Do you remember a SL/RL home security project?

This isn't a scripting question but it is the right forum to ask it ....

A long time ago (well, it must have been less than 2 years as I'm only 2!) I happened on a work-in-progress by somebody who said he had built an SL/RL interactive system using his own house. It monitored lights being switched on, doors opening, etc in his physical house & reflected those in his virtual one: and vice versa, meaning he could open his real carport door by opening his virtual one.

With what I'm now learning about SL's capabilities, I suspect it was the work of a fevered technical imagination.

I'm writing an essay-type thing about futures involving blurred boundaries between worlds. If this has any foundation at all in reality (that is, if it would and/or should work), then it would form quite a strong key for my arguments.

Does anybody else know of this project? Could I find any information about it?

Thank you
Cherry

I remember reading about it and yes it is definitely do-able. Just google for:

"control your house with your computer"

Just plain, ol, simple industrial automation controls. Tie a PLC or SLC between the house and your computer, then the tie in from SL to your home computer is a breeze. Could trigger from email for example.

Don't remember who was doing it in SL thou. ALtough while you bought it up; someone did something with a vibrator too

dunno anything about it, but the difficult part is in the RL wiring of things to be remotely activated. there are systems out there for this, and can get quite expensive, where you can virtually turn on you lights before getting home, start a pot of coffee, or even run a hot bath (fairly advanced system).

The sl end would just be an extension of that, communicating with a web page and sending commands or reading instructions... there is probably already a rl analog for the house that can do these things (more likely as a list than 3d) on some computer.

if definitely does work, and while I'm not sure SL makes it useful, it does make for a good proof of concept in interface design, allowing a person to remotely manipulate their security/home system with a literal 3d equivalent... this has application both large and small scale, providing electronic managment of available functions, with a low learning curve, and very intuitive design.

A breeze (for those of you who can *do* this stuff)? OMG, the implications are huge!


SL would be the obvious starting point, though I seem to remember this guy had almost decided it would be easier to create his own virtual world! And thank you for the phrase 'interface design', which would have taken me ages to land upon

I'm really glad to hear I didn't make this up! Thanks!


Brings a whole new dimension to online sex

I did systems controls and upgrades for a couple of decades worldwide on aluminum extrusion presses. It would be quite expensive using an Allen-Bradley SLC 500 for example, with a large learning curve, but there are several alternatives on the market like X-10. $49 for a simple kit to control a handful of functions.

http://www.x10.com/

Still no more then a gimmick really but still fun. I had an outdated PLC wired in a few years ago in the house and I controlled among other things; the christmas tree by email and went so far as to control a light by calling into a voice recognition program.

Geekiness to the 10th power.

Oh what fun!!!

I did once have a remote-controlled house - not Xmas lights, though That was before I caught geek disease (see, I made more money then!) so I never looked into how it worked. It had a controller like a TV remote - and a page on the TV. Thinking about it, it must have had its own little intranet. Putting it as you two have done, it does make sense to have a 'remote' house therefore - or office, or whatever. Something about the lights in your virtual house going on when you get home feels really appealing!

Jesse, I wish you'd never mentioned the vibrator. I'm going to have to check it out! (Beware of "Virtual Girlfriend Control" headlines appearing somewhere soon)

realXtend (and opensim) is planning on implementing X-10 in the future.

Also take a look at this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMk6FzNMnTY
and this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhCBZcq58c0

The Latter is a guy controling his SL avitar by thought alone.

This would be simple enough, the more common home automation systems are easy to interface to a server. It would just require some simple scripts around the SL home.

/me Googles for x10 prices

I was all hyped up with this, until this article got into my reader somehow:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/26/internet.buildings

Seems like some big co. is already on the move.

Still I would be v interested in realizing one at home level, I have also read about some medical use of this like a caretaker monitoring elderly people's activity/various health data (pulse, blood pressure, etc) from SL, but I found that too intrusive into the private sector of those being monitored.

as noted ever so briefly in the article, security is still a very weak spot