From Issue #8 | By Chris Arndt

Can't take everything with you? Hit the road with mobile control, and you'll never feel like you're leaving a man behind.

Home automation isn't all robots and geek speak. Having lights, appliances, temperature settings, home theater and security features automatically controlled can take a load off of your mind during your perhaps hectic day-to-day life. Maybe that's why so many home tasks seem to slip your mind as you head out the door this summer for that much-needed vacation.

This is where home control gets really good. Aside from peeking in on things like air conditioning and whether or not the TV is still there, packages could be stacking at the front door and the landscapers might be slacking off. It's your vacation, which means you should relax and not worry about such things. Instead, check up on everything by taking the convenience of your home control on the road. It's like your own personal housesitter, sending messages when the unexpected happens, so there are no surprises. And nothing will be missing from the fridge when you get back.

What You Can Do

Access your home control via almost any medium at hand: a landline or cell phone, a PDA, or a computer. Due to bandwidth, audio and screen resolution, you obviously won't get the same experience in a campground with your cell phone as you would in a hotel with broadband access -- but the essence will still be there. Even if you don't take any of your conveniences along for the trip, anywhere you can find a connection, be it a pay phone, a public library or an Internet café, you'll be able to check in on things at home. If you're starting out, take a look at any of Home Automated Living's HAL products. Anywhere you have a phone, HAL is there to take your call. The system listens to your commands and responds as you check on the status of things like inside temperature and make changes like raising the setting on the thermostat. Prices start at $39.95 for HALbasic and go up to $369, depending on features.

Do-it-yourselfers of all skill sets swear by HomeSeer. Starting around $159.95, this graphical computer front end for most home control interfaces is programmable and manually controllable. HomeSeer also has a phone interface similar to HAL, as well as an integral Web interface. In other words, any Internet connection will put you in touch with your home systems. HomeSeer also has plug-ins available to add additional functionality. It may sound a little geeky to some, but it's actually very easy to use.

For instance, Ambient Software has a plug-in ($29.95) to connect HomeSeer to a virtual weather station, bringing data from your home weather system into HomeSeer. Combine that with another plug-in, WAPSeer, and you can see your home control system, inside temperature and humidity, and outside weather conditions from any WAP-enabled (Internet) cell phone. You can also control your HomeSeer lights, appliances and thermostat from your phone as well.

Call for Backup

Just because you don't have the chops to install an eloborate system yourself, it doesn't mean you have to suffer all year. Connected Hearth ($39.95 per month) provides subscribers complete access to their home systems via phone or Web-enabled device. The service works exclusively with HAI's Omni line of controllers, which is certainly not a bad thing. HAI is known for great home control devices.

Improving Tomorrow has a neat system called the CHAD -- or Central Home Automation Director. CHAD is like your own personal assistant, home monitor and information provider all in one package. To make things easy, CHAD uses your computer and existing electrical wiring to communicate throughout the house. If you want to talk to CHAD, you can check in through any Internet browser. There is a neat free trial on their Web site if you want to see CHAD for yourself.

"We're seeing a growing interest in remote access to home-automation systems, in particular the security and 'peace of mind' aspect of remote access," says Ed Marshall, president of Marshall Smart Homes, an installer in Centerville, Mass. Marshall cites the recent winter on Cape Cod as a perfect example of why someone would want such access. "We even had a homeowner referred to us who came back to their Cape home after spending the winter in Florida, and they had four feet of water in their basement." So for now, the company is really pushing remote capabilities.

HomeLogic offers more advanced capabilities in their OneHome system. But the real beauty is that it offers the homeowner the chance to build their system in increments, which means if you're on a budget, you don't have to go for the whole enchilada right off the bat. As time marches on, you can add security, lighting, temperature control, security, pool and spa control, and much more. All of those systems can be accessed through the phone or through any Web-enabled device as well.

For a combination do-it-yourself/hosted solution, there's SmarthomeLive. Smarthome will sell you the necessary equipment and software for you to monitor cameras and control your environment, and then manage the Internet connection part for you for $9.99 a month. This service allows you to monitor multiple cameras from any PC or PDA anywhere in the world. It also notifies you over the Web if you have any unusual events, based on motion detectors or pressure mats, water leaks or temperature. You can also control temperature, lights, home-theater equipment and more.

The Fun Begins

Home control is a necessity. Access to your collection of MP3s, recorded or live TV and digital pictures is just a bonus. Believe it or not, even if you don't take a multimedia device with you, you can still get to your content from the road.

The Sling Media Slingbox ($249) lets you watch your living room TV programming from any Internet-connected device. TiVo and other personal video recorders let you timeshift programming, but the Slingbox allows you to "placeshift" -- which means you can watch your recorded programming wherever you are. So even if you are on vacation in California, you can check in with your local weathergirl on your time just by using a laptop or Web-enabled PDA. Just connect the Slingbox device to your TiVo, your cable box, and virtually any other video device, and the unit will stream audio and video from the device over the Internet.

If you need more than streaming TV, Orb Networks can also make you feel at home with all of your music files and digital photos. You can access all of this material on virtually any Web-enabled device, even a cell phone. The best part is that it's free. But don't expect shoddy service. Orb dynamically resizes the stream from home to match the device on the other end. So, if you are watching TV on your low resolution, low fidelity phone, the bandwidth requirements will be a lot less than if you were watching on your laptop.

Orb also allows you to view photos stored on your home computer, but you can also upload vacation pictures while you are still away. One problem with sending pictures over the Internet has been image file size. So while your camera might take nice big pictures, your Web-enabled phone or PDA will only show an image a fraction of the size. Just as Orb re-streams video and/or audio to fit the receiving device, they will also resize your pictures on the fly. That way, the 1.2-megabyte shot of you swimming with the dolphins can easily fit the small screen of your cell phone, which is perfect for when you are bragging around the pool.

This type of service also goes for Internet sites. That means you can access partners like Yahoo! for driving directions, maps, weather and stock quotes all from Orb's easy-to-use interface. Joe Harris, VP of Orb, says the company is actively looking for additional partners to enhance their content. Each of those partners supply services and paid content, which is what makes the price so nice.

Slingbox may be advertised as a "personal broadcaster," but don't think that you can use it or Orb to broadcast to friends and family. That's not the use for which they are intended. For bandwidth and copyright reasons, both are limited to a very few registered user connections.

With a little forethought, even some of the newer, private, peer-to-peer networking clients could be pressed into service as on-the-road picture and music services. Grouper, for instance, is an invitation-only peer-to-peer sharing network for pictures, files, music and instant messaging. As the Group Creator, you invite other members via email, and then share only the files you want through a drag-and-drop interface. With a little creativity, you could create a second membership for when you're on the road and use Grouper's file sharing and instant messaging features while you are away.

Grouper's newest feature is the Glog, their take on the popular blog, or Web log. Unlike blogs, which are accessible to anyone on the Internet, Glogs are private, shared only with your Grouper circle. So, think of the Glog as your private, online postcard to your family as you relax on vacation. Better yet: They can respond to your activities and musings while you are still away, offering new places to see or asking how that big fishing trip turned out.

Grouper is currently free. It's not hosted except for the Glog, so you'll need to leave a computer running the Grouper client and storing your files. Grouper servers connect the group members when they are logged on and store the contents of the Glog. There are some limitations, though.

Whatever your need, be it security, home control, monitoring or access to your audio/video while you are away, you can find a way to stay connected as you flee your typical scene.

Related Story

• Dynamic IP

Want to test drive OneHome?

• Log onto www.homelogic.com and click on Log into Your Home.
  User Name: demo
  Password: techliving
  Connect as: Viewer
• Control the pan/tilt cameras!
  Click on the arrows in the lower right or by clicking directly on the screen.
• Talk to us!
  Click on the speaker icon. Sometimes we disconnect the microphone though, so there's no need to yell!
• Listen in!
  Listen to any voicemail messages through your computer's speakers.

Related Links

• Networking: Wired vs. Wireless
• 5 Places to Shop for Home Control
• Where to Start with Lighting Control
• Electronic House Magazine