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Lights

Controlling lights in the home is one of the simplest things to do on the PC. X10 is a company that has been around for a long time ( www.x10.com ). They produce modules that can be controlled via your house wiring. The user plugs the module into the A.C. receptacle and then plugs the device they wish to control into that. X10 provides several means of communicating with the different devices. They have software that runs on the PC. They have a kit that includes a small hand-held remote and for developers, they provide programming specs. to develop custom applications using, what they call, their Firecracker interface. The firecracker interface consists of a receiver that plugs into an A.C. receptacle near the computer and a small transmitter that plugs into the PC's serial port. The software sends signals to the device plugged into the serial port, which in turn sends signal to the receiver near the computer. That device then sends the appropriate signal to the various devices in the house over the house wiring.

These are neat devices and because everything just plugs in, implementing it is very easy and doesn't require any special technical skills. X10 also has wall mount devices that can actually replace your A.C. receptacles and switches. This makes it easier to develop a solution that can handle most scenarios.

These devices make it possible to automate most of the lighting around the house, but there are a few pitfalls. It takes a second or two for the different devices to communicate and send the appropriate signals over the house wiring, so it isn't 'real-time'. Another problem is that there is no way to determine the current state of a particular device. This would be handy if, for instance, you wanted to dim a light but wanted to know if it had already been dimmed.

The X10 interface has a few drawbacks, but overall is probably the mostly widely used means for controlling light. The ease of installation (except for the wall mount devices), the pricing (most modules are $10-$15), and their duration in the industry (most dedicated panels and some alarm systems provide X10 interfaces) make them the favored means for controlling lights.

Cameras

Camera control is another area that has become pretty simple to implement on the PC. All the interest in the Internet and video conferencing has provided a lot of reasonably priced solutions. You can get a USB camera or a video board that plugs into an available PC slot. Most, if not all, come with software that lets you view and capture video in some form.

This is neat 'stuff' whether you are setting up a surveillance system or just playing around. It is really neat to be able to view and control cameras without having to have a special monitor.

From a development standpoint, I prefer the video board. I use a 4-port, 1 channel board from a company called Winnov ( www.winnov.com ). It is a nice board and sells for around $300. That includes the board, an OCX for VB or C++ development and sample programs. I like the custom OCX. The other alternative is to use an USB camera and a Third party control that lets the programmer use the supplied video capture driver. There is nothing wrong with that methodology and it does allow the developer to interface with a larger number of cameras, but if you were developing an off-the-shelf application, you would have to have every camera the control interfaces with for support purposes. That is why I like the video board and custom OCX. It presents an easier support solution.