My good friend Blake Krikorian just launched his most recent project – R2. It’s an Android app that allows you to control virtually anything that is connected via Crestron (the market leader in automation systems for buildings) in your home or office. How does it work? First of all you need to have a Crestron system installed, for example you could use it to control your lighting, shades, climate, audio, security, and so on. There are tens of thousands of devices and services that can be controlled with Crestron. Once you have downloaded and set up the R2 app, it will then allow you to manage any connected device/function from one place. R2 just needs an Android device and a WiFi or 3G connection. So if you’re sitting in your garden and feel like listening to some music, you just take out your Android phone or tablet and with a few taps turn on your home sound system. You can even control multiple buildings with this app.
R2 is a really useful and fun app. It’s comforting to know that you can control your house from basically anywhere. You could check if the alarm is turned on, switch on and off the lighting system, pre-heat the oven when you’re in a rush, or crank up the music during the day to get even with the annoying neighbor who always throws loud parties during the weekends 🙂
What’s also very smart is that R2 is compatible with Crestron’s existing iOS apps (Mobile Pro and Mobile Pro G), so it runs projects that were originally created for iOS devices, eliminating the need to rewrite the entire app. Crestron-authorized developers can also keep using their existing development tools, which saves them lots of time and will enable them to quickly develop new features that can take advantage of Android’s strengths.
Can’t wait to test this system in my house!
Follow Martin Varsavsky on Twitter: twitter.com/martinvars
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jcancela on May 19, 2011 ·
We are working on that at UPM (Technical University of Madrid). We are working with KNX (European standard) instead of Creston. We have developed an Android app which switches on the lights, sets up the temperature (according to the external temperature provided by Yahoo Weather API) and pulls up the blinds when the user is arriving at home (using the GPS of the smartphone). You can check out a demo here: http://mobilehome.jorgecancela.es/
Besides this home is continuously sending all the events (status on lights, doors, sensors and so on) to its own twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/LivingLabRemote so basically everybody allowed can follow what is happening in the house.