To my friends who have not met her yet, I would like to introduce you to Rachel. She is quite possibly the perfect female companion. She welcomes me home, she tells me goodbye every time I leave, she has a wonderful british voice that gently wakes me in the morning, she warns me when she thinks the weather will make me uncomfortable, she follows me around the house turning on lights and other devices exactly when I need them, she watches the front door telling me when I have a guest and she even plays me soft or any other kind of music that matches my mood.
So, no, she isn’t a living, breathing, being, but maybe the next best thing? In December, 2009, I started the 3rd phase of my automated house project. This consisted of applying a computer interface to control just about everything in the house.
Rachel, as the voice is commonly called, works through a dedicated Apple computer system to respond to sensors and tell me about things that are going on inside and outside of my home. Some of the things that Rachel does are:
- Makes announcements through a whole house audio system
- Controls all the lights in the house
- Controls all of the environmental devices
- Opens the window shades for me in the morning or upon request
- Monitors the CCTV cameras around the home
- Controls the security system
- Gently wakes me in the mornings with her voice and various music selections
- Plays music on command from a variety of playlists
- Sets the lighting based on various scenes such as Movie, Party, Romance and other modes
- Provides access through my iPhone or the internet
- Integrates with a power backup system
- Automatically controls lights based upon motion and occupancy
- Sends communications in a variety of way including text messages, cellular and email
- Announces guests at the front door
- Sends me a text message if a guest arrives while I am away
- Announces the time and dangerous weather conditions
- Announces freeze warnings
- Reminds me of my bed time
- Warns me if the garage doors are left open
- Automatically recognizes when I arrive home
- Warns me if parts of the system are not operating correctly
- Gives an automated tour of the home
The project has actually been fairly economical. Granted, if I had not installed most of the equipment myself and been able to write some of the computer programs that control Rachel, it probably would have been pretty outrageous in cost. The capabilities of this system are basically endless. If it can be thought of, it can probably be programmed in the system.
The base software system is based upon a product called Indigo. In addition to the base software I have written several programs to control other functionality.
It has been a really fun project and something I wanted to do even before the automated home in Iron Man!
I will continue to add functionality as time goes on. And no, she probably won’t ever be the perfect girlfriend as she still lacks a few qualities.
If you want more details on the system, shoot me an email.
Bradd Brown
