Computer

The computer that runs the Barn is a Mac Mini. It's a "headless" computer, in that there is no monitor and no keyboard. It just sits quietly in an alcove in the storage room. Most of the time it's sleeping in energy saver mode.

She wakes up when things happen - this is called "event based computing". So an event happens, and she deals with it. All of the exterior doors and opening windows have sensors in them.

So, for example; when the front door opens, the computer says "come in" (which is easy to change), and when the door closes, she says "Thanks for closing the door" - you never get tired of replying "Your Welcome".

After the door closes, she locks it - in about 100 miliseconds (a tenth of a second). You are probably wondering how you setup the computer when it has no head. Well, that's mainly because you don't need to. If you do want to change something on the computer - like switching lights on or off - you use software running on any other computer or iPad or iPhone - from anywhere in the world.

That's right, if you know the password, you can change tracks on the music system, turn lights on and off and generally annoy everyone in the house - all from a Hotel in Dubai.

The software running everything is called Indigo, there are several other things that Natasha controls as well - you can see the PIR sensors (she see's you, she turns the light on) and water shut off valves and lots more...

Lets take a look at the screens you interact with - either from another Mac in your house or from a Windows machine (if you must). Click the Green forward arrow below.