
Netflix Switch – dim lights, turn on the TV, order food, and silence your phone - PascLeRasc
http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch
======
daenz
It's really great to see a company's engineers given the time and resources to
do some fun tech project like this. Sometimes it seems like unless a project
is about directly increasing revenue, its incredibly difficult to get buy-in
from management. These projects are great for culture.

~~~
hugh4
Is it really just a fun project? Or is Netflix trying to use this as the nose
of the camel to get into the house automation business?

I've always thought house automation was cool, but a lot of trouble and likely
to wind up a waste of my time and effort once I stop using it in three years
because whatever standard I was using became obsolete. But if Netflix can
start automating my house one bit at a time and slowly sneak up on me...

~~~
blazespin
I honestly can't attribute any profiteering here. This is pure geek fun.
Reminds me of the days of the Netflix Prize.
[http://www.netflixprize.com/](http://www.netflixprize.com/)

~~~
angdis
I am sure it was a blast, but it was NOT done "for fun" to amuse the
engineering staff. Nor is it an effort at "home automation".

This is part of a marketing campaign not unlike the office depot "easy"
button, except they've designed an actual button that sort-of works.

The point is to get people excited about the idea of a Netflix marathon and
create some buzz among geeky subscribers. It doesn't matter how many people
actually create or use "the button".

~~~
blazespin
Well, I'm sure that was an excuse, but seriously. Do you honestly think the
kind of geeks that'd do this are really that important to a company like
Netflix these days? Maybe at the beginning...

If I had to attribute anything, it's more of a recruiting move. They want
clever hacker geeks working for them. Maybe they are moving into home
automation and this will be an interview question? I dunno how effective that
is, though. I think someone just said, yeah, screw it, let's do it!

------
jakobegger
We're in the golden age of DIY home automation. Wifi-enabled microcontrollers
like the particle photon are a game changer; it's never been easier to make a
connected device yourself.

Using the Photon I've built a device that connects to my doorbell and sends a
push notification to my mobile when someone rings. (Might be useful when
you're in the back yard and don't want to miss the delivery guy)

Yes, most of the stuff is still gimmicky. But when you're tinkering, it's not
necessary to turn everything into a product that will change the world or earn
a billion dollars. We can just have a bit of fun, and enjoy the things we can
do.

I think that hackerspaces might be todays equivalent to the homebrew computer
clubs where enthusiasts dabbled with early home computers...

~~~
kefka
I agree and disagree with you at the same time. IoT, especially with things
like the Photon and ESP8266 are major game changers. However, the idea of a
baked-in WiFi stack with little/no way to update protocol bugs is rather scary
proposition. And I'm also against giving IoT devices a directly routable IP
address, even if they are behind a NAT.

I'm looking more at things like the nRF24L01+ board combined with MySensors,
which seems to be rather mature. It is a self-healing mesh network with
encryption and signing support. And I can get all the data from the net mesh
with a serial gateway (inputs/outputs via USB serial). I can connect that
gateway to a Linux machine running Node-red and use the MySensors
encoder/decoder.

Hook up a relay and you can toggle electronics on and off, or you can make a
manual high voltage switch using a servo and 4 contact switches. I'm also
using PIR for occupancy along with temp sensors for zone acquisition. I'm
looking at developing my own thermostat as well to see if I have the chops..

------
SEJeff
FYI for the DIYers, there is a little project that I contribute to on the side
for fun. I also use it to do things just like the title suggests:

[https://home-assistant.io/](https://home-assistant.io/)

~~~
mattbettinson
Looks cool! One question - Why android switches on an iphone app? Is it just
for the screenshot?

~~~
SEJeff
This isn't a native app, that is a very responsive webapp. It uses nuclearjs
and the polymer web frameworks, but the backend is all evented python.

~~~
balloob
You can check out the demo here: [https://home-
assistant.io/demo/](https://home-assistant.io/demo/)

------
lamby
Speaking of which, do food APIs exist? I've often been tempted to make a
generic pizza API that — by limiting options — will deliver a pizza to almost
any address via Just-Eat or whatever is local to you.

~~~
ykguler
Haven't really seen any food api's. It would be cool if it did exist though..
But I don't think Just-Eat like services will bite since you'll be driving
traffic away from their website..

~~~
gedrap
What's the problem with the traffic being driven away from the web site? As
long as it would be coming through their API (think of centralized API for
local food joints), and they get their cut it's all good.

But I see valid reasons for not providing APIs like that. Imagine someone
creates a gadget like that and there's a bug, instead of 1 pizza it orders 10
of them. A delivery guy comes with 10, and no one is willing to pay for that
many. It wouldn't take long to infuriate enough food joints.

Well, yeah, you could pay with credit card when placing an order... But I
never do that, I just avoid using my card on web if I can easily do it :)

------
dannymick
Gives new meaning to Netflix & Chill.

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oskob
This can already be achieved with Flic: [http://flic.io](http://flic.io) Flic
is a Bluetooth button which uses your smartphone to communicate with smart
electronics. If you have Philips Hue or LIFX smart lights and a Logitech
Harmony Hub (for IR), this would work straight out of the box! (Disclaimer: I
am associated with Flic)

~~~
StavrosK
Does that require a phone nearby at all times?

~~~
matrixagent
I'd also be interested in this. Would love such a button that could connect
via WiFi or generic BT on a Raspberry Pi or something like that, rather than a
smartphone with a specific app.

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Agathos
> order food, and silence your phone

Really? Around me, delivery drivers have pretty much given up on doorbells. If
your phone is silent you may not get your food.

~~~
robwilliams
Delivery drivers don't use doorbells where you live? What do they do, call you
instead? That seems odd to me, even Fedex and UPS ring my doorbell when
dropping off a package.

~~~
Agathos
To be precise, it's Chicago. Being in the city means most deliveries will be
to apartments. The door buzzers are often unlabeled, mislabeled, or just
broken. But even if you're in a townhouse with a door facing the street, most
drivers are firmly in the habit of calling.

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inopinatus
Can only be called a Chill Switch.

------
dreeves
Others have mentioned the Flic and Amazon's Dash buttons. Here's the one I'm
most excited about, which should (when they have an IFTTT channel) make things
like the Netflix Switch doable for non-nerds:
[http://www.dropletlife.com/](http://www.dropletlife.com/)

------
dmritard96
A number of years ago I made a project that let me do this for ESPN using IR
(Ken Sherrifs awesome library) and x10 units. Rather than a physical button I
just had a shortcut on my phones home screen.

[https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote](https://github.com/dandroid88/webmote)

------
Animats
It would be cooler, easier, and would yield better battery life to reprogram
an Amazon Dash Button [1] to do this. Most Samsung TVs can be controlled from
the network side, as well as with an IR remote.[2]

Of course, the Netflix button just brings up power and puts you at the Netflix
menu. At that point, you need another device to tell Netflix what you want.
Authorized Netflix-compatible TVs already have a Netflix button.

So the logical thing is to have something listening to the TV's state to dim
the lights, close curtains, and such. There are home theater accessories for
that.

[1]
[http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011](http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=10667898011)
[2] [http://www.gemote.org/](http://www.gemote.org/)

~~~
gregmac
This all sounds great -- until, for example, you are trying to eat a snack
while also watching TV. Or one of a dozen other things where the automation
gets in the way. Or, equally worse -- it's not perfect. Sometimes the lights
don't change, sometimes there is a delay (so user presses the button multiple
times) and suddenly everything catches up and curtains are closing and opening
and closing and opening..

Any of these cause WAF to go to zero, at which point, you rip it all out.

So many times when it comes to home automation, otherwise rational software
developers forget what people actually want to do, and skip to what the
technology makes possible but doesn't actually make anything easier.

------
harryf
Step 15: Spend 2 hours browsing for something to watch

------
grouma
Reminds me of something I built: [http://garyroumanis.com/2015/03/15/TVRemote-
app/](http://garyroumanis.com/2015/03/15/TVRemote-app/)

------
dschep
The silence your phone step[1] is much easier if you use something like
Tasker[2].

[1] [http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch/do-more#silence-your-
de...](http://makeit.netflix.com/the-switch/do-more#silence-your-devices) [2]
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch....](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.taskerm)

------
joeevans1000
My guess is that this was the result of an internal hackathon. Makes me think
working at Netflix could be fun.

~~~
PascLeRasc
Yeah, they've had other hackathons before with good results:
[http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/03/10/a-netflix-hack-day-
pro...](http://thenextweb.com/apps/2015/03/10/a-netflix-hack-day-produced-
some-amazing-experiments-that-we-want-right-now/)

------
yoda_sl
Most likely the initial prototype was done during an hacktaton... I remember
many years back someone that came up with a small TV on a toaster so we could
say you can watch Netflix on your toaster, later on that toaster made it into
a T-Shirt for the next hackaton!

------
chrissnell
Any ideas what they might be using to mill the wooden enclosure? I have a few
projects that need enclosures and it's been a few years since I looked but the
CNC mills were still thousands of dollars.

~~~
DannyBee
Why do you believe that wooden enclosure needs a CNC mill?

It requires a few miter cuts and a good chamfer bit.

That's it.

Heck, you could do it with all handtools pretty darn quickly.

(If for some reason, you really want to CNC mill it, and are in the bay area,
contact me and i'll mill it on my CNC mill for you)

------
mpg33
"Get rid of all distractions, to be distracted."

------
dpieri
Like the Amazon Dash Button, this is a great reminder of how hardware is still
useful in the age of touchscreen interfaces.

------
technologia
This is fun, I like stuff like this; Not too serious and brings that sense of
'doing it yourself' feeling to it.

------
halcyondaze
Damn, this is how you have fun. Both on the tech side and the marketing side.
Much respect to Netflix.

------
robertely
This is great and I love it but If the Raspberry Pi had a netflix client this
would be amazing.

~~~
kefka
You can still do the same thing with OSMC and piratebay.

The only, I repeat, ONLY reason why RasPi doesn't "support" netflix is because
of DRM. The media files would easily play. So instead of downloading the file
each time you want to watch it (netflix), download it our your HD and watch it
from there. It's the comparison between O(n*constant) and O(constant).

When you get OSMC up and running, you can add in hooks for node-red. The
flowchart for button->actions should be simple to set up.

------
molly0
This makes me think about the swedish startup Flic and thier wireless button.

------
superskierpat
The hardest path to ultimate laziness, this looks like a fun project!

------
amarpatel
If you're into IoT stuff like this, check out www.hackaday.io

------
mathetic
Maybe Orwell's vision wasn't accurate. The title suggests Huxley got it right.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
I'm still not convinced that Brave New World was actually a dystopia, relative
to either our modern world or the one that Huxley was writing from. It had
some stuff that was pretty fucked up, but was it _more_ fucked up than e.g.
the way we treat the poor and homeless? BNW at least dramatically reduced the
total volume of human misery in the world.

------
abalashov
The WALL-E future is now, just not evenly distributed.

------
chrisallick
genius

------
hrshtr
Get more netflix to your life !!

------
esolyt
I couldn't even focus on the product after seeing this ridiculousness:

[http://imgur.com/soIclkv](http://imgur.com/soIclkv)

Why would a phone have both capacitive navigation buttons and onscreen
navigation buttons? Are they intentionally trying to be funny?

