Use Case Brain Storm

Please add new ideas to this page!

• SpecificIdeasFromEric
• JamieAndEricsDiscussion
• Design

Use Cases

• energy saving
  • turn out lights based on motion
  • set AC to powersave (turn up temperature in summer, down in winter) while everyone is away
• use system to locate lost items
• game (there has to be some game that can take advantage of this system)
• cell phone based control
  • as Chung was describing
  • universal remote
  • away from home (fire, burglar, etc.)
• notifications
  • phone ringing message, new mail, etc. displayed on TV and other devices
• TV can control devices like TVs, speakers, lights
• video camera sends video directly to TV or computer
• base station based control
  • provides cell phone and web based control
• both poll and event (aka, push v. pull) based communication
  • difference between time left on microwave and fire alarm

Relevant Non Functional Aspects

• security
• cost
  • installation
    • communication in a big house will be more difficuilt in a large house - range of wireless, etc.
  • maintanence
  • use
• ease
  • installation
  • maintanence
  • use
    • a big house would need the interfaces to be able to scale (scrolling through 100+ devices would not be fun)
    • form queries to "search" through available devices
      • devices can share metadata:
        • room
        • category (entertainment, security, etc.)
      • use metadata to sort through devices (can order devices in different ways - akin to the different ways songs can be sorted on your iPod)
• extensibility

Available Architectures

• centralized (aka. one base station)
• fault-tolerant centralized (aka. one base station, but backups available)
  • EA: I don't actually know what this means to us.
• distributed (aka. no central base station - all devices can communicate directly with all other devices)

Devices

• TV, stereo, home entertainment system
• refigerator
• computer
• cell phone
• lights
• security cameras
• tub
  • schedule it to fill up the tub with X° water to Y height
• kitchen sink
  • we need to come up with a use case for this - it would be great to say "everything and the kitchen sink"

Communication Possibilities

• 802.11 (wireless)
• Ethernet
• USB
• Bluetooth
• IR
• electric outlets