I've been working on home automation for over 15 years and I'm close to achieving my goal which is a house that understands where everyone is at all times, can predict where you are going next and can control lighting, heating and other systems without you having to do or say anything. That's a true "smart home".
Ian Mercer
2/21/2021
An overview of the many sensors I've experimented with for home automation including my favorite under-floor strain gauge, through all the usual PIR, beam and contact sensors to some more esoteric devices like an 8x8 thermal camera.
Ian Mercer
2/28/2020, 4:53 PM
In a home automation system we often want to convert a measurement into a probability. The ATAN curve is one of my favorite curves for this as it's easy to map overything onto a 0.0-1.0 range.
Ian Mercer
2/14/2018, 1:14 AM
A probabilistic approach to home automation models the probability that each room is occupied and how many people are in that room.
Ian Mercer
2/11/2018, 9:00 PM
A statistical approach to understanding which rooms are occupied in a smart house
Ian Mercer
2/11/2018, 4:58 AM
An if-this-then-that style rules machine is insufficient for lighting control. This state machine accomplishes 90% of the correct behavior for a light that is controlled automatically and manually in a home automation system.
Ian Mercer
5/16/2016, 4:58 AM
Understanding the many different 'states' a house can have is critical to creating great home automation
Ian Mercer
3/15/2015, 11:03 PM
Some interesting charts from the gigabytes of data my home automation system produces
Ian Mercer
2/3/2015, 2:07 PM
My investigations into using iBeacons for home automation
Ian Mercer
1/31/2015, 3:26 PM
My notes on the iBeacon meetup in Seattle held in January 2015
Ian Mercer
11/22/2014, 1:54 PM
Using nodes and links to represent a home and all the devices in it
Ian Mercer
11/10/2014, 7:31 AM
Using n-gram analysis to spot patterns in sensor activations
Ian Mercer
11/5/2014, 7:57 AM
Building a Xamarin Forms application to control my home automation system
Ian Mercer
10/12/2014, 10:14 PM
Maybe it should be called the Internet of Hubs instead
Ian Mercer
10/2/2014, 2:51 PM
Multicolored LEDs can convey a lot of information in a small space
Ian Mercer
6/26/2014, 8:00 PM
Ian Mercer
6/22/2014, 1:19 PM
The diminutive Arduino boards include a powerful transmitter/receiver
Ian Mercer
5/2/2014, 3:05 PM
Ian Mercer
4/17/2014, 1:42 PM
Ian Mercer
10/23/2013, 2:15 PM
POSTing data to a home automation system from Arduino devices
Ian Mercer
10/23/2013, 2:02 PM
An experiment to measure every aspect of an HVAC / boiler system
Ian Mercer
2/13/2013, 8:43 AM
How to create a LINQ expression that logically ORs together a set of predicates
Ian Mercer
2/4/2013, 2:00 PM
A novel approach to adding history to variables in a programming language
Ian Mercer
8/1/2012, 1:49 PM
My talk to the Seattle Quantified Self meetup
Ian Mercer
7/11/2012, 2:28 PM
A hierarchical state machine for .NET
Ian Mercer
6/19/2012, 2:37 PM
Some new features for my home automation using an Android phone
Ian Mercer
4/15/2012, 2:38 PM
A state machine for .NET that I've released on Nuget
Ian Mercer
3/26/2012, 4:14 AM
Connecting our dog into the home automation
Ian Mercer
3/14/2012, 1:54 PM
A review of the now defunct GreenGoose sensor system
Ian Mercer
1/7/2012, 4:31 PM
State machines are useful in many contexts but especially for home automation
Ian Mercer
10/18/2011, 1:22 PM
Ian Mercer
9/21/2011, 12:30 AM
Ian Mercer
9/16/2011, 12:52 PM
Ian Mercer
9/10/2011, 3:30 PM
Ian Mercer
9/7/2011, 7:58 AM
Ian Mercer
8/24/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
8/20/2011, 11:20 AM
Ian Mercer
7/3/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
6/7/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
5/6/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
5/5/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
3/22/2011, 12:49 PM
Ian Mercer
3/11/2011, 5:39 AM
Ian Mercer
2/6/2011, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
1/25/2011, 2:37 PM
Ian Mercer
1/8/2011, 1:40 AM
Ian Mercer
12/15/2010, 1:34 AM
Ian Mercer
12/10/2010, 2:48 PM
Ian Mercer
12/4/2010, 3:44 PM
Ian Mercer
11/26/2010, 3:53 AM
Ian Mercer
11/13/2010, 2:32 PM
Ian Mercer
10/30/2010, 5:06 AM
My favorite home automation features for Halloween
Ian Mercer
10/24/2010, 1:09 AM
Help with this exception
Ian Mercer
9/14/2010, 2:23 PM
Ian Mercer
9/8/2010, 2:40 AM
Ian Mercer
9/2/2010, 2:29 AM
Ian Mercer
9/2/2010, 2:11 AM
Ian Mercer
7/31/2010, 3:38 AM
Ian Mercer
7/27/2010, 5:28 AM
Ian Mercer
7/26/2010, 10:38 AM
Ian Mercer
7/20/2010, 8:22 AM
Ian Mercer
7/8/2010, 2:02 PM
Ian Mercer
6/6/2010, 5:08 AM
Ian Mercer
5/29/2010, 5:30 AM
Ian Mercer
5/28/2010, 10:03 AM
Ian Mercer
5/22/2010, 1:06 PM
Ian Mercer
5/13/2010, 5:34 AM
Ian Mercer
5/10/2010, 2:07 PM
Ian Mercer
4/28/2010, 12:44 AM
Ian Mercer
4/27/2010, 3:54 AM
Ian Mercer
4/21/2010, 1:22 PM
Ian Mercer
4/16/2010, 1:09 AM
Ian Mercer
4/10/2010, 1:00 AM
Ian Mercer
4/9/2010, 1:34 PM
Ian Mercer
4/9/2010, 5:20 AM
Ian Mercer
4/8/2010, 1:17 PM
Ian Mercer
3/14/2010, 6:28 AM
Ian Mercer
3/10/2010, 3:05 PM
Ian Mercer
3/9/2010, 6:28 AM
Ian Mercer
3/8/2010, 1:43 PM
Ian Mercer
3/8/2010, 8:32 AM
Ian Mercer
3/4/2010, 8:13 AM
Ian Mercer
3/1/2010, 3:05 PM
Ian Mercer
2/26/2010, 3:19 AM
Ian Mercer
2/23/2010, 1:02 AM
Ian Mercer
2/10/2010, 6:03 AM
Ian Mercer
2/7/2010, 8:06 AM
Ian Mercer
2/3/2010, 10:22 AM
Ian Mercer
2/2/2010, 3:33 AM
Ian Mercer
2/1/2010, 12:49 PM
Ian Mercer
1/29/2010, 3:05 AM
Ian Mercer
1/29/2010, 2:31 AM
Ian Mercer
1/28/2010, 6:28 AM
Ian Mercer
12/11/2009, 6:28 AM
A tip on using LINQ's Select expression with an index
Ian Mercer
11/21/2009, 1:20 AM
Running conduit can be expensive but maybe you don't need one to every room
Ian Mercer
11/15/2009, 11:06 PM
Namespace reservations and http.sys, my, oh my!
Ian Mercer
10/23/2009, 6:28 AM
Ian Mercer
10/21/2009, 9:35 PM
Fixing this error was fairly simple
Ian Mercer
10/12/2009, 6:28 AM
How to fix the exception "the entitycontainer" name could not be determined
Ian Mercer
10/11/2009, 12:14 PM
Expanding URLs would help users decide whether or not to click a link
Ian Mercer
10/10/2009, 6:28 AM
Just a link to a site I found useful
Ian Mercer
7/24/2009, 7:44 AM
Ian Mercer
5/15/2009, 10:04 AM
Hints for dealing with this exception
Ian Mercer
4/23/2009, 4:38 AM
My latest article on CodeProject covers the lesser known Exception.Data property
Ian Mercer
4/18/2009, 12:43 AM
How to solve a problem encountered with custom validation in ASP.NET
Ian Mercer
4/5/2009, 1:17 AM
Some advice on software optimization
Ian Mercer
3/3/2009, 11:01 AM
LinqKit came in handy back in 2009
Ian Mercer
1/9/2008, 4:41 PM
Using space-filling curves to optimize caching
Ian Mercer
7/31/2006, 3:40 AM
A rant about how few software programs get threading right
Ian Mercer
6/14/2006, 12:10 PM
Ian Mercer
Over 15 years of experimentation with home automation
Ian Mercer
4/30/2020, 4:22 PM
A collection of videos about my smart home efforts
Ian Mercer