Building a smart home is hard. First you have to install all the hardware then you have to figure out a platform for controlling lights, sensors, and the like. Thankfully the Owl Platform has got your back.
The platform is aimed at hackers who want to experiment with various sensor arrays around their premises. It includes a base station and a number of sensors – door open/close, water level, temperature, etc. – that last for about 10 years and connect wirelessly to the base station and Owl Platform service. They are looking for $50,000 to help build a real base station, (they’ve been using Raspberry Pis so far) and to finalize their open source server software. The system will send email and text alerts when various sensors hit their maximums or minimums or when the open/close sensors are activated.
For a pledge of $150 you can get a basic sensor package including a water sensor and open/close sensor. The sensors, called Pips, are ready to ship and they will build the final Owl hardware by July 2014. I’ve played with an early edition and was impressed with the size of the Pips and the ease of setup. While this probably isn’t for the casual user, I could see this as being valuable to a homeowner with a more DIY bent. Just as the body is getting all sorts of quantified self hardware, perhaps this is the start of the quantified home?
