Home automation is not something new, people have been dreaming of this for decades and up until a few years ago we mostly saw it in science fiction movies.
Although turning a light on or off with an app or with voice commands is really nice, this isn't really home automation, it's just another way of controlling that light.
In my opinion, you achieved home automation when all of your devices communicate with each other in order to find out what you need and do it for you, without instructing them to do so. But how can a Samsung smartwatch communicate with your Philips TV and tell it that you fell asleep and it should turn off? Or how can you tell your Philips lights to flash red lights in your home when your server crashed in production? These are just a few examples, but the idea is to combine different services and make them work in a way that is productive for us.
In this workshop, I'm going to show you how we can use Home Assistant to connect different services, as well as creating our own integrations with .NET in the form of serverless code(Azure Functions/ AWS Lambda).
Agenda
1. We'll install a demo version of Home Assistant using Docker. This means that you'll get to simulate a smart home by adding any appliance you want, from light bulbs to air conditioners, motion sensors, surveillance cameras, etc.
For some examples, check this out: https://demo.home-assistant.io/#/lovelace/0
2. I'll give you a quick overview of Home Assistant where you'll learn its pros and cons.
3. We'll create some automations, depending on what ideas you have. Maybe you want to turn on the AC when you leave the office, or you want to close the curtains when you're watching TV...I'll actually let you suggest some ideas so go wild, Home Assistant allows you to do practically anything
4. This one depends on your preference, we'll either develop an Alexa skill and connect it with Home Assistant, or we'll play with the .NET API of Home Assistant.
What you'll learn by the end of the workshop:
- you'll know how to start creating your own smart home by having a better overview on what products are available, how you can integrate them and how to decide what better suited for you
- you'll learn to create powerful automations
- you'll learn to create skills for Amazon Alexa
- Laptop with Windows 10/Mac/Linux(we need it to run .NET Core)
- Amazon account
- We'll use a service to mock Alexa/Google voice commands but if you have a device that will be even better
