Yes, I went several decades ago and enjoyed it. Heard from several people in more recent years that it's a waste of time.
What? There are lots of standard home automation protocols to chose from ;-)
Seriously, you have to wait until the patents expire before one will become widespread, because it's the volume that drives that, and there's no volume until licensing is cleared out of the way, and lots of startups can start producing products cheaply*. Also, Home Automation is still being treated as a luxury item, and I suspect it still adds nothing to the sale value of a house, although it maybe doesn't reduce the value like it used to. I had this conversation at one of the Home Automation stands at the Eco Homebuild last week.
- That's what happened with X10 - it remained in obscurity whilst there was only one company producing products without any rival competition or innovation, until the patent expired. X10 is too simple for today's Home Automation requirements though, and often not robust, and that's killing it now (the original company went bust).