Tablet controller

In this year's Solar Decathlon, a number of teams have home automation systems which let people control heating, lighting, and electronics from a central point. The team from the Southern California Institute of Architecture and California Institute of Technology built its system using an off-the-shelf home automation system from Control4. It also created a connection to the Microsoft Kinect gaming system so that people could wave their hands to control home functions, such as lights. The house has a single "off" button to press which will turn off all non-essential items for when people leave home.