What is BlueBell?
BlueBell is the evolution of one of the last, untapped pieces of technology in your household; the doorbell. Your doorbell is probably the only audible alert system heard throughout your entire house yet it is limited to a single sound and triggered by one physical button. BlueBell seeks to improve upon this antiquated technology by transforming your doorbell into an household audible informational system that requires as little physical intervention as possible. BlueBell takes the traditional doorbell to it's logical extremes by incorporating wifi, bluetooth, and audio to bring you, the homeowner, a limitless notification system.
(in these examples, John and Marsha are the home owners and Eric and Trent are the guests)
- Bluetooth Doorbell
- Personalized Indoor Notification System
- The system will announce a guest by name before they even arrive at the door
- UNDER DEVELOPEMENT: The system will also notify the homeowner via SMS at the same time
- Example: "
Eric and Trent have arrived" - Personalized Outdoor Greeting System
- The system will greet a known guest by name and alert them as to whether whether or not one more more of the homeowners are currently present
- UNDER DEVELOPEMENT: The system will also notify the homeowner via SMS at the same time
- Example 1: "Welcome Eric and Trent. John and Marsha are home and will be with you shortly"
- Example 2: "Welcome Eric. No one is currently home but they have been alerted to your presence
" - Generally Interactive Realtime Vocal Information System (GIRVIS) (ha! can't sue me now!!)
- The Arrival System
- A personalized audible reading of live internet-based information designed to operate when you return to your house
- Example: "Welcome home, John. The current temperature is 88 degrees and mostly cloudly. The forecast for tonight is clear. You have 8 unread emails and 9 facebook notifications. Here are the tops stories in the news...."
- UNDER DEVELOPMENT: The Departure System
- A personalized audible reading of live internet-based information designed to operate as you leave your house
- Example: "Marsha today you have a doctor's appointment at 11:30. Don't forget to pick up your drycleaning before 9pm. There is currently and accident on I-81 northbound at mile marker 100. Today's forecast calls for an 80% chance of rain."
- Remote Controlled Wireless Music System (via MPD)
- Wireless Jukebox
- By utilizing the thousands of MPD clients available (from web browsers to iphone and android apps) your doorbell becomes a household jukebox system that be controlled by any person on your wireless network.
- COMING SOON!! Bluetooth Party Mode
- A dynamically shifting music playlist based on the presence of known individuals. The program will detect who is present at a party and automatically shift the genres of music according to user-defined likes and dislikes. The system will also work in tandem with The Personalized Indoor Notification System to pause a live playlist, announce the arriving party instantly start playing their user-defined 'theme song'.
- COMING SOON Wireless web-accessible CCTV system (via usb webcam)
BlueBell operates by utilizing one of the most commonplace of all wireless protocols; Bluetooth. Bluetooth exists on over 90% of all cell phones and since Bluetooth is designed to work over relatively short distances (30 feet or so) and each bluetooth radio has a unique identifier (it's MAC address) it makes it an ideal candidate for proximity detection.
These unique identifiers are then compared to a list of known people, a 'Rolodex' of MAC addresses if you will, and executes a certain task based on who has arrived and when. The output or 'notification' can take form of a spoken voice, and sent text message, playing of a song, or hundreds of other programmable actions. Basically, if it can be plugged into a wall, then your presence will be able to activate it!
By combining this bluetooth proximity detection with internet access (via wifi) and audio (via text to speech engine or mp3 library), you have real-time access to a world of information that can be delivered to you simply by walking into your house.
How can I get BlueBell in my house?
Bluebell is currently in the development stages and not yet available for distribution. Our goal is to integrate a low-power platform using a lightweight application structure that is both modular and scaleable. We currently have a prototype in operation, but are looking to gauge public interest in this project before moving forward with an alpha release.
By combining this bluetooth proximity detection with internet access (via wifi) and audio (via text to speech engine or mp3 library), you have real-time access to a world of information that can be delivered to you simply by walking into your house.
How can I get BlueBell in my house?
Bluebell is currently in the development stages and not yet available for distribution. Our goal is to integrate a low-power platform using a lightweight application structure that is both modular and scaleable. We currently have a prototype in operation, but are looking to gauge public interest in this project before moving forward with an alpha release.
Until that time, please enjoy this brief video highlighting some of the features BlueBell is currently capable of and the current platform we have chosen to use for the prototype.
[COMING SOON]
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