Bluetooth LE

Bluetooth has been with us for many years but recently we’ve seen a new low energy version that offers a low-power short distance connection called Bluetooth LE. These have been made into beacons, like Estimote ( http://estimote.com) that can be programmed to react to Bluetooth devices in inventive (or intrusive, depending on your viewpoint) ways, eg they will broadcast an open Bluetooth connection which can push data to your device. These can be used in a house setting to recognise when a user returns home and can interact with appliances via X10 to set up your home ready to relax. These beacons can be built using a Raspberry Pi and a Bluetooth LE dongle, enabling a low-cost and non-proprietary solution of your own.

Kore and Yatse

One of the most common Pi projects is a media centre, especially since the release of the Pi 2 in early 2015. Instead of using a wireless keyboard and mouse, why not use your Android phone to control your entertainment? Kore is the official remote control for Kodi and Yatse is a an unofficial yet powerful app. Both apps enable you to navigate your media collection using a well-designed and intuitive interface. Yatse also has a series of plugins to enable gesture control and push SMS messages to your TV.

Xbee

This is one of the easiest ways of automating your home. Xbee uses only four connections for power, ground and data connections, and any device can talk to Xbee via a serial link. Xbee has been used by a lot of early home automation hackers, who’ve used it to integrate Arduinos to make wireless devices that aren’t connected to the internet but still automated.

Particle

The Particle range of boards started life as the Spark Core, an Arduino-compatible board which featured built -in Wi-Fi for