Covering things like data aquisition thru ports, data logging, remote control of relays, web cams and security, X10 and Perl, reading and writing serial, parallel, usb ports, controlling external microcontrollers. Sort of the "perl Coffee Machine" on steroids.

There are a couple of articles that focus on home-automation and such in Best of the Perl Journal : Games, Diversions & Perl Culture. It has a bunch of good articles, and some even have been updated for this edition.