One of the Achilles of the Windows platform in the connected home is the lack of support especially on the Windows phone platform. An app for the Windows phone seems to be an afterthought for connected home solutions providers. Well, this is about to change because Insteon one of the market leading home automation suppliers, has release Apps some windows based apps to manage and control Insteon devices.
Of the over 30 energy suppliers in the UK, for some time, only British Gas was offering a smart energy management platform as part of their energy services. Customer needing an energy management solution would have to do it independently or use British Gas Hive. Through a joint partnership with Nest, the smart thermostat company, nPower is offering their own smart energy management service to compete with British Gas.
The home automation market today receive a new entrant from Emerson, The Sensi is their first universal Wi-Fi Thermostat. The Sensi comes with its own App that allows you to control it from a smart phone, tablet or PC. Already a big name in the thermostat and HVAC controls industry Emerson said they want to tap into US $600M market. Emerson said the Sensi give you the added flexibility you cannot get from a standard programmable thermostat, in that it can adapt to your busy schedule.
The changes in social structure and economics have always influence our movement and more so in our modern society. This has lead to strain on certain resources in certain areas prompting the need to better manage these resources with smarter technologies, leading to the creation of smart cities. The building of smart cities such as Songdo, South Korea and Living PlanIT, Portugal are proof of how a city’s resources and infrastructure can be connected to support a cohesive lifestyle, between people and their environment.
China’s Broadlink Electronic has release range of smart home appliances built on Marvell’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform. The range is base on Broadlink’s “Smart Life and Smart Lifestyle” vision featuring the RM2 Universial Home Controller, A1 Air Quality Monitor and the SP2 Smart-Socket. Together this range of DIY home automation products allows homeowners to control their television, garage doors, light switches and any connected home appliances.
There is no doubt that the connected home needs an Operating System (OS) or some agnastic software environment to manage its diverse devices and services. For the last four years the only company that shows any potential in filling this gap was Microsoft with its prototype homeOS platform. I think this is about to change with the introduction of the Alljoyn platform backed by the Allseen alliance, a new industry body promoting interoperability between devices under the concept of the “Internet of Everyt
iControl is now offering the Netgear STS7000, a Google Android based tablet that can manage their “iControl Connect” solutions. It is ZigBee and Z-Wave compatible, therefore you can access and control your home automation systems such as security, energy management and lighting, through it touchscreen interface.
Home automation company MyLiveGuard, has extends its home automation and security solution to include Android base devices. Now, owners of these devices such as Android televisions can include them in the list of manage devices. With an Android TV device and MyLiveGuard a homeowner is able to use a smartphone to remotely view the activities in his/her home from anywhere in the world, provided there is an internet connection.
At first, we thought it would be Microsoft HomeOS that would be the system to bring it all together in the connected home, then early this year our attention turned to Alljoyn as that solution. Now, this week Prodea, an eight-year-old electronics company up until recently only a few us had heard about has become the third option.
The collaboration between DSP Group, Rockethome and Prosyst has delivered another home automation solution for service providers. DSP said they have integrated Prosyst’s mBS OSGi (Open Service Gateway initiative), Rockethome’s smart home plug and play solution with their DECT and ULE chipset into one end-to-end home automation and security platform. The solution will provide a cloud and OSGi Internet of Things (IoT) architecture that allows service providers to enhance their service offering.