This is the follow up post to my first post on home automation where I had just gotten a delivery with a few home automation devices. I ordered these just to play around with and see what you can do. I figured I'll share a few of the insights I've gained so far.
Its quite bad. However, note that z-wave is not "open" in that sense. Normally you would order a development kit from Sigma designs (they are the ones who created Z-Wave) and with it I'm guessing you get alot of tools and documentation. What I did instead was to use a library called openzwave so I was on my own. Openzwave is pretty mature but it did have some bugs that got me into trouble to start out with (deadlocks and globalization issues). I also found a application based on that same library that one could use to configure the system and play around with triggers, scenes and so on zVirtualScenes. Unfortunalty, that app was based on a old version of the lib so I had to get the source and update to a newer version. So I spent alot of time just getting things running smoothly but after this I was able to react to events from the different sensors, which was the goal.
A dream dev experience would be one where you would use a tool just to add stuff to the network and then you could just start scripting against events. I suspect some sort of rule engine would be nice to declarivly be able to create triggers such as "when frontdoor opens and it's dark outside then turn on window lamp". If we had this it could really boost invovation.
Most companies (both hardware and software) are targeting homes and as such most (all?) devices and services are geard towards building smarthomes. Since this market is quite saturated perhaps one should look for oppertunities in more niched applications of these technologies. Motions sensors for example, they detect presence in a room or area. That information can be used to build a service that show if meeting rooms are in use or not (or toilets :) ). You could integrate presence into applications, like interactive billboards/ads. A steady stream of new devices will generate even more possibilities.
Most services that are offered today lock you into a single provider. If you buy a SmartThings hub and use their service then all data accomulated is handled/stored by them. Will you be able to download it? Move it to a different provider? Probably not. So when a new service comes along with a better iOS app or with a new killer feature you have to make a choice. Use the inferior service or ditch your entire setup (triggers, scenes) and history data. In my opinion this type of lock-in is bad for invovation but of course good if you are the service provider.
I'm done with this for now but I get a feeling that I will find a use cases for these devices real soon.