The Ultimate Custom Smart Home — Progress Update
This week I sought to analyze and layout the work that needs to be done on my project, as well as organize and fix some of the existing elements as part of my smart-home installation, and implement new features into the system. Since I’ve recently acquired new smart light bulbs and switches, my primary goal this week was to place the available hardware strategically in my home to maximize the usability of each of the hardware’s functions. An example of this was adding an additional color-changing light bulb to a two-bulb lamp in our living room, therefore giving the single lamp the ability to combine two different colors at a time.
In my bedroom, I shifted the Phillips Hue bulbs I had to be closer to our desk and work area, since they are capable of producing a range of white temperatures between candlelight and daylight. This move so far has been greatly beneficial since having a daylight temperature at my desk has improved my productivity. (I plan on testing this further.)
An additional feature added to this system this week has allowed me to utilize Apple’s Homekit/ Siri abilities to its full potential. Previously I could turn on/off/dim bulbs using the Apple Home app or Siri, but with a new plugin I can now change the color of each bulb in our bedroom, either all at once or individually. So far this increased functionality has been very helpful, despite a bug that exists in which the plugin will “fight” with the primary system to control certain bulbs, resulting in certain bulbs acting erratically at times. I plan on testing different methods of fixing this issue in the given weeks.
Looking ahead, I’m beginning to identify the dependencies for a mood-based scene system. I plan on doing some research into the effect of certain colors on mood, energy, and feeling, and think of ways of testing each existing hypothesis with my system. From a brief search of the home-assistant website, it shows that Google Calendar and Fitbit integration are already supported, making human data already a useable input to trigger certain events. I plan on implanting these features soon to test their abilities.
Outside of my initial project proposal, I also plan to implement a few others ideas or features. I’d like to have Bluetooth presence detection working to have a greater read on who’s occupying the house at what times, to trigger energy saving scenes or user specific scenes. Another idea I have is to build a “magic mirror” after seeing inspiration online. Put simply this is a one-way mirror with a monitor beneath, which when displayed correctly creates the illusion of digital text embedded in a mirror. On top of that, home assistant recently announced support for Microsoft facial recognition, adding a whole new potential layer to the system.
Stay tuned for progress updates and possibly feature implementations.
