How to Control Christmas Lights Over the Internet
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I received an email a few weeks ago, telling me about a very cool interactive website. I have the site owner on the phone with me, so he can tell us more about how we can interact with his holiday decorations.
By going to Komar.org, you can control the various decorations around their home and yard.
First, you put a bunch out and folks drive by to look at them. Then you put pictures on the Internet and people surf to look at static images. Then you add a webcam to provide a real-time view. And finally, you then integrate that with web_control to not only allow web surfers to pan/zoom the webcam, but also turn the lights on and off!
Since the lights are all controlled via X-10, it’s not difficult to integrate a web interface that takes inputs from the user, sends X-10 commands to toggle the lights, and then update the webcam to show the results.There is a rate-limiter at the web server that throttles the requests since X10 is capable of at most one update/second. I’d also add that the system is fully automatic and can (and has) started itself up and shut down by itself when I have been out of town. There are dozens of outlets (with X10 SR227 Super Sockets) and Appliance & Lamp Modules which are all in eight zones.
I used a Sony F828 and (borrowed) Canon DSLR (10D and 5D) in 2004 and 2005. For 2006, I used a Canon Rebel XTi with 17-85IS lens. For 2007, I used a Canon 40D with the 17-85IS, 10-22, and 50/1.4 lens. I just put the camera on top of a ladder across the street at dusk, use about 1/2 second exposure at around F4.0 with ISO 100. There’s about a 5-10 minute window when the light is “just right” … also helpful is if there is some clouds that evening.
The reason Alek is doing all of this is for a reason other than just loving Christmas lights. Both of his children have Celiac Disease. He is trying to raise money for the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. So far, they have raised just over $20,000.00 for this wonderful cause. So stop by, play with the lights, and consider making a donation to the University.
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39 Comments
KingKurteous
December 27th, 2007
at 6:26pm
cool
HEarl114
December 27th, 2007
at 6:33pm
w00t! The only time I have ever been happy to have coeliac disease!!!
dotcomboy11
December 27th, 2007
at 6:39pm
wicked
and the 3rd comment
dotcomboy11
internetnut
December 27th, 2007
at 6:41pm
I think that this man is a really thoughful person for doing this.
CagedSongBird
December 27th, 2007
at 7:23pm
That is fantastic!
Sending love & smiles from afar!
(((Hugs))) to you & yours…
Paula
rockyfork
December 27th, 2007
at 7:24pm
What happened to audio??? maby its on my end
Mikel4321
December 27th, 2007
at 7:55pm
Christmas ended days ago chris lol.
sportsfan89b
December 28th, 2007
at 12:05am
This vid was MADE on the 21st
pspaddict01
December 28th, 2007
at 4:14am
wow
Condoulo
December 28th, 2007
at 4:16am
I remember hearing of this site last year, and Watch Grass Grow. I read about the cause and everything. Wish I could have found is this year before Christmas. I should bookmark this.
bcrichguitar16
December 28th, 2007
at 4:32am
no it didnt idiot it says december 21 on his video
Czar
December 28th, 2007
at 5:47am
Wow thats really cool. I’ve never seen this kinda setup used to raise money for research. Donate ppl! :P
hakki123hakki
December 28th, 2007
at 7:19am
have u been on vacation chris?
sleepylazy2006
December 28th, 2007
at 9:16am
I thought Youtube only let you upload 10 minute videos how did you upload one for longer than 10???
chavodel6
December 28th, 2007
at 10:16am
he is cool
WillThePlank
December 28th, 2007
at 10:57am
what u gotta do is slide the volume up on the youtube video box…its defalts to mute even if it is slided fully up so just slide it down and up again
Windows Vista Torrent
December 28th, 2007
at 11:09am
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funnyent
December 28th, 2007
at 12:43pm
he has a director account, so they let him, go to account settings and you can change your account to director
Left Of Center
December 28th, 2007
at 1:39pm
Chris Pirillo »How to Control Christmas Lights Over the InternetPosted 3 hours ago
alek
December 28th, 2007
at 2:55pm
Thanks for the shout-out Chris and it was fun doing the interview with ‘ya.
Happy New Year to you, your family, and Blog Readers,
alek (Clark Grizwold wanna-be)
Y2J
December 28th, 2007
at 5:09pm
Its amazing how technology is becoming more and more accessible and how people are able to get components such as the above more and more cheaply. I hear people going on sometimes about how the technology used is going to die out and we will go back to old fashioned ways of doing things but I think that that is not the case and the world itself is now becoming more technologically advanced day by day.
Glitch
December 28th, 2007
at 5:44pm
This is a pretty cool idea. I bet the electric bill from this is a lot but hopefully it help raise money for research.
Sodzo
December 28th, 2007
at 8:30pm
That is a very interesting setup! There is a house in Ohio that control the lights with whatever music plays on the radio! I think it would be cool to hook up a media player along with X-10 so people can remotely control the music that is playing so it also goes with the lights! What do you think chris?
DOH!
December 28th, 2007
at 8:37pm
This is really interesting, i want to try doing something like this. Great Job. NEED to start learning HTML. =>
skyler814
December 28th, 2007
at 9:34pm
hey thats preety cool im going have to cheek that out if its still open
Swifty
December 28th, 2007
at 10:28pm
oh my that is awesome. Well its too late for it now but next year it seems like its ganna be easy lol. Thanks for posting this cause its helpful.
youngwidow2007
December 29th, 2007
at 12:50am
i wonder what this guy is going to be like when he turns 60
idkdude85
December 29th, 2007
at 5:03am
he rules
stargater94
December 29th, 2007
at 5:51am
but thats a paid account….
hulio40
December 29th, 2007
at 11:45am
its not and u can upload up to 100mb of videos not necessarily 10 minutes long
idiotonuni
December 29th, 2007
at 11:45am
no its not a paid account
Zerocool818
December 29th, 2007
at 2:20pm
Whats the website for it??
oliver2341
December 29th, 2007
at 3:57pm
it aint paid… u can upload up to 100 MB and i had a video for like 18 mins.. so u can upload more.
IT Professionals
December 29th, 2007
at 7:53pm
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DnTVideos
December 29th, 2007
at 10:33pm
Cool. You should let us control your LED lights.
Mixer
December 30th, 2007
at 7:38am
That is so cool. I would have never thought that would be possible to do.
Traylorness
December 30th, 2007
at 7:54am
watch bum sighting murder (Amateur Filmz) it will change ur life
animation815
December 30th, 2007
at 8:24pm
that is some amazing technology he has there and it’s for a great cause. i hope he keeps it going for years to come.
alek
December 31st, 2007
at 12:15pm
Thanks for the compliments and glad you guys enjoy it. Yes, I plan to do it again next year … with a warmup at Halloween - http://www.komar.org/cgi-bin/halloween_webcam
P.S. As noted on the video, electric bill is about $100 … for the month!