alt Hacker NewsThe plumber who has a robot who can make perfectly measured custom one-off tools and specially constructed piping runs inside your walls is going to have super powers compared to somebody who has to go to home depot and assemble a bunch of PVC pipes or whatever.
Just the other day I needed to make a calibration interface for a home automation app (pointing a dumb webcam at my washer and dryer so I can tell if they're done without running up and down two flights or stairs). I just wanted to be able to look at the whole scene and manually pick the ROI to extract and display on my home dashboard. So I asked the AI to build me a stupid little web UI where I can just click to select the ROI center, and what it built me in 10 seconds was perfect for my needs.
Was it pretty? Not really. Was it what I would have built myself? Not quite - but it solved the problem I had without me needing to remember or look up how to do all the specifics.
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Have you considered taping a sensor to the light, or measuring the electrical current flowing through the power cord? Both should be a bit more reliable. The idea of messing with mains power is scary at first but with basic precautions it's fine, and I think you can buy current meters with various interfaces if you aren't comfortable.
> pointing a dumb webcam at my washer and dryer so I can tell if they're done without running up and down two flights or stairs). I just wanted to be able to look at the whole scene and manually pick the ROI to extract and display on my home dashboard. So I asked the AI to build me a stupid little web UI where I can just click to select the ROI center, and what it built me in 10 seconds was perfect for my needs.
The machines all beep when they're done.
A baby monitor in the machine area will accomplish the same thing :-)
But of course the project is much more fun ...