10 replies to this topic

[Chris Mancini]

My Netduino has arrived! I am interested in some ideas in integrating it into my Home Theater (which I am currently building)...Any Ideas?

[José Ángel]

Building something similar to Philips Ambilight? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambilight

[RedHermit]

How about temp sensing and fan control if you're doing an enclosed media cabinet.

[RedHermit]

Oh, and you could control your main power source to all your devices to prevent vampire draw. Here's a relay tutorial from SparkFun.

[RedHermit]

And if you want to get really crazy (and have kids) - what about an RFID based parental control system? Implant each member of your family with an RFID chip. Set up a whole room RFID reader. Interface with some type of media center software (XBMC is my fav), the system could prevent playing innapropriate media if it detects a minor is in the room, or even pause a movie that is currently playing if a child enters the room. You could set up overrides if you choose to watch something with your kids. You could also log media that was watched and by who and at what time ("You were really doing homework at 4:23pm today Bobby? Looks like you were watching Jersey Shore to me") Parenting + Big Brother tech = the statement of "I have eye's in the back of my head" being true.

[greg]

And if you want to get really crazy (and have kids) - what about an RFID based parental control system?

Implant each member of your family with an RFID chip. Set up a whole room RFID reader. Interface with some type of media center software (XBMC is my fav), the system could prevent playing innapropriate media if it detects a minor is in the room, or even pause a movie that is currently playing if a child enters the room. You could set up overrides if you choose to watch something with your kids.

You could also log media that was watched and by who and at what time ("You were really doing homework at 4:23pm today Bobby? Looks like you were watching Jersey Shore to me")

Parenting + Big Brother tech = the statement of "I have eye's in the back of my head" being true.

Unfortunately the implantable RFID has a VERY small range - it's all passive, not active ( you wouldn't want active anyway since it would mean sticking a battery in you as well) so you'd have to have a reader that said minor walks up to and holds their hand/arm/etc up to for a few seconds while the tag is read.

Not to mention the DFS visit you'd get for implanting RFID into your kids!

[RedHermit]

Unfortunately the implantable RFID has a VERY small range - it's all passive, not active ( you wouldn't want active anyway since it would mean sticking a battery in you as well) so you'd have to have a reader that said minor walks up to and holds their hand/arm/etc up to for a few seconds while the tag is read.

Not to mention the DFS visit you'd get for implanting RFID into your kids!

Good info to know! I've wondered about the range on those - I've been thinking about home automation and wondering if it would be good enough for detection of what room I'm in... guess not.

[greg]

Good info to know! I've wondered about the range on those - I've been thinking about home automation and wondering if it would be good enough for detection of what room I'm in... guess not.

Well, if you did a bracelet or something you could do it - go to HF or UHF active RFID but your tag size is a lot bigger (hence the bracelet idea). Plus you'd have to be careful to not overlap the readers range - and of course figure out a way that wouldn't drain your battery in the active tag.

You can get passive UHF RFID with decent range but your tags are larger. Might be able to fit it into a keycard - then you don't have the battery drain problem - but your system would have to ignore tags it already knows about (ie, if you walk into a room and it senses your tag you would still be in the radio field so your tag would continue pinging). Plus you'd have to worry about if someone else with a tag is near you since tags generally don't play nicely together when being read (collisions).

Best bet is a reader by the door with a small'ish range of say ~2-3 feet that'll zap you as you walk in and then you're out of the field. Of course you'd need readers at every entrance then.

RFID is fun stuff but a little wacky. I don't pretend to understand most of it, I just use it with model railroading (or trying to) but it is pretty wild.

[MrSmoofy]

RFID is fun stuff but a little wacky. I don't pretend to understand most of it, I just use it with model railroading (or trying to) but it is pretty wild.

You and me have some thing in common here as I've been wanting to make a commercially available product with RFID and model trains for the model train industry.

I actually sell N'Scale products online.

[greg]

You and me have some thing in common here as I've been wanting to make a commercially available product with RFID and model trains for the model train industry.

I actually sell N'Scale products online.

You and I need to talk offline Smoofy. I run in nscale as well. Although I am not yet convinced that nscale is doable for RFID due to tag size and range. HO is more likely.

[MrSmoofy]

You and I need to talk offline Smoofy. I run in nscale as well. Although I am not yet convinced that nscale is doable for RFID due to tag size and range. HO is more likely.

Yes we do, I think the TAG themself are doable so far it's been the readers I found are kind of large but this was a while ago when I first started looking at it so the readers might be small enough now for all of the ideas I have running through my head.