Mozilla, the creator of Firefox, has launched Project Things – a platform that lets you connect and control all your smart home devices via a single web interface using a Raspberry Pi.
It aims to let users mix and match devices and build their own smart home network, without being tied to a particular platform (like Amazon Echo, Samsung SmartThings or Google Home).
Project Things lets you build a gateway to connect your smart devices directly to the web, and give each one its own URL. You can control them using a simple web interface and voice controls (the latter feature is currently in an experimental stage).
Home hacking
Project Things lets you create ‘if this, then that’ commands to control how your devices interact, and set up floor plans showing the position of devices in your home (with virtual devices to represent any you don’t own yet). There's also an add-on system for third-party extensions.
Project Things is still very much a work in progress, and currently only supports a small range of devices, but the new release adds support for dimmable switches and smart plugs. More hardware will be added in future releases.
Mozilla has published a guide explaining how to set up a network using a Raspberry Pi 3, but you can also use a different developer board (such as an Arduino), or a laptop or desktop PC.
