think we're pretty safe in betting on the future. :-)