| MadSci Network: Computer Science |
Reply:
> Controlling other electrical devices through my computer
> I wish to control the electrical devices in my house through my PC.
> I would like to know the requirements for the same if it can be done.
> Kindly answer at your earliest at the email address given above.
There are a couple of ways you might try to do this. You can try to work something out yourself or using a standard. There is an exciting new standard that is getting a lot of attention called the IEEE 1394 high-speed Serial Bus (or "FireWire"). This bus operates at up to 400 Mb/s, plenty fast enough to do video and audio transmission. There are several new products which use this standard, such as a Sony videoconferencing camera.
You can find more information at the IEEE website, although the recent article in Spectrum magazine is available only to subscribers.
Alternatively, you could work something out yourself, using your computer's serial port, or a specialized card. It is hard to give more detailed requirements, since they would depend on the devices you wished to control, the data rates you needed, whether you needed other specialized bus services, and so forth.
The goal of IEEE-1394 is to integrate many household electrical appliances onto the bus: television, camcorder, VCR, and so on. This technology was driven by the electrical appliance industry, so I think we will see it catch on rapidly.
I hope that gave you some ideas!
-Greg Billock