Internet of Things

Michael (AC8CG) has been asking me to create the "next hack," for our projects. "I want a button that you can click on a website that actuates a switch, maybe via USB." Well, this isn't USB, but it resembles what I've been trying to create with the Arduino telemetry project. Basically microcontroller + ethernet + webserver + relays is what I was working on. This turns out to be part of the infrastructure of the Internet of Things part of the Physical-World Web.

A couple of commercial/retail options have become available, Belkin's WeMo and the Electric Imp

The Belkin option appears to be extremely simple to set up, think X10, but with an iPhone App. It's pricey and lax in sensors (except for a motion detector,) but for a press-a-button-on-my-iPhone-and-something-happens experience it appears to be the shortest patch to success.

The Electronic Imp is more something that you add onto an existing project. If you have a device and you want to say, connect it to the cloud for some reason, this is the way to go. It handles the wireless side of things, negotiating a connect and tunneling out to their service. It has an SD card form factor so you use that to interface with your device. The Imp is configure optically using an iPhone/Android app that flashes lights into an on-board sensor. It sounds slick, but ties you to the Electronic Imp cloud service.

Still not the specific solution that I'm looking for but they might the right fit for your own projects.