CRISTAL is an uncommon control center for smarthome
CRISTAL (Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces) is an unusual user interface to control AV equipment and home automation system. The idea behind it following. There are camera and projector mounted on the celling. The camera, connected to the main controller, captures room picture and the projector projects an image on the table. User can touch objects, resize or drag them and the system will react according to the specified logic. For example, you may see on the video to watch movie the user just drag DVD cover to the DVD player. The same for photos. To control lighting he just touch the lamp on the projected image on the table.
The idea of CRISTAL looks amazing. But, of course, it has some serious limitations. For example, with quality of projected image in the dark or bright light. Also it isn’t clear how to control devices in the other room or outside the house. Anyway, we’ll see how CRISTAL will progress in the future.
