RedEye February 2012 Newsletter

IP Control Is Here

v2.11.0 software update brings advanced control to RedEye and RedEye Pro customers

We are glad to announce that RedEye is the first consumer-grade remote to control devices using Internet Protocol (IP). Building upon the foundation we laid last year with bi-directional control over RS-232 on RedEye Pro, we have added network control capabilities to both RedEye and RedEye Pro. This new functionality is available as a free upgrade through the v2.11.0 software update.

IP control offers two major advantages over basic infrared control. First, IP control works over your network, so there are no line of sight issues, and no extra cables to run. RedEye is already attached to your network, so as long as the device you want to control is also on the network, you can connect to and control it.

Second, IP control is two-way. That means that you can issue commands reliably, with receipt confirmation. It also means that you can pull in all kinds of interesting information, such as album art, current track name, volume level, and so forth. Over the past few months we have added a number of new layout controls — such as sliders, custom images, and dynamic text labels — designed specifically for the kind of rich user interfaces that you can build with this new information.

Advanced control, no programming required

More and more of our electronics have IP networking and control interfaces built-in, but RedEye is the first universal remote solution to offer IP control. One issue is that while the network pipe is shared, many devices define their own control interfaces. As a result, until now IP control has required programming a dedicated application. While there are a number of these available through the various mobile app stores, these applications do not integrate infrared-controlled devices on the same screen, and at best require a lot of app switching.

Within RedEye, a command is a command is a command. That means that you can download an IP codeset from our database in the same way that you download an infrared or RS-232 codeset today. It also means that you can use IP commands in your activity launch and shutdown actions and layout button actions just as you would any other. In short, you don’t have to be a programmer in order to use IP control with RedEye.

Of course if you are interested in advanced customization and the idea of writing a bit of code doesn’t bother you, then we give you full access through our built-in scripting engine. Our IP control implementation is 100% Lua script (using the popular LuaSocket library). You can download our IP codesets and tweak them, or you can write your own drivers from scratch — all the tools that we use are available within our built-in browser application.

New functions, new interface control

Speaking of tools, we have added a number of new ones in this release to make IP control easier and more useful. We have a number of new scripting functions, including Wake-on-LAN, a kind of “power on” for networked devices.

One of the most exciting of these new tools is the new Text Field layout control. A lot of IP-controlled devices give you the option to search through a library. With basic infrared control, usually you have to deal with one of those pesky on-screen keyboards. With our new Text Field control and a device that provides the appropriate search interface, you can type directly using the keyboard on your mobile device.

Read the full software release notes.

Download the RedEye app from iTunes.

Download the RedEye app from Android Market.