Mobile - thought this might be of interest - and wondered how others do it ...
controlling things from a smartphone or tablet seems to be all the rage at the moment ... but the practical difficulties are never mentioned - eg: what happens when the 3G signal is less than perfect, what happens when it’s perfect but lots of other people are using their ‘phones, too ... sometimes there’s WiFi as an alternative, but it also gets overloaded all too easily ...
equally, touch-phones are great, but travelling in the car means bumps & bends, and the wrong things getting selected, or getting selected in the wrong way - especially when trying to scroll down a list & select something, and do whatever with it ...
and not only in the car, because devices vary a lot - ie: scrolling and selecting is easier on some than on others (we’ve bought low-cost tablets to go with our intercom units, and we’ve found them pretty good, so long as things are kept very simple) ...
even so, we find the Mobile package for Cortex pretty useful, in the house & out ... eg: when we’re away, we can ‘phone ahead to tell Cortex we’re coming, so it can get the house up to speed (hot water, ventilation, heating); when we’re out shopping & realise we forgot to push the button on the freezer to get it ready for new things, we can command it from the shop - or from our desk, to save us going downstairs ... etc, etc ... we even use it to get Cortex to send us e-mails, about the status of things we’re worrying about ...
Cortex Mobile allows plenty of freedom of choice, and we experimented with several options, before arriving at our current arrangement - see images (larger sized ones included in the 02:18pm posting, below) ...
the icons reflect current status, and the Synchronise button is a way of ensuring they’re up to date (when comm’s are difficult, and there is some doubt) ... ditto the CloseBothDoors button, is a way of ensure the doors are closed, when individual control is getting fraught (due to weak or overloaded comm’s, or bumpy roads) ...
having the active buttons one level down in the hierarchy helps, by minimising the need to scroll while they’re presented (bumpy roads again) ...
of course, tapping the buttons gives access to the full range of facilities - status, history, control, etc, for all modules, sensors, automated controls, etc ... or just direct control of individual aspects - whatever's required / appropriate ...
BTW, thought this an interesting article :
though it does highlight how far behind mainstream thinking is, with little mention of practical experience & difficulties - eg: smart thermostats & motion sensors with simplistic intelligence & enormous blind spots, mobile devices expected to work anywhere & everywhere, indoors & out, and glib talk of integration ...
Chris
controlling things from a smartphone or tablet seems to be all the rage at the moment ... but the practical difficulties are never mentioned - eg: what happens when the 3G signal is less than perfect, what happens when it’s perfect but lots of other people are using their ‘phones, too ... sometimes there’s WiFi as an alternative, but it also gets overloaded all too easily ...
equally, touch-phones are great, but travelling in the car means bumps & bends, and the wrong things getting selected, or getting selected in the wrong way - especially when trying to scroll down a list & select something, and do whatever with it ...
and not only in the car, because devices vary a lot - ie: scrolling and selecting is easier on some than on others (we’ve bought low-cost tablets to go with our intercom units, and we’ve found them pretty good, so long as things are kept very simple) ...
even so, we find the Mobile package for Cortex pretty useful, in the house & out ... eg: when we’re away, we can ‘phone ahead to tell Cortex we’re coming, so it can get the house up to speed (hot water, ventilation, heating); when we’re out shopping & realise we forgot to push the button on the freezer to get it ready for new things, we can command it from the shop - or from our desk, to save us going downstairs ... etc, etc ... we even use it to get Cortex to send us e-mails, about the status of things we’re worrying about ...
Cortex Mobile allows plenty of freedom of choice, and we experimented with several options, before arriving at our current arrangement - see images (larger sized ones included in the 02:18pm posting, below) ...
the icons reflect current status, and the Synchronise button is a way of ensuring they’re up to date (when comm’s are difficult, and there is some doubt) ... ditto the CloseBothDoors button, is a way of ensure the doors are closed, when individual control is getting fraught (due to weak or overloaded comm’s, or bumpy roads) ...
having the active buttons one level down in the hierarchy helps, by minimising the need to scroll while they’re presented (bumpy roads again) ...
of course, tapping the buttons gives access to the full range of facilities - status, history, control, etc, for all modules, sensors, automated controls, etc ... or just direct control of individual aspects - whatever's required / appropriate ...
BTW, thought this an interesting article :
though it does highlight how far behind mainstream thinking is, with little mention of practical experience & difficulties - eg: smart thermostats & motion sensors with simplistic intelligence & enormous blind spots, mobile devices expected to work anywhere & everywhere, indoors & out, and glib talk of integration ...
Chris
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