Re: URGENT : Ideas Wanted

["David Paterson (Pixi)" <david.paterson@xxxxxxx>]

Hi Keith,

As well as the points made by the others, I'd add in good heating /
ventilation control, allowing separate control for each room or zone,
and also a sort of "habit change" detection system, for example
to alert
someone if an elderly person hasn't got up in the morning.

Since I've been planning to build a home-brew system of my own, I've
also been thinking a bit on these lines, and recently came to the
conclusion that a "controllerless" system would be a good idea. 
This
would mean that each module or unit would have sufficient intelligence
to deal not only with its own defined function, but an understanding of
other units' functions and capabilities.

This would lead to distributed "cooperative" control systems for
all
sorts of things.  Not having a central controller should improve
reliability since failure of any one unit would only affect a small part
of the overall automation system.

Finally (at last) on the subject of occupancy sensing as raised by Paul,
I've been wondering about the possibilities of a more advanced form of
RF detector (the "Bik" system) which might be able to distinguish
one
person from another, or at least track different people as they move
around a house.  This probably needs a lot more research, but it could
be a possible solution without the need for badges or the like.

OK - that's enough of my wittering on for now.  Hope these comments are
of some help,

David P.

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