Guy Hacked His House To Have Its Own Twitter Feed
Tom Coates, a former Yahoo employee and current co-founder and principal at Internet-of-things stealth startup Product Club, hacked his house in San Francisco so he could remotely monitor it via Twitter, Rachel Metz of MIT Technology Review reports.
The reason why a house would need its own Twitter feed may be hard to grasp at first, but it represents a growing trend in Internet-connected devices.
The Twitter account, House of Coates, tweets things like, "Someone just activated the Sitting Room Sensor so I'm pretty sure someone's at home," or, "I just turned on the downstairs lights. It was getting a bit dark." Coates used a variety of devices and tools to accomplish this. Belkin's WeMo switches let Coates control the lights in his living room, office, and bedroom from his iPhone. The WeMo motion sensor can tell if someone enters the room, while the Twine device keeps tabs on the temperature and his ficus tree's moisture level.