Good article for the read…
Automated Lighting Brings Convenience and More
May 27, 2014 | comments
Lighting is probably not the first thing you think of when contemplating the marvels of modern home automation, but, in addition to offering considerable convenience, today’s lighting control systems can help conserve energy and contribute to household safety.
We caught up with Todd Sandler, president of the Overland Park, Kansas-based custom installation firm Naturally Wired, and asked him to talk about the potential for automated lighting in these areas.
Convenience
Having one button that turns all of the lights in the house on or off is powerful and convenient, Sandler explains.
“If you hear a bump in the night you can turn on all the lights by pressing an All On button on a keypad in your bedroom instead of wandering around with a flashlight and turning one light on at a time.
“The opposite of that is families with kids who tend to leave lights on all the time. If you’re getting ready for bed and wondering how many lights the kids left on today, just hit the All Off button to turn everything off and you won’t have to worry about it.”
Lighting control systems can be customized to suit the homeowner needs, too. An example would be a Good Morning button that turns the lights on in areas where you get ready for work – maybe the bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen.
Safety
Lighting control systems can also be tied into the home’s security system to provide an added measure of safety, according to Sandler. “When the alarm system goes off, the system automatically turns on all of the lights inside the house and flashes the exterior lights so the authorities know immediately where to go,” he explains.
An example of a feature that straddles safety and convenience is the ability to control home lighting from an app on your phone. “If you’re on vacation and think you left lights on, you can pick up your phone, hit the All Off button and turn the hallway light on, Sandler notes.
“Or maybe you’re expecting company or coming home late. You can turn on the porch light without having to walk into the house in the dark.” Sandler says. A Welcome Home button that turns on outside and entry lights is another popular option.
Energy Conservation
Remember how your parents reprimanded you and your siblings for leaving the lights on when you were a kid? In addition to making it easy to turn off unused lights around the house, an automated lighting system can be programmed to save energy over time.
“We set up our systems so that lights turn on at 90 percent instead of full power,” Sandler says. “Your eyes cannot detect that level of difference, yet you’re saving 10 percent of the energy and doubling the life of that light bulb just by dimming it.”
The bottom line: A properly set-up lighting system can help conserve energy, perhaps by as much as 20 percent or more.
As for the type of bulb – traditional incandescent vs. compact fluorescent (CFL) vs. LED – Sandler generally leaves that decision up to his clients and their lighting designer or electrician, but acknowledges that LED is “the direction things are going.”
Of course, the type of bulb you use can lead to additional energy savings, with LED bulbs using 20 to 25 percent less energy and lasting up to 25 times longer than traditional bulbs. (Visit energy.gov for more on bulb types and energy usage and check out the Light Bulb Finder app.)
For anyone considering using CFL or LED bulbs, Sandler points out that they don’t produce the soft, warm light we’re used to from incandescent bulbs.
Automated Lighting Costs
So what does it cost to have a lighting control system installed and customized to your lifestyle? While prices vary from region to region and company to company, Sandler breaks it down by the light switch and offers his clients several price/performance levels. CEDIA’s free Research & Budget Guide offers a starting point for homeowners looking to price out home automation projects.
Good Read …
Researchers create drone that hacks mobile devices from above
Project meant to prove security risks, instead reignites fears of personal privacy
In an experiment to see just how vulnerable our mobile devices are, a pair of researchers created a drone to see if the equipment they strapped to it could hack mobile devices from up above.
Unfortunately, they succeeded.
Glenn Wilkinson and Daniel Cuthbert of Sensepost are the masterminds behind “Snoopy”, the aptly named drone that can hack and access a mobile device’s data while hovering in the sky.
Specifically, Snoopy looks for phones that have their WiFi settings “on” and are scanning for networks to connect to. The drone sends out a signal pretending to be a network, and when the device connects to it, Snoopy is able to access all the meta data it wants from the device, including passwords, credit card numbers, and more.
When Wilkinson and Cuthbert tested their invention over a part of London, they were able to collect the network names and locations of 150 different mobile devices.
In just one hour.
What’s more, they were also able to identify the usernames and passwords for Amazon, PayPal, and Yahoo accounts that were specially created for the demonstration.
Shocking? Sure. What’s even scarier, though, is the fact that the drone can also be equipped with a GPS card that correlates signals to the location where devices are detected. That means not only can Snoopy locate and hack phones, tablets, etc., but that it can also potentially spy on devices like pacemakers, smart cards, or the most recent fad, fitness bracelets.
Examples of the peripherals Snoopy can connect to:
• Ubertooth (Bluetooth)
• RFidler (RFID)
• Bluenext-BN903S (GPS)
• XBee radio (802.15)
So, how is Snoopy doing all of this? Well, let’s start with its biggest hardware component, the BeagleBone Black, a low-power, open-source micro-computer measuring about the size of a credit card.
Additional components include:
• SanDisk 8GB Class 10 SD card
• USB hub
• 5.5 x 1.2 mm 1 female to 2 male splitter
• 5V2A power supply
• Huawei E160 (with SIM card)
The drone itself is a DJI F450 quadcopter. It has two onboard cameras, one made by GoPro, which is used for collecting HD images, and another that’s tasked with streaming first-person view of live video.
In the event that Snoopy is captured, it can destroy the data it has collected, which is triggered by an on-board accelerometer that detects when the drone is unexpectedly moved or picked up.
Snoopy has been in testing since 2012. It’s gone through many revisions, mostly in an attempt to see if current network securities are still hackable (quick answer: they are).
Wilkinson and Cuthbert used Snoopy at last year’s Black Hat security conference, and will be demonstrating a new and improved version of the technology at this year’s event in Singapore. Their presentation is expected to go over the software and hardware schematics, not only for a Wi-Fi-, Bluetooth-, and GPS-enabled snooping device, but also for an RC aerial drone outfitted with two video cameras. It’s meant to show the darker of side of how much today’s consumer relies on electronics, and so the presentation is called “The Machines that Betrayed their Masters.”
Whirl Magazine highlights Kozi Media Design in their March 2014 magazine release as a Creative Solution. In the article KOZI is showing a Sunbrite Outdoor TV.
This is no typical outdoor TV, it’s a Sunbrite that is surrounded by a specified number of Sonance outdoor speakers, and subwoofers that are professionally calibrated to make the most of the audio zone. So, any time of the year you can have your own theater …outdoors. Imagine the look on your friends faces when they see …and hear this!
KOZI MEDIA DESIGN is a professional and technical high performance custom architectural audio, visual, and automation integration solutions firm! Developing other businesses for over 30 years individually, two brothers decided to bring the Silicon Valley of California’s developed business experience and knowledge to their home town of Pittsburgh PA.
Since inception in 2000, KOZI has continued to build the professional team of designers and installers, continuously training for the benefit of their clientele. It’s never too late to start planning early. While considering your home’s customary construction features, plan for the benefits of proper cabling and placement with your audio, video and automation. Now-a-days you should take advantage of the abilities to control HVAC, lights, drapes, while planning your audio and video requirements.
From residential new construction, or retrofit, to commercial businesses, we integrate Technology into Design with Simple, Intuitive and Seamless Solutions! For additional pictures, solutions and idea’s, see KOZI on Pinterest.
Kozi Media Design installed professional background audio for this university’s cafe, allowing the kitchen or cashier to call out orders over their microphones using the same audio system, increasing productivity of employees and flow of service to the students and staff without intruding on the architecture or design, but rather enhancing versatility!