So now I need to decide:

Hardware addresses

Do I need to buy a MAC address block? Do I need to buy an IEEE address block? Is there any way I can do without either one? The experimenter community should buy a block of each and sell them off in small amounts. Also, they seem redundant. When I have a device with ethernet and zigbee both, I have two nearly identical 64bit addresses. Both expensive, too!

Core component makeup

I also need to decide between a highly-integrated solution (like ConnectOne for Internet and and TI for Zigbee) and something I roll myself using cheap Microsoft parts. My choices now are:

1. Microchip Ethernet controller for the Ethernet solution. Lowest cost I think.
2. Wiznet for the Ethernet solution. Probably most robust, lower code overhead.
3. ConnectOne would be even more robust and simpler (includes DHCP, keepalive, etc), but it would be more expensive.
4. TI would likely be the most robust, lowest code overhead Zigbee solution, but it would be the most expensive.
5. Microchip would probably be the cheapest Zigbee solution, but it would require a micro to hold the stack and do all the work. If I’m lucky, the Zigbee stack could fit in the same micro with the Ethernet stack.

Module first draft

Should I do a very quick first draft using modules? If so, are there any that offer a path to a custom component-level solution?  I doubt it.  I probably need to break down and admit the same thing that everyone else has: that the Digi-style smart ethernet connector, and the Xbee, are the best way to go for prototyping and even small volume production.  About $50 parts cost, or about $80 my sale price for one-off production.

If I go this route, I clearly will NOT make a single design for gateway and devices.

I’d love to see some Twitter hardware. I know some must be out there, why can’t I find it? I’ve talked before about the idea of a Twitter Sampler. Other options would be twitter on simple displays, and twitter news feeds on your TV. What about the Twitter API?

Twitter is, let’s face it, annoying. So what about making it even more so: a Twitter text to speech machine? One of my talking dolls could spit out my tweets all day and night. Wow, what a headache. But funny!

What about the opposite of the Sampler, where a very large screen aggregates an overwhelming amount of tweets? Like a poster. Could be interesting?

Similar to the Jack In The Box and the Push Puppet aios, this would have a vibrator in it that would pulse (poss. in some pattern), causing the head to waggle. Periodically? Until reset? I have a nice JP Patches bobble head just waiting for some bigger role in life.  I think this would be a very fun project, and very easy if one had easy access to a pager motor (stick it in the head and run wires down the neck).

This article from MIT has lots of good information about power scavenging, including a survey of piezo buttons, one of which powers up a transmitter and sends data. This would make a nice aiosphere device, I think: a button you can stick anywhere in your house, and it does whatever you want it to. Maybe you can label it? True to the principle of the aiosphere, the button doesn’t need to be programmed, or have any ‘understanding’ of its purpose: that is all established by the server, or the receiving device.
Maybe a super-fancy version uses e-ink to label itself (zero static power).