A HOME THEATER NETWORK consists of HOME automation, home THEATER, and home NETWORK systems. AutoHTN is a Google Android program used to control a person’s home theater network. The goal of AutoHTN is to automate and control lighting, security sensors, cameras, electrical outlets, thermostats, streaming video from a HTPC, window blinds, and receivers.

Why Android Phones Will Finally Make Home Automation Mainstream

Even though home automation has been around for a while, most of the systems are still located in multi-million dollar homes. Cheaper home automation systems, such as those that use the X10 protocol, have also been around for a while. So why don't we all have home automation systems to control our lighting and AC?

The answer is that we lacked a device that would make home automation practical and useful. An internet enabled phone capable of running home automation software is what is missing, and is why we at HomeTheaterNetwork.com were grateful to hear Google announce its Android project. For those who haven’t heard of Android, Android is an open source operating systems designed specifically for mobile phones.

An Android phone will open up new applications and make home automation useful to the average person. For example, AutoHTN lets a person control their home lighting, AC, motion detectors, web camera, A/V receivers, and more. The average person in a three bedroom house or apartment may not find AutoHTN too useful if it wasn't on an internet capable mobile device. Why try to find a remote to turn a light switch on when you can get up and turn it on?

However, AutoHTN on an Android phone has more applications. Here are a few examples of what AutoHTN can do:

1. If you're at work, you can use the motion detector alert to notify you when your kids get home from school. You can even switch to the house web cam to see them.
2. You can easily turn on your front porch light if you're coming home late and forgot to turn it on earlier.
3. Save on energy costs by keeping the AC at a higher temperature when you're at work, and lowering the AC temperature before you commute home.
4. If you're on vacation, you can turn on lights to make it look like you're home. You could also use your house's web cams to make sure the house is safe.
5. To increase safety, use the “All On” button to turn on all the lights in a house when you come home.
6. Use the receiver control button to control what video/audio output goes to a HTPC capture card. Then switch to HTN video to watch a show.
7. Stream the local baseball game, CNBC stock news, or any other show via HTN video. This is similar to what Slingbox can do.
8. If an intruder broke into your house while you’re gone, the motion detector will send an alert and you can see the intruder through the web cams. You can now scare him away by flashing the lights or blasting some ear-throbbing music by turning the receiver on.
9. Use the automated outlets to turn on/off fans, coffee makers, or other appliances.
10. Use the web cams to make sure your pets are safe and behaving themselves.

The ten examples above wouldn't be as useful without internet access or mobile device access. Sure it may be useful to someone with 20 bedrooms, but that's only because they would have to walk upstairs to see what’s going on in a corner bedroom. For the average person, the distance factor doesn't come into play until they are away from home. Couple in the fact that most of the world’s population has mobile phones along with the distance factor, and it is easy to see why Android phones will finally bring home automation to the mainstream.

How AutoHTN works

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AutoHTN uses the xPL automation protocol to provide status data and commands to light switches, motion sensors, window blinds, thermostats, and electrical outlets. AutoHTN sends commands through the internet to a user’s router, which directs the commands to a PC with an open source xPL program called xPLHal installed. xPLHal then sends the commands to the particular light switch or motion sensor, and provides feedback.

xPL works with multiple automation protocols such as Z-wave, UPB, and X10. The multiple protocol support is the main reason why we decided to work with xPL as it makes AutoHTN modular enough to handle multiple technologies.

Another open source project AutoHTN uses is VideoLan. Streaming video through the internet is possible with VideoLan, and it can be setup to stream to an Android phone.

See the following links for detailed instructions on how to get AutoHTN configured to work with your home theater network:

• AutoHTN’s Main Menu
• Lights
• Security sensors
• Cameras
• AC/Heat thermostat
• HTPC streaming video
• Electrical outlets
• Window blinds
• Receivers
• Router and network settings
• xPL setup on a HTPC (or regular PC)
• Limitations and To-Do list
• AutoHTN Forum (NEW)