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    Intro to mcsAudrey

    mcsAudrey is a Homeseer plug-in that supports use of 3Com Audrey as a control touchscreen geared to Home Automation applications. The plugin provides access to manipulate Audrey’s assets from both a natural device interface that is available via the Homeseer GUI or web interface and a rich set of methods and properties that can be used with script or other programming tools.

    Each Audrey is characterized as an interface with the following controlable entities
    1. Display Screen
    2. Sleep/Awake
    3. Backlight Power
    4. Top LED
    5. Mail LED
    6. Browser
    7. Sound Byte
    8. Sound Byte Volume
    9. Master Volume
    10. Reserved for Growth

    Each of these is associated with a virtual device. Each virtual device contains controls (GUI) or buttons (Web) that allow interactive control of the corresponding Audrey feature. For example, the Sleep/Awake device presents the user the option of “Put to sleep” or “Awaken” or "Awaken Forever". The device string of this virtual device will contain the status “Awake” or “Asleep” and this string contains an icon that graphically illustrates the status on the web inerterface.

    In addition to access to individual Audrey features, the plugin will maintain the overall state of each Audrey. For example, a change of Sleep/Awake will also automatically change the status of Backlight power since the hardware turns the backlight power off when sleeping. Likewise data pushed to the Display will result in the browser mode to automatically change to reflect the presence of navigation buttons on the browser.

    The plugin also includes the Audrey environment in its management repertoire. Power to Audrey is controlled by an X10 device (Appliance Module) and user proximity to Audrey is sensed by an X10 motion sensor. Power control is used manage situations where Audrey locks-up. Motion control is used to awaken Audrey as well as augment the slideshow presention criteria.

    Most of the ten virtual devices associated with an Audrey attempt to mirror the actual state of Audrey's hardware and firmware. The first device, the display screen, takes on some special functionality including
    1. Route formatted CID information, to ACID
    2. Route CID information for browser display
    3. Display text message on full screen
    4. Speak text message
    5. Play wav file
    6. Push page from an URL
    7. Display slideshow from image files in a directory tree

    Programatic (Script) control of Audrey can be done using the standard capabilities of homeseer such as hs.SetDeviceValueByName “Den Audrey”, TopLEDOn or it can be done via method and property calls to the plugin. Internally, all commands are tagged and queued. The tags can be used to support broadcast-like modes or determine if a command given has actually been executed or is in the queue pending completion of prior commands. This queue persists through Audrey power-cycles. It is implemented in a manner that is totally event-driven with timeout protections. No wait loops exist to hold up other scritps or needlessly consume CPU cycles.

    Scripting Interface:

    <pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">
    VIDEO
    -----
    AUDREY PUSH PAGE Push a web page from homeseer server
    AUDREY PUSH IIS PAGE Push a web page from any server
    AUDREY PUSH FULLSCREEN Push a web page and toggle to full screen
    AUDREY CID Deliver CID to browser
    AUDREY TEXT Deliver a text message to Audrey's full browser screen
    AUDREY SLIDESHOW Start Slideshow

    AUDIO
    -----
    AUDREY SPEAK Perform TTS for Audrey to speak
    AUDREY WAV Send Wav file to audrey to play
    AUDREY WAV TIME Calculate how long it will take to play a wav file
    AUDREY SOUNDS Play one of audrey's predefined sound bites
    AUDREY SOUNDS VOLUME Set sound volume to 0 to 100% for sound bites
    AUDREY VOLUME Set % master full volume

    HARDWARE FEATURES
    -----------------
    AUDREY LED Turn Audrey's LED on, blink, off
    AUDREY MAIL LED Turn Audrey's Mail LED on, blink, off
    AUDREY TOP LED Turn Audrey's Top LED on, blink, off
    AUDREY BACKLIGHT Backlight Turn Audrey's Backlight on, off
    AUDREY TOGGLE BROWSER FULL SCREEN Simulate hitting Audrey's browser button
    AUDREY SET BROWSER FULL SCREEEN Specify browser nav/full screen mode
    AUDREY SLEEP Control Audrey sleep / awake modes including screen saver
    AUDREY REFRESH SLEEP STATUS Requests sleep status from audrey
    AUDREY CYCLE POWER Cycle Power

    COMMAND MANAGEMENT
    ------------------
    AUDREY WAITSECS Delay between commands sent to Audrey
    AUDREY COMMAND BUSY Determine if a specific command has completed execution
    AUDREY RESET QUEUE Remove pending commands from Queue

    ASP INTERFACE
    -------------
    AUDREY WHO SENT Determine which audrey made an ASP request
    AUDREY IP Deliver Audrey's IP based upon her name
    AUDREY IP LOOKUP Deliver Audrey's name based upon her IP

    STATUS
    ------
    AUDREY IS SPEAKING Returns true if audio (speak, wav) is playing
    AUDREY MAILLED STATUS Return the LED state
    AUDREY TOPLED STATUS Return the LED state
    AUDREY BACKLIGHT STATUS Return the Backlight state
    AUDREY SOUNDS VOLUME STATUS Returns % sound byte full volume
    AUDREY VOLUME STATUS Returns % master full volume
    AUDREY SLEEP STATUS Returns true if audrey is awake (not in sleep mode)
    AUDREY PLUGIN DISABLE STATUS Returns true if plugin is disabled from anagement of Audrey interface

    MISC
    ----
    AUDREY EXECUTE Execute any program resident on Audrey (Requires Audrey Server Plugin)
    AUDREY ACID Send CID to ACID on Audrey (Requires Audrey Server Plugin)
    AUDREY SLIDESHOW ASP Support browser request for a slideshow presentation
    AUDREY TEST Execute test / demo sequence to evaluate plugin and Audrey hack implementation
    AUDREY NAMES Return comma separate string of audrey names
    AUDREY IPS Return comma separated string of audrey IP addresses
    AUDREY PLUGIN DISABLE Stop/Start plugin management of Audrey interface

    </pre>
    Access to hardware features of Audrey are achieved through the plugin after some modifications to a stock Audrey are performed. These modifications can be done per the keystroke-by-keystroke instructions contained in the included document or can be achieved by downloading the available Audrey image that contains all the “hacks” already performed.

    Overall the plugin provides a fully-integrated environment for use of Audrey as a homeseer interface.

    [This message was edited by Michael McSharry on Tue, 06 May 2003 at 02:38 AM.]
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