Episode 43: This smart home needs an email address

Freak out! This week’s episode isn’t about disco, it’s all about the security of your things. Or insecurity as the case may be. We talk about Shodan, the search engine for connected devices and the creation of a security framework for connected devices by the researchers at I am the Cavalry. Go read the story at Ars Technica and scroll all the way down to the Cavalry stuff. After we talk about that, we discuss a new programming interface for Raspberry Pi’s from myDevices called Cayenne, Amazon opening up its new Dash Replenishment Service to everyone, and the big news that could shake up the building automation market.

The Cayenne dashboard.
The Cayenne dashboard.

For those of you guys who love thinking about the smart home, I brought Scott Jenson, a UX designer from Google, to join us to talk about his personal thoughts on how connected devices change a home’s design and how to avoid having to give your home an email account just to make it functional as a connected entity. Jenson blogs about some of these topics here, such as why he doesn’t think we should look to smart homes to recreate butlers. Find out why he thinks that, and some of his other ideas in this week’s episode.

Hosts: Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel
Guest: Scott Jenson, Google

  • IoT security blows up or just blows
  • Sensors that phone Amazon and the birth of a new industrial internet powerhouse
  • The smart home isn’t a butler, but it still has plenty of value
  • Why Jenson had to give his home an email address

Published by

Stacey Higginbotham

I am a journalist who has covered technology for over a decade at publications such as Fortune, PCMag, Gigaom, The Deal and BusinessWeek.

10 thoughts on “Episode 43: This smart home needs an email address”

  1. Great! I’m not the only one that thinks having and email address for my home is a weird thing. The IoT podcast is quickly becoming one of my favorite weekly podcasts. Are there any similar podcast anyone can recommend? Love the show!

    1. I can’t think of another good podcast that focuses on IoT. 🙁
      I wanted to reply (even if it was unhelpful), to let you know, you are not talking to the wind. I love this podcast, read the comments, and will help when I can. 🙂
      PS if you find another good podcast, please post it here. thanks.

  2. I am more interested in the commercial and industrial side of IoT, however also the Smart Home.

    I greatly appreciated this episode as Scott Jenson brought some very interesting insights and ways of looking at how we augment things using technology without falling into the trap of thinking that everything needs to be flashy and fully automated for there to be value. The pain versus value point was also very pertinent, especially considering so many of these consumer IoT products are heavier on the pain side than the value side.

  3. Hi Stacey,

    In the podcast you mentioned trying to program “automatic mode change”. What software do you use to set rules such as “when lights go out and there is no motion for 15 minutes…”? I’ve created a DIY home automation solution based on a Raspberry Pi and programming this kind of rules is one of the things I’m also trying to do.

    1. Przemek, you can do that with Cayenne. They offer Alerts and Triggers, that allow you to create rules with your Rasberry Pi.

      Lets say if you have a light sensor in a room, you can create rules that if the light level drops below a certain point, to the turn the light On.
      If the light levels later rise above a point, you can then turn the lights Off.

    2. I was using the SmartThings home hub when I talked about doing that. Other hubs offer similar features, and generally if you build your own, there are services like Open HAB that live on top of Pis or Arduinos that will let you.

  4. Hi Stacey,

    I am having trouble tracking down the source of the draft report from “I Am The Calvary” mentioned on this episode (found the Hippocratic Oath and other info on their website). Is it possible for you to post a link to that resource here or point me in the right direction?

    I adore your podcast!

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