Smart Home Blog

The new Clever Media Control system (CMCS) is designed to allow Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition to sit at the heart of a whole house digital media solution. It can be used for viewing, searching and playing back music stored on MCE and for controlling the multi-room audio distribution system as well as other commonly used entertainment products.
The original CMCS user interface is based on a touch-screen application. So, the ideal control panel for it is some Windows-based UMPC such Samsung Q1. Additionally, CMCS uses the Autonomic Home MCE Control Server to provide part of its feature set. This makes CMC Server compatible with both AMX and Creston control tablets in addition to the CMC Client.

CMCS can control multi-room audio distribution products from NuVo and Russound. So, it might be a good solution to build music system for your home if you prefer Windows as OS.

Here is another good candidate for stationary control panel for your home automation system – portable multimedia gadget (PMG) Quadpad.

Product specifications:

• Processor: 1GHz
• Hard disk: 40 GB up to 80 GB
• Memory: 256MB DDR / 512MB DDR
• Video RAM: S3 UMA (AGP 8x LVDS interface)
• System: Whizpro bios, APM 1.2
• Communications: Wireless – wi-fi 802.11b/g & bluetooth integrated, modem – 56kbps V.92 MDC, LAN Realtek 10/100 base-t
• Sound: AC-97 audio on board sound,16-bit stereo, full duplex built-in speaker and microphone
• Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP home edition
• Display: 8.4 inch TFT LCD touch panel SVGA 800 x 600
• Expansion I/O: 3 USB 2.0 port, 1 IRDA port, 1 earphone jack, 1 microphone jack, 1 PCMCIA type II slot, 1 mini VGA output port, 10 hot key – quick access button and directional buttons
• Accessories: Smart case, stylus pen, AC/DC adapter
• Battery: Removable Li-ion standard battery pack (up to 3 hrs)
• AC adapter: Input – AC 100-240V 50/60 Hz, output – DC 16V, 3.13A
• Dimensions: 231 mm x 192 mm x 42 mm
• Weight: 1.19 kg (with battery)
• Certification: FCC/CE

No any words about availability and price.

[via Ideal Gadget]

Nobu introduced N8 touchscreen in-wall PC. It’s features an 8-inch touchscreen, a 600MHz Intel Celeron M or 1.1GHz Pentium M CPU, 512MB of DDR RAM, 802.11a/b/g, Ethernet, a 4GB SSD and three USB 2.0 ports. Nobu N8 also sports built-in speakers / mic, audio out, VGA out and comes loaded with Windows XP Professional.

It’d be nice to use Nobu N8 as control panel in the home automation system (Plutohome, for example) if the price tag was not so expensive – $3,625. IMHO, it’s too much. Especially, when it’s possible to buy some UMPC (Samsung Q1 or TabletKiosk) for about $1000 and install it on the wall.

[via Engadget]

Crestron showed on CEDIA Expo 2006 its new WiFi Touchpanel – TPMC-8X. The TPMC-8X is based on Windows XP Embedded operating system and closely integrated with Yahoo Widgets. It allows to get stock prices, weather or any other information accessible via a finger click. The device is packed with Bluetooth and WiFi. So, you won’t have any problem with connections. There is a built-in fingerprint scanner and together with included biometric softwar allow to restore preferences for each family member easily.Built-in stereo speakers, dual microphones and VoIP software provide a simple way to make phone calls via Internet.
But the main goal to get the TPMC-8X is a control your home using Crestron’s hardware and software for home automation. With TPMC-8X you’ll able to control lighting, climate, A/V etc.

The TPMC-8X will be available at the price $3800.

[via Engadget]