Feel free to tell me if this is in the wrong place or redundant, but I wanted to start a Thread to discuss the Ubi device and the integration points with SmartThings. (ref: TheUbi.com)
I believe Ubi management already has a partnership with SmartThings. If SmartThings can post a status here, that would be terrific too.
Hey there!
This is Leor from Team Ubi. We definitely do. We’re hoping to start the integration with SmartThings in the coming weeks. We’d love to hear what commands SmartThings backers would like to have implemented in the Ubi (these will later be customizable).
Curious to hear your thoughts,
Leor
Great to hear from you, Leor!
Each “Thing” generally either provides information to the hub & cloud (open/closed, temperature, etc.) and/or reacts to a command (power on, power off, dim, siren on, etc.).
So I’m thinking an Ubi should:
Act like a sensor Thing (i.e., provide information to the Smart Hub & Cloud, using it's available sensors such as temperature, ambient light, noise level). In fact, an Ubi should be able to emulate many types of Things, as it could be an intermediary for devices that use IP or other communication protocols than Zigbee or Z-Wave.
Act like an action Thing (i.e., respond to commands from the Smart Hub such as "announce temperature").
Add voice and speech to it's "Thing" nature: i.e., it is a "voice command sensor Thing" and a "speech action Thing".
Use some sort of "intelligent integration" with the Smart Hub & Cloud, such that it locally translates voice commands using typical Thing object names: i.e.., "What is the temperature of Fridge?", where Fridge is the Object Name I have assigned to a standard SmartThing multi-sensor placed in my ... fridge, of course.
I think most of the above is obvious, though there are many ways to implement each point … especially #4.
I agree with the Puppy. It would also be nice if Rosie (yes, I’ve already named my Ubi) could announce without being prompted. “Mom’s Home” when the sensor I’ve put in the car arrives. “somebody just opened the gate”. Also macros like “Rosie, perimeter scan” where all contact sensors, etc, whatever I have defined, are checked.
FYI: The forum system here seems to have deleted my formatting of the bullet points I wrote; so I’ll repost using manual numbering, for the heck of it:
Great to hear from you, Leor!
Each “Thing” generally either provides information to the hub & cloud (open/closed, temperature, etc.) and/or reacts to a command (power on, power off, dim, siren on, etc.).
So I’m thinking an Ubi should:
1. Act like a sensor Thing (i.e., provide information to the Smart Hub & Cloud, using it’s available sensors such as temperature, ambient light, noise level). In fact, an Ubi should be able to emulate many types of Things, as it could be an intermediary for devices that use IP or other communication protocols than Zigbee or Z-Wave.
2. Act like an action Thing (i.e., respond to commands from the Smart Hub such as “announce temperature”).
3. Add voice and speech to it’s “Thing” nature: i.e., it is a “voice command sensor Thing” and a “speech action Thing”.
4. Use some sort of “intelligent integration” with the Smart Hub & Cloud, such that it locally translates voice commands using typical Thing object names: i.e.., “What is the temperature of Fridge?”, where Fridge is the Object Name I have assigned to a standard SmartThing multi-sensor placed in my … fridge, of course.
I think most of the above is obvious, though there are many ways to implement each point … especially #4.
I’ve been thinking about ordering some Ubis to go along with my SmartThings, and I’ve thought of a few things I would use them for. First, the two obvious pathways would either take information from SmartThings straight to Ubi or use Ubi to perform actions like SmartApps:
(1) Answer questions based on information from sensors, e.g. is my wife home? (based on her key fob SmartThing) or, Is the basement door open? (the cat keeps opening it just to annoy me!) Hopefully also provide information without asking if I deem it important enough, as mentioned by others.
(2) Perform actions analogous to SmartApps. Turn on/off lights, lock the deadbolt, etc.
Then I’d like to be able to use features of both in a slightly more complex way:
(3) Provide input to SmartThings based on Ubi sensors. e.g. humidity level triggers outlet that powers the humidifier/dehumidifer, etc.
(4) Music or sound playback or Ubi lights when events happen, e.g. when I unlock the door and nobody else is home, it plays my music, OR I could use it as a de facto doorbell based off of a button I install by my front door. One great advantage here is that I could also set it to silent mode when someone is asleep, so that the Ubis (or only a certain Ubi) would just light up.
And then of course being able to customize these further. For example, glowing red on the bedroom Ubi if it’s nighttime, everyone is home, and the front door is unlocked. Telling me I left the lights on in the basement, since there hasn’t been any motion down there for a while. That sort of thing.
But I think what is really going to sell my wife on Ubi is being able to use it as a baby monitor and intercom, if I get more than one. I just haven’t been able to find out whether I would be able to put the baby’s Ubi (or maybe all Ubis, depending) in silent mode on demand, which would be kind of a dealbreaker.
I agree with the others. I see Ubi as being (among other things) a voice into and from SmartThings.
Me - I’m going to bed
Ubi - The front door is unlocked and the basement light is on.
Me - Lock the front door and turn off the basement light.
@Dave, that’s what the guy hiding in the basement WANTS you to do!
Same as everyone else here Leor. A way to check the status of different things, and to control them as well.
As an add-on to another example, it could be something along the lines of;
If wife’s presence sensor is detected on the network after being away, Ubi announces “Wife is home”, unless my presence sensor (or phone??) is off the network. At that point Ubi would not make the announcement but a txt would be sent to my phone.
Not written the way a rule would be, but I am sure you get the jist of it.
It would also be cool if these announcements could be customised whereby instead of text-to-speaching a pre-defined message, a specific audio file would play. This would be a user recorded file of whatever they wanted.
Like the Star Wars Imperial March for your example?
Hadn’t thought of that…but me likey 
Very cool ideas! We’re putting together the API now to enabled these as well as to allow for messages to be broadcast to particular Ubis.
First beta should be out soon!
Leor
I’m definitely excited to see it, Leor! I took the plunge and ordered a 5 pack on Friday. Now I just have until they arrive to compile enough uses for them to convince my wife that it’s totally not crazy to have them throughout the house. :-)
That is good news Leor. Being an Australian there is no word yet on when SmartThings will be certified and available to us but it is good to know that when they are, that the UBI will work nicely with it.
Perhaps you’ve heard of Control4 – quite a high-end product line; though I believe everything is ZigBee based. They also maintain a premium market focus by only selling through certified VARS.
I was browsing their quarterly magazine today, though, and noticed an integrated ZigBee speech recognition endpoint called the VoicePod, and their video demonstrates extension microphones mounted on each room’s ceiling… . They call the microphone extensions the “VoicePod Invisible Control Kit” (though it needs to be hardwired throughout the home!); on their accessories page: http://voicepod.com/device/accessories.asp
Check VoicePod out, if you are not familiar with the product: http://voicepod.com
I wonder what it costs?
Of course, the exciting thing is that The Ubi performs these same functions as VoicePod, but much more “openly”.
Leor,
I have two Ubis on order and a SmartThing on order, and already have a Ninja Block, and just backed Sapphire. I will be busy integrating my integrations.
I’d love to be part of any beta testing and willing to also fork code and make push requests.
I am also contemplating setting up some “Neutral Ground” for “Home Automation Integration Hobbyists”. A forum, wiki, repo, etc. I’d be happy to hear peoples’ interest in such a place.
I think the forum etc could be good. As a novice I like reading about how others are achieving their goals.
Ditto…
Apparently we are in an avalanche of “Internet of Things” ventures, and it would be interesting and valuable to have a place to congregate and discuss these.
I would suggest, however, doing a few searches to see if a substantial website / Forum / group / Facebook Page already exists in this regard – otherwise we’d just be expanding the “problem” of multiple redundant conversations.
…CP.
hi All,
I thought i’d chime in with some suggestions I emailed Leor a while back… he said although it’s not available now it’s something they’d love to work towards (and I hope they do as I’ll be stalking them to make it happen! )
I haven’t been able to pre order yet as I’m getting married and funds are tight but will be soon.
Let me know what you think:
Original email to Leor:
Push rather than pull information. I.e rather than us asking ubi something. In certain situations, perhaps Ubi can tell us what we should know.Example:At 7:30am most mornings, UBI knows you usually leave for work then as you lock your front door (smartthings) and there is no more movement after that (motion). So at 7:25am, Ubi checks and sees the tram will arrive earlier than usual (this happens where I live a lot!) and says “Are you leaving for work soon” You say “Yes I am”. Ubi says: "You should leave now, as your tram is arriving in 8 minutes."Or UBI may ask permission to turn of certain things in the house if they have not been used for a while, rather than just having smartthings do it automatically (people might not want this). “Joel, the fan in the second bedroom has been left on, shall i turn it off?”. Basic example but hopefully you get the idea.
That sounds like a great progression for it. I have a feeling that it is something that could be done relatively easily (??) - says the non programmer 
- with the use of Google Now. It is already pulling together some of this information so I guess it is a matter of whether or not this info could be sent to/accessed from the UBI. If it is running Android, surely we can add our Google/gmail account to it? Leor might be able to chime in here.
As far as the fan scenario is concerned, if you have a motion detector in the room (positioned so it does not see the fan), and the fan plugged into a smart plug/outlet, you could set Smartthings to alert you if the fan was operating after X period of no motion detected. Ubi could read the Smartthings notification to you, and your response could then control if the fan turns off, or remains on.
It really will be great to have all these different things connected and controllable automatically, and by voice.