Twitter supposedly used to control house lights

We'll preface this by saying this whole thing could be one giant hoax, but it's most certainly within the realm of possibility. We're told it's a mixture of Insteon, SMS and Twitter, all of which are utilized in order to give one particular homeowner the ability to activate / turn off lights remotely by sending a specific message to the latter. If your interest is unquestionably piqued, click on through to check out the video -- 'tis a shame there's no how-to guide to be found.

[Via Digital Tech News]

Control Lights with Twitter from Justin on Vimeo

[Urothane @ May 21st 2008 6:44AM]

I don't know about this. With Twitter going down as often as it does it would be hard to control. Imagine not being able to turn your lights off at night because Twitter had a server issue.

[Lee @ May 21st 2008 6:51AM]

LOL Great minds ( or cynical ones ) think alike.

[Lee @ May 21st 2008 6:49AM]

Given the constant Twitter outages and crashes i'd expect to get home and be locked out and have no lights and heating any time soon !

[az1324 @ May 21st 2008 6:52AM]

lol. Twitter is becoming the new rube goldberg now? It's definitely not a hoax but there are plenty of ways to do this more efficiently. Twitter is supposed to be about multicast ... but I guess if it's important that all your friends know you aren't afraid of the dark....

[BollockChops @ May 21st 2008 6:55AM]

Wow, you guys are on a roll today. Is it your primary goal to make out that everyone is a liar?

You seem to be stuck in the dark ages if you think that controlling your lights from twitter is black magic or some hocus pocus. Even at its most basic you could do this with a CM11a connected to a PC+gsm modem[+optional internet]+ a few X10 modules and very little software.

You're supposed to be tech people. Act like it.

here, try joining us in 2008...

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
http://www.smarthome.com
http://www.xplmonkey.com/

[BollockChops @ May 21st 2008 6:56AM]

Actually, gsm modem not required unless you want direct access. In not use IM on the house side

[giuliop @ May 21st 2008 7:51AM]

"here, try joining us in 2008..."

They first have to figure out how to let you edit your posts. You know, it's a really complicated matter.

[Steffest @ May 21st 2008 7:55AM]

My thoughts exactly!
Any developer can build this in 15 minutes.
Ask my Mother-in-Law: I demoed exactly this 1 year ago.

[OneLove @ May 21st 2008 11:30AM]

...this exactly...

[Mile @ May 21st 2008 7:07AM]

A How To Guide on how to make up interweb stuff?

[warlun @ May 21st 2008 7:35AM]

they can call it - Twi-light!!!

[BaRTiMuS @ May 21st 2008 8:48AM]

Homeseer Server has the ability to scan websites for preset variables and report them. Then you would set the Server to trigger a light when the variable changed.

I used this sort of script to report the weather from the weather network webpage. The issue was that as soon as the layout or the path to the exact page changed, the entire script was pooched.

[Bellerophon @ May 21st 2008 8:48AM]

Seriously, this is worth posting? It's one guy's interest, that's it. It's not going to spark a revolution of twitter controlled lighting appliances that will take the internet generation by storm.

But if it does then I fucking called it.

[BuddyBoy @ May 21st 2008 9:04AM]

This done a few weeks ago on the show Big Bang Theory.
A comedy poking fun at geeks looks to have inspired a geek.
The circle is complete.

[Eric Hollenbeck @ May 21st 2008 10:12AM]

Why not just US Dynamic DNS and access a local webpage to control the lights and what not. I have insteon setup to be controlled via a webpage through a crestron system.

[tiuk @ May 21st 2008 11:31AM]

Well, most people always have their cell phone on them, but don't always have internet access (though that's becoming less and less of a problem).

[Kurian @ May 21st 2008 11:48AM]

What if you accidentally shutdown your computer remotely?

[mixtus @ May 21st 2008 4:05PM]

i do this at home with all my lights using a software called indigo by perceptive automation. I don't see the need to use twitter. You can email commands - im command - or sms to email. x10 is dead - insteon is the new way to do home automation.

[Chris @ May 22nd 2008 12:51AM]

I used to work at Premise Systems back in the day. One of the things I did for fun was write a bridge to MSN messenger to test out the SDK. The way it worked was that your house showed up as a buddy on messenger so to control stuff all you needed to do was open up a chat window with him/her :)

I even added some zork style grammar parsing so you could almost converse with the thing. Here's the basic idea...

House says: Hello Chris
Chris says: Go to Bedroom
House says: Okay, I'm in the Bedroom, the lights are off.
Chris says: Turn on the sconce lights to 15%.
House says: Okay, I turned on the sconce lights to 15%.
Chris says: How hot is it?
House says: The current temperature in the Bedroom is 70 degrees.
Chris says: Make it warmer.
House says: Okay, I'll make it warmer.
Chris says: Play some Barry White.
House says: I'm playing All Time Greatest Hits by Barry White.

And so it goes on... this was in 2002. Shame Premise got bought by Motorola and they pretty much killed it - meh.