Here's an interesting Home Automation System. And the Hardware, as well as the Software is Open Source...

Don

Ninja Blocks Open Source Cloud Enabled Computers Offer Easy Home Automation

Skipping on down...

The Ninja Blocks are controlled but the Ninja Rules App which has been designed to provide users with the simplest possible way to get the Ninja Blocks and your devices communicating.

No code or programming experience is required to be able to setup : turn on the lights & heaters, know when your washing is done, upload a photo to dropbox when someone enters room and remotely turn stuff on and off. Its creators explain a little more :

“The free Ninja Blocks platform makes it trivial to build web & mobile apps that talk to hardware. Get up and running in minutes, and begin talking to hardware & connected devices with the web languages you already know. Focus 100% on your app, and never have to worry about embedded programming, electronics, and networking protocols again.”

For more information on the latest Ninja Block system jump over to the Ninja Blocks website for details.