Smart Home Connectivity
Global tech giants Amazon, Apple, Google, and the Zigbee Alliance have created a working group that intends to develop and promote smart home products in an attempt to increase connectivity and compatibility among devices in the home. Other tech and home companies such as IKEA, Legrand and Samsung SmartThings, are also on board to contribute to the project.
The main aim of the ‘Connected Home over IP’ scheme is to make development for manufacturers simpler, whilst increasing the compatibility for consumers. The concept of the project is the shared belief that Smart Home Devices (SMH) should be dependable, faultless and secure. By enhancing IP (Internet Protocol), this project supports communication across multiple smart home devices, mobile apps and cloud services. It will also create a niche set of IP networking technologies to work on one platform.
The underlying issue is that there are multiple smart home products created and released every day, however each have a separate system on which they are run. Each system connects to separate apps on your smartphone, making the entire concept of IOT pointless. Some devices are specifically niche and no matter how innovative, have no greater purpose. There needs to be one common interface on which these devices and technologies interact.
The group will adopt an open-source approach for the development, production and implementation of a unified connectivity protocol. The projects aims to use contributions from market-tested technologies from global companies like Amazon, Apple Google and the Zigbee Alliance. The decision to work in an open-source capacity is based on the idea that it would speed-up development policy and also provide benefits to manufacturers and consumers quickly.
It would be easier for SMH manufacturers to create products that are compatible with the home and services such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant. This will not only enhance but also compliment existing home technologies, and members of the group wish to support and encourage other device manufacturers to continue creating innovative technologies.
‘Project Connected Home over IP’ wants developers and manufacturers across the smart home industry to take part in this scheme and be an integral part of the IoT (internet of Things) revolution.