The Active Man’s Active Home

July 17, 2001 - Miguel Peratoner is an active man on the go, and to help him get through his daily activities, he’s recruited the help of X10. He truly has what can be described as an X10 ActiveHome from floor to ceiling. It starts out with a 2500 square foot home that he has been remodeling floor by floor, turning his home into an X10 twenty-first century home.

Security is always an issue when building a home, and to help augment his security, Miguel uses the ActiveHome system along with XRay Vision. While he’s away, he’s programmed his ActiveHome system so that the lights go on and off at different intervals during the afternoons and evenings. Along his doors and windows he has the door and window sensors to let him know if anyone is trying to get in.

Outside his home Miguel has the NightWatch cameras, and EagleEye motion sensors. Inside the house he has several XCam2s and VCR Commander, which he’s built right into the house. Each one of those cameras have been hooked up through a computer system that he has designed himself, but which also uses XRay Vision so that he can monitor his home while he’s at the office, out of town, or at any other function. This particular ability comes in especially handy as Miguel’s neighbors think that his yard is their pet’s restroom. "Now when there’s motion," he says, "the EagleEye sets off an ultrasonic pest chaser. That’s takes care of the dogs."

For romantic uses, Miguel has found the Ultimate Remote to be his best friend. "I can access macros and specific devices from almost any location in the house," and at lightning speed he says. "For more romantic situations I have created a macro that I can trigger that will slowly dim the lights as my date and I are watching a movie." But if it turned out that the date wasn’t going so well, he has another macro that brings the lights up at almost full brightness.

For energy conservation he uses the motion sensors to control the lights. That way he never forgets to turn the lights off. He has also set macros that turn off various appliances and electronics in the evening just in case he forgot. And if he did forget, he can simply turn it off via the laptop in his room. That way he doesn’t have to get up out of bed.

For safety concerns, Miguel has another ingenious setup. He says "I use the PIR sensors in the house to detect movement, and automatically turn on/off or dim lights as I move from room to room." For example, if Miguel gets thirsty in the middle of the night and wants some juice from the refrigerator, his PIR’s detect his movements, and soft lights go up in the bedroom. As he moves through the hallway, the lights in the hallway go on. When he reaches the stairwell the stairwell lights turn on, then the kitchen lights turn on, and so forth. His way is always lit so he doesn’t have to worry about accidents. But the reverse is also set up. Moments after he leaves, the lights go out behind him. "It’s a great feature when you have guests over."

And as he comes and goes from day to day, Miguel finds the Keychain Remote invaluable. With such a small space, he can barely tell it’s there, but as soon as he gets to the driveway, he’s got the lights in the house turned on.

There was a time that we thought giant computers and clunky robots were going to be taking care of this stuff for us. Who would have thought it was going to be a simple program with a few little wireless cameras, and remote controls? Rosie the Robot herself would be impressed.

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