It is complex, but if I can get that working I could also do some other cool things. The likes of which I can't think of right now. A button would work, but I'd just like it to do it without having to do anything. I'm tired of bluetooth connecting, pausing and unpausing and missing parts of a book or podcast because I went out of the room and forgot to pause it.
Nah, I'd just like a system that works like I described. And I also want to learn some more programming!
What about a kinnect in every room. Could track exactly where you are and you could train it to recognise routes to work out where you're going.
True, or a cheap webcam. There are a lot of ways to do it I suspect. Just want to find a cheap easy way!
What about motion detectors like the ones you would use for a security system? I have a few of those around here, that might work pretty well.
Second hand kinnects are cheap. 3d vision would be better for tracing your route, and there's a nice API for it all.
They can tell where you are, but not necessarily where you're going.
Very true. I'll do some checking on the Kinect. Thanks for the heads up!
Just busting your stones there, quad boy. :-P
You know, my brother in FL does home audio, alarms - all that low voltage stuff. I am surprised the hoity-toits down there haven't asked him for that very thing like you are trying to do. Maybe that could be a promotional idea for him. Let me know how you get on. ;-)
Add a speaker to your quadcopter and have it follow you where you go blasting music down above your head.
I have been thinking about this for a while but never really got stuck into it. My plan was to use my phone with NFC token at certain points of the house that will change the Sonos speaker as I moved around. There are lots of NFC software options that can be programmed to do simple tasks, the biggest hurdle for me is making it work with the Sonos software.
I think I need to go and by some NFC tokens now.
What's the range of nfc? Would you deliberately have to swipe into a room to make it work?
Normal range is between 2cm and 6cm so if you added a token to a door frame you could possible walk next to it with your phone in your pocket, all you have to do is remember to do it.
Maybe some sort of light beam that gets broken when you enter a room (like those things in lifts (elevators) and on supermarket tills), this triggers something to check if it's you in the room. Maybe via bluetooth signal on your phone, if it believes you're in the room then audio is switched.
Or those things that make automatic doors open, not sure if it's radar or what it is.
PIR sensor would do the job there. Like I mentioned for Jon's automatic lights.
Could link PIR with bluetooth (or similar)
If you had bluetooth you wouldn't need the pir sensors.
Just a script to detect what bluetooth devices are in range, and a bunch of bluetooth receivers scattered around the house to track where you are.
Would need your device to be visible at all times to make it nice and quick though.
Tracking would definitely be smarter. I guess an advantage of PIR would be an instant detection when entering a room.
But if it doesn't know who you are then it's not really much use.