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Automated Dorm Room Causes a School Inquiry
First time accepted submitter ElectronicHouseGrant writes "Freshman Derek Low rigged up his Berkeley dorm room with something he calls B.R.A.D., which is short for 'Berkeley Ridiculously Automated Dorm.' The room includes automated lighting, drapes, music, motion detection, and more. He can control everything through voice recognition, but a wireless remote, his iPhone and his iPad are also in on the control party. Derek started the install on February 4 and finished just a few days ago."
Maybe I missed something, but since the headline said school inquiry, shouldn't there be some info about that either in the blurb or the article it's linking to?
http://people.csail.mit.edu/mhcoen/Globe/Globe.html
Eric Smalley
During romantic mode.
Article appears to be slasdotted..and sparse per prior posts. Any better links?
Oh that's right.. unlike the submitter or the eds.. I can use google.
http://www.livescience.com/20048-ridiculously-automated-dorm-room.html
http://www.berkeleyside.com/2012/05/01/cal-student-creates-a-ridiculously-automated-dorm/
http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-video-berkeleys-most-ridiculously-automated-dorm-room-ever-20120501,0,2225746.story
Silence is a state of mime.
In my dorm here in Italy it's illegal (as for in Dorm rules) just to put a chair from the kitchen in your room.
And anything like that would not have passed the montlhy control check.
"come up and see my BRAD" doesn't work for me!
I got to the chocolate box before you, that's why the hard ones have teeth marks.
Description of what was done at http://lab.dereklow.co/brad/
$sig not found
The ALS Residence Initiative already built a paradigm-shift in skilled nursing care in Chelsea, MA. The Residence was built as part of the Leonard Florence Center for Living as a place for ALS/MS patients with severe disability to live with maximum independence and with the highest quality nursing care available.
The Residence was designed by my friend Steve Saling with his own long-term care requirements in mind. The building is stuffed with automation equipment from PEAC which enables people, who can only use their eyes to control a computer, to open doors, operate lights, call an elevator, or summon assistance (among other operations). The Residence is the first of its kind, and the ALSRI is committed to building these across the USA. The second facility is to be built near Atlanta, GA.
I have something in common with Stephen Hawking...
I misread "inquiry" as "injury." Dang.
The only real issue I would have with what he did is the part where he fiddled with the switch in the wall. He does not own the building, and I doubt he's a certified electrician. If something electrical went wrong in his room, the insurance people would have a field day with that, whether his wiring caused the issue or not. And if the electrical problem caused injuries, many lawyers would become involved. If I were the school, I'd inquire over that too.
Other than that, it's a cool room...although a bit small for partying :)
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
That just looks like a hodgepodge of cheap consumer crap he picked up at Home Depot and literally taped to the walls and ceiling of the dorm room. He even runs free apps on his Apple products to control that stuff.
Where's the fit and finish of quality hackery? Practically any geek with a spare couple of weekends could throw this together.
No sig for you. YOU GET NO SIG!
always appear to be multiple occupants? I've always found that a bit weird.
It is to condition Americans to despise a) sharing and b) small living quarters, yielding a steady supply of cooperation- and organization-averse individualists who seek sprawl and thus fuel the real estate, automobile, & energy industries.
I was thinking similar. I was messing with X10 a decade ago, and it wasn't terribly new then. Very limiting. I was looking at really doing up the house with a project like this, but, over a wider area than a dorm, and I eventually want more intelligently controlled devices (RGB lights, I want to be able to go from soft white, to warm white, or rave/strobe mode)
In any case... X10 is cool and all, but, so basically all I need to do to really fuck with him is inject X10 from anywhere in his building...a dorm. ROTFL good luck kid. I bet he is going to find his shit going crazy at 4 am pretty soon.
I don't have those worries but...in a place as humorously "hostile" as a dorm where any of hundreds of people could just decide to mess with you, and watch the results! That is just asking for it. X10 doesn't have the first bit of message authentication or authorisation.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
just in time for the semester to end and to take it all down. Sadly, that emergency party never did arrive.
Lethality of electric shock depends on way, way too many factors to make blanket statements such as above. For example, according to wikipedia, for a large contact area and dry skin, 5% of the population has a hand-to-hand impedance of 1,200 Ohms. 110/1200 ~ 100 mA, which is significantly above the 60 mA threshold for a fatal shock to the heart. 50% of the population are just about at the threshold. Also, broken skin, sweaty skin, duration of contact, etc. are all factors. This is also why you should never break the ground pin off of an electrical plug. Case in point: a Cleveland State prof. died in 2006 after touching a lamp with a broken-off ground pin.