Home Automation For Amateurs

(Mis)Uses of Technology

from the interesting-projects dept

While it’s no internet enabled dartboard, Scientific American has an article about a guy who has spent an amazing amount of time and effort to figure out how he can internet enable the blinds in his bedroom. The basic idea, at least, appears to be his desire to have the blinds open in the morning so that he can wake up to natural light (he hates alarm clocks). He can’t just leave the blinds open all night because of the powerful streetlight outside his window. I’m not entirely clear on why this all need to be internet enabled, but I guess it does allow the guy to have a bit more control over what the blinds do. He’s been working on the project for what appears to be over a year, and the blinds still aren’t operational, but it’s the process of setting all this up that’s so interesting (for some people, I imagine). What’s funny is that he starts out the article by saying how easy it is for even an amateur tinkerer to set up such a system – and yet over the course of a year he’s yet to complete a simple system to open his blinds when it’s light out.