This list may well be interested in this free presentation by Yara Senger at Skills Matter in London in a couple of weeks.

http://skillsmatter.com/podcast/java-jee/jhome

EVENT DETAILS
What:London Java Community:jHome: Using JavaEE and open-source hardware to automatize your house
Where:The Skills Matter eXchange, London
When:21 Feb 2012    Starts at  18:30

jHome: Using JavaEE and open-source hardware to automatize your house
During this presentation we will be showing how you can use Java EE and open-source hardware, like Arduino, to automatize your house. Using jHome, a complete Java EE 6 API for home automation, you can control lamps, wall sockets, electric gates and doors using Web App and Twitter.

We will not present a product! It's a complete solution that you can do it yourself with open-source hardware and software and you will have a lot of fun with Java EE 6 with this different usage context!

    This talk will cover:
  • Introduction to Home Automation and open-source hardware
  • Project jHome
    Cool demos:
  • Servlets controlling lamps
  • Controllling RGB with jQuery
  • Scheduling coffee-machine with EJB's
  • Using sounds and FFT(fast fourier transforming) to control your house
This is a basic talk and useful for any developer professional level. 

I'm not sure about "automatizing" anything, and no doubt this will all be very basic for some here, but of interest I hope.