Welcome to Open Remote, your Open Source community for Automation. Here we give you an overview of what we do and what we are about.
Mission
To provide high-end building integration software and hardware for the masses and without vendor lock-in.
The Building Operating System Standard (Boss)
The Boss is our offering. The Boss is made of several parts, some software, sometimes hardware, each part is a product being developped at OR in a open source fashion. Here is a walkthrough of the different products and projects. We believe the time is ripe for the emergence of an open source standard for automation.
Boss: Panel Software
Current focus is on the generation of user interfaces on touch surfaces. If you are a professional installer you are familiar with such high end offers from Crestron or AMX. At OR we focus on the iPhone and off the shelf touch-panels. The Boss comes with a visual drag-and-drop UI composer we allow you to assemble custom interfaces for touch remotes. This offers an agnostic replacement to more expensive vendor-locked solutions.
Boss: Controller Software
When you press a button on the panel it emits an event to the controller. The controller has the smarts to map these commands to whatever runtime is connecting to the physical devices. For example it can be an infrared device like a DVR or a TV or a X10 device like a light switch. Or really any IP enabled device. We like IP enabled devices because we don't have to build a physical connection to the device besides some IP connectivity (wifi, ethernet). The controller is modular and extensible. It allows for simple integration of legacy protocols. We don't care what physical hardware you use in your setup all we care about is reaching it via IP and mapping its icons to an iphone.
Boss: Integration Software
The Boss supports any runtime via integration. We currently support X10 and IR and plan on having support KNX, Insteon. The list is however, and by definition, open ended, let us know what you want supported and let's figure out a way to get it integrated. OR software is portable and runtime agnostic it allows an integrator to pick best of breed solutions for a particular situation without having to relearn tools or software.
Open Remote Box (ORB): Hardware
Unfortunately, in the real world, we cannot live on software alone, we need hardware to run it. We write the majority of our software in java so you can run it anywhere there is support for Java runtime. However we do specify a reference implementation. We focus on low-cost hardware like the ALIX board or the Asus family to deliver commodity controller. You can buy your own, anywhere in the world and refurbish it as a ORB. We make the Linux and native pieces available under open source licenses.
Something for everyone
Whether you are a DIY aficionado or a high-end installer, OR has something for you. We want to make Boss the standard for high-end and hobbyist integration alike. We integrate with a variety of protocols out of the box and we allow any integrator to write plug-ins. We also bring innovative tools that simplify the work of an installer and the relationship with the client. Whether you tinker with automation or you make your living at it we want to hear from you and we want your input. If you are an installer that can program integration for protocols, we definitely want to hear from you.
Open Standards in a Closed World
The Automation market is mostly a market of closed protocols and stacks. At Open Remote we take an open approach to automation. Our panel technology integrates with your favorite protocol and runtime hardware.
We believe the automation industry will change for the better with the emergence of a Building Operating System Standard runtime for vendors to integrate. There is no sense in knowing about the multiple languages, multiple protocols and thousand remotes around your house or commercial building.
Today an installer specializes in a vertical stack of end-to-end products and a user makes choices about the products. But what if you could open up the front end and support a unified panel and visual programming model so you can pick and choose hardware products in a open fashion. That is what the Boss is about. On the one hand you leverage the existing investment in hardware you have made by opening it up to a new and slick panel technology. On the other, once you have built standard panel technology you can evolve the existing hardware without disrupting the user interface. Think about it, open standards create markets.
If you are an installer or a builder, what if you could build affordable luxury. We achieve this not just by marketing low-cost hardware but by offering open integration to any hardware, including low and high cost (x10/KNX for example).
The Automation of today is similar to the mainframe models of yesteryear, a closed world of proprietary vendor lock-in. Automation needs the equivalent of its PC revolution, which was signified by the advent of low-cost, off the shelf, commodity parts that integrate in one common operating system. We call this the "Building Operating System Standard" (Boss). We believe an operating system for buildings must be free, as in free software and in free beer in order to succeed in todays marketplace and unify a fragmented industry.
Join us and help us build the future of the Digital home.