The OpenRemote guys have been pretty busy over the last few months. From launching their new website and Twitter feed, to publishing a new YouTube channel. But perhaps most tantalisingly this weeks blog post for the open source project shows prototype hardware up and running – sending commands from an iPhone, across Wi-Fi and out of their hardware device to an IR signal.
The Open Remote project sets out its mission to – “provide high-end automation software and hardware for the masses and without vendor lock-in.” They are building an open community in an effort that contrasts the proprietary systems currently on offer.
Off-the-shelf hardware is being targeted and the group aim to increase consumer choice by building interoperability and therefore reduce hardware cost. We share their belief that high-quality smart homes should not be exclusive to millionaires, but available to a larger audience of home-owners. Finally OR believe that by being an open source project they remove the barriers to user innovation, freeing the community to innovate with their hardware prototypes and the features they build into their software.
You can see fro the video above, the friendly drag and drop remote designer for the iPhone / iPod Touch. This will have access to the “Beehive” database which is the part of the project that aims to build a huge collection of IR codes, an open source alternative to those used by the Harmony, Philips Pronto and URC devices.
The plans to build your own OpenRemote Box (or ORB) using the CommandIR device are available from the Building OpenRemote Hardware Reference Implementation. If you prefer you can utilise and existing Linux PC to do the job as well.
We wish the project well and we’ll be watching their progress and reporting back on it as it grows. If you’d like to get involved check out the links below.
www.openremote.org: twitter.com/openremote : youtube.com/openremote : commandir.com
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