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I find myself searching for the next project. I haven’t quite settled on what I want to do. Having gotten my Atom box to its present state is quite wonderful. I find myself looking at hardware more and more rather than software. I really want to make something and program it. The downside to this is that hardware costs money, and that’s a luxury that is still just out of reach at the moment. I have some billing to catch up on and several projects that are about to pay out which is good news. Perhaps laying out the projects I have considered will help me organize my thoughts. So here goes:

• Wireless iPhone Music Sync/Transfer - Since the iPhone was released Linux has been able to mount the iPhone wirelessly not only to syncronize music to the phone, but to play music off of it as well. This is very appealing as being able to have fresh music on my phone without the hassel of syncing would be wonderful. So, the plan for this one would be to write a script to push/pull music from the phone upon me entering my room. This could tie directly into my current Bluetooth proximity script assuming I put in an IP reservation or a static IP for my iPhone.
• IR Transmitter - This one is also proximity based. I would like to add IR control to my Bluetooth Proximity scripts so that when I enter my room my stereo and/or TV could turn on automatically. This would be a nice feature and tie in IR which is something I have wanted to do for a while. The downside is that the device I want to use to do this is rather expensive.
• Power Savings for LCD TV - Another project that peeked my interest having read up a bit more on LCD TV power efficiencies would be to measure my TV’s power consumption while off. I hear that LCD TV’s use a large amount of power to keep the backlight bulbs warm. I have only heard this as a rumor and have yet to try and hook my Kill-A-Watt unit up to check this. If this is in fact a true statement then I could wire in an Insteon Applican module to turn on the backlight bulb power only when I’m present in the room and might use the TV, otherwise there is no point in keeping it primed. Edit: This peeked my interest rather quickly and I can say without a reasonable doubt, that my Vizio LCD TV uses 0 watts while sitting off. It maxes at around 140 watts while watching video. Looks like this one is Busted, for LCDs at least.
  
• Sunset/Sunrise Times for Lights - I still need to come up with a way to integrate sunrise and sunset times into my Bluetooth Proximity script. As it stands my light will turn on whether it is light or dark out.
• Bluetooth Device Class - I need to try pairing my iPhone with my machine on a different device class. I’m running into problems when I receive a call in my room since my computer appears as a Bluetooth Headset to my iPhone it keeps passing off my clients to a silent machine. I need the iPhone to pair to something, but not use it.
• Build another Atom Box - Having established the Atom as a great MythTV frontent I would like to build another one for my day to day use. I’m once again using my gaming machine for daily work and it is not the best machine for it.
• Digital Picture Frame - I have several old monitors and laptops just begging to be used again. I have wanted to build a little digital picture frame for as long as I can remember. The thought of being able to wirelessly transfer media to a free floating object is very appealing for some reason. I would like to make it touch screen usable as this would allow me to do much more with the device including control my room or look at headlines. I’d love to be able to set my alarm in the morning using it if I keep it next to my bed.

• Serial/USB Temperature Sensor - With Summer coming up in a few months I would love the ability for my fan to be able to turn on automatically if my room is stuffy. Plus, knowing the exact temerature in your room from anywhere in the world seems like a neat thing. So, I’ve found a bunch of serial based thermometers as well as some pre-fabricated USB ones that might fit the bill.

These are just some of the ideas I have rattling around in my head at the moment. I’ll have to pick one and start down that path and see where it leads. Hopefully I can come up with one that is fun, involves new hardware, and doesn’t break the bank.