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Hmmm... Bluetooth might be a good one, have a bluetooth dongle in each room that syncs to your phone.. bluetooth has a very short range.

Another idea if your the only one in the home you could use a laser tripwire at the entrance of each room (ir light rather than a laser)

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, sorry for the late reply. College has a way of occupying my time.

I'll work on a test rig, I tried it in virtual box which seeing as its meant to work with all this hardware was a really stupid idea.
I was thinking to use Cat 6-7

My original idea for the tvs was to embed them into the wall. basically rip out all the dry wall run my lines from scratch and install the tvs within...
But instead I'm thinking it'd be smarter to just use wall brackets and mount them, I've seen these new Asus eee boxes that I'm thinking would work great as a backend for the tvs.
I have been combing through the wiki although there is one thing I have been having trouble figuring out.

How does the software turn the tvs on? My assumption would be either an ir dongle or via RS232, that being the case would any tv that supports RS232 work? It dosn't have to work out of box, I can configure things in linux no problem. (or if I have problems I don't mind staying up all night to fix the, lol)

One thing I'd really like to do is try and get a quote for what all this is going to cost me so I know what I'm really getting into.
TV's will be one of the most expensive aspects and I'd like to have touch screens in some hall ways and such, although IF I could wall mount an ipad that'd work great if supported, even more so if it could play back video.... I'm guessing the ipad couldn't do the video but I'm sure I could find a budget tablet to get the job done

Hi there, my name is Harold.

I am currently in the process of buying my first home, I'm a computer consultant currently attending college for IT Security.
I've always loved working with linux, its nothing new to me but home automation is not something I've had the money or time to mess around with.

I plan to buy a home in the next few months and work on it for the next two years or so getting it ready so when I'm done in college I can move in to my 'dream' home.
I intend to implement LinuxMCE heavily but seem to be a bit lost in figuring costs and what order I should be doing things in to get this all completed.

I will be the only one living in the home and thus the only user.
The house has five rooms and the servers and such will either go into a conditioned closet or in a finished basement. I intend to run double drops of Cat5e or Cat6-7 to each room/area I intend to setup. I also plan to install in ceiling speakers throughout the home.

I would like to try and keep it cost efficient while at the same time functional.
I do not intend to have cable tv, I would like to use hulu desktop and stream videos off a NAS.
I will be using voip vs a phone line setup and wish to install security to the fullest extent vs paying a security company.

Here are the features I intend to use:

Security
Telecom - voip/astrisk
Automaton - follow me /etc
Media - video/rev3/hulu/dvd
Lighting

I don't know if I'd bother with climate but hell at this point why not, in reality I'm looking to utilize nearly every feature I can.


I would like to use ip cameras, installing a camera into every room as well as 4-7 angles of the outside of the home.
I have a nokia N810 and an Android/Moto Droid, I'm willing to buy an orbiter pad.

I'm just trying to figure out what should be installed first, what monitors to use, etc.
I intend to install a monitor into every room and some hallways of the house that i could transfer video to, or pull up any security camera.

Security and Media are the two major features I want to implement.
If you can be of any help that would be great, and I'll be sure to get a floor plan of the home asap.
I'm still talking with the realtor.