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Comment by thatguydan | Hacker News Reader

Dan from Ninja here. That's what happens when you try and explain something geeky to a broad audience... but for the techies...

It's a powerful (same chip as beaglebone black) ARM computer with WiFi, BLE and ZigBee radios. Runs ubuntu. Everything open source. Almost all Node.JS.

It uses open source drivers to connect to devices and learns how they operate, building a model. If something is out of place, it notifies you and gives you context aware control. For example if nobody is at home and the heater is on, it will alert the last person to leave and give them the option to turn it off.

Key new tech is positioning with little USB powered dongles placed around your house and Leap-motion style (but simpler, no 3d hands) gestures for controlling lights, temp, etc.

Everything the NinjaBlock did, but all built-in (no more dongles for wifi etc).

Hope that clarifies a bit!

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You actually did a pretty good job with the copy right below the video, "Next generation control of your [home or office] with accurate in-home location data and a gesture control interface.". You should have focused on what it can do now and the vision of what it could become and then spent the second half on the open source aspects of it.

You could have also added a steady cam scene following someone around their home and watching their environment change with them. e.g.

Someone is sitting on the bed reading a book and the nightstand light is on. They get up and move to the door and lighting comes on in the hallway as they walk towards the kitcken lights turn on behind them until they get to the kitchen and get a snack. Then reserve the process until they get back to the bedroom.

This kind of stuff looks like the perfect application for Prolog. There are a lot of predicates to satisfy when determining when a nightlight should be turned on or the overhead light or whether to turn on music in the living room or not.

Yay, home automation in prolog. Answers each and every request with "No.". Can't wait ;)

If I remember the runtime efficiency of prolog correctly, you might just have to wait :)

Try "Yes, maybe more." ;).

Can I run it without it having a connection to your servers?

This is pretty much the only important question

It's very important, and the first one I'd be asking if I wasn't a Ninja.

Right now, no. But it's something everyone wants. The main thing standing in the way at the moment is that the rules engine runs in only the cloud, but we will make it run locally as well. It's just a timing/effort thing.

(and open-source will mean others can work towards it too)

Dan. Would it be possible for you explain the gesture control more? I am confused as to where the sensor is located and what is the range and resolution of the gesture control.

Is the service it runs open source so we can run it completely in our home?

Yes one of goals is to open source the entire platform.

What's the hold up?

I don't work for ninja blocks, but I'm familiar with this exact problem. It's not trivial to get the licensing right so that you maximize your economic potential, but still leave the option open for people to host their own setup.

They want to get rich and give the world maximal freedom. That's a hard problem.

I noticed XBMC listed, can I control it via gestures?

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