I have a shared google account for everyone in the house
All of the smartphones and ipads use apps like gtasks to keep in sync
The smartphone is always available in a pocket and acts as a quick warehouse remote inventory control
While some of the supermarkets are bringing out their own specific apps for shopping lists and prices, using google tasks and similar services for this seems a better fit.
Next on the wanted list:
A google tasks/similar API client that reads all of your tasks, searches google products, and fills in pictures, prices, and other information behind the scenes.
It's been a while since the Roomba was brought on to the market, and the price point for a Roomba 530 is between $250-$300 - not to mention numerous competitors are now in the market place.
That tips it over the threshold for me, so I'm certainly getting one. Plus, this video kind of implies I can have my own 'ferret vs robot' gladiatorial competitions.
What's really quite interesting to me is that everyone I know seems to have an XBMC setup, and that zwave home automation gear is specifically target at the Australian market.
Add in LinuxMCE, the fact that everyone has an ipad, iphone or android phone; sites like IFTTT and the open source equivalents exist, people making smart devices like the Nest, and IPv6 meaning everything in the universe can have an IP address if it wants, things start to get interesting.
Right now I can:
Use IFTTT to syndicate this blog post to twitter, facebook by adding certain labels.
Use IFTTT to SMS/notify me ("Ensure the dog is wearing its rug") when the temperature will go below 10 degrees C, or the opposite ("You have a hot dog, it's 35 degrees C!")
Use my galaxy s2 to add torrents to my xbmc server, while Christina watches a seperate program on the iPad.
Pay nothing on my power bill for any of this, given the solar power being generated
The roomba will add self-cleaning to my house to some degree - only a 10-20 minute saving per weekend, but it's about the same as paying $5.77 per time I don't have to vacuum.
My lawn mower is electric, which means it performs terribly in the winter wet conditions, but I've yet to have to fight against it to make it start, and it's got trivial running costs (again, solar power).
Pretty soon, I could
Add enough motion sensors and lighting to have climate and ambient light follow me around the house.
Add in dimmers for side lamps fairly cheaply ($99 is alright, but it could be better!), so when I stop moving around and settle in to watch TV the lighting fades to nothing.
Add security sensors on the doors/windows; plus alerts to my smartphone if I leave the house and forget to close one properly.
In winter, switch on the heater at sunrise until 9am.
Right now the biggest things I think stopping this from taking off are the lack of "starter kits". For instance, a USB stick, LinuxMCE and a few light dimmer switches would be the perfect $200 package to get you started on this stuff, but no one tends to sell that in one kit.
So when I'm not looking for the ghost in the machine, I seem to be spending a fair amount of my time pining for a Roomba.
It isn't even because I have a low-mess problem that obviously needs robotification (I mean, who doesn't have one of those), but because the damned thing comes with an open interface.
With a little bit of expense, I could remote control my Roomba with nothing more than a laptop, really long serial cable, and a whole bunch of Python.
The biggest obstacles I seem to have is only the worst website in the world and simply not having much of a decent idea for exactly what I would use my roomba for...
So lets hear it: 3 best applications for a robot slave you can come up with.
I certainly know what I want for my birthday. It's a game-controller keyboard. My wrists constantly hurt from RSI like symptoms (which is definately beginning to scare me), and being able to use a game-controller like keyboard... *whistles*. So, readers, feel free to start the buying.
