SMART HOME The Home Gets
SMART HOME The Home Gets Smarter Still One of the most exciting consumer technologies, Smart Home truly arrives at IFA 90% say security is top reason to buy [Source: iControl, No. America study] 91% with smart home recommend it to others [Source: Coldwell Banker Real Estate and CNET] 11.6m Connected Homes in Germany by 2019 [Source: Strategy Analytics] This year at IFA, the smart home jumps from the stage of the early-adopters and moves into the mass-market, fueled by a plethora of new devices, new connectivity standards, the Internet of Things and a push by top tier brands like Google and Apple. Gartner predicts that by 2019, in at least 25 percent of households in developed economies, the digital assistants on smartphones and other devices will serve as the primary interface to connected home services. "In the not-too-distant future, users will no longer have to contend with multiple apps; instead, they will literally talk to digital personal assistants such as Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant," said Mark O'Neill, research Absolute Source: Statista 2015. Selected region only includes countries listed in the Digital Market Outlook director at Gartner. "Some of these personal assistants are cloud-based and already beginning to leverage smart machine technology." Digital personal assistants show the potential to satisfy wants and needs by delivering experiences that connect services, configure devices and even order and deliver products. Personalized, context-aware information can also be presented as it is wanted or needed — for example, recommended Growth temperature settings for the home to optimize energy consumption and comfort in line with the weather. "Consumers don't want to deal with separate proprietary apps for each type of connected device in their home," said Mr. O'Neill. "Rather than individual apps, it is the interactions between devices — as well as with service providers and external data sources — that are most compelling to consumers. As we move into a postapp world, where devices and services from multiple sources can be blended together for access via digital personal assistants, application programming interfaces (APIs) are the key to this integration. As more providers and devices become available, different ecosystems will form around each large tech provider as they recruit allies, build partnerships and attract developers in the quest for leadership in the connected home. This change will enable individual industries to use the connected home as a new business channel for their services www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Monday 5 th September 2016 31
SMART HOME Network & Standards Currently, many different networks, standards, and devices connect the smart home, including an extensive list of 802.11 technologies, Bluetooth variants (including Classic, Smart Ready & Smart), 802.15.4 solutions (ZigBee PRO, RF4CE, SE2.0, WirelessHART, ISA100.11a & proprietary), other low-power RF technologies (Z-Wave, EnOcean, DECT ULE, etc.), 60GHz technologies, PoE and powerline communications, and wired alternatives. These choices enable the industry to appeal to a wide number of home owners. The largest barrier to further smart home adoption is in fact this same technological fragmentation within the connected home ecosystem. These many networks, standards, and devices connecting the smart home create interoperability problems-- and make it confusing for the consumer to set up and control multiple devices. That leaves an opportunity for dealers and installers to solve the problem. INTEL JUMPS IN One company with a new vision is Intel, “…the dream of a true smart home remains unfulfilled, partly due to the high level of fragmentation in the industry, leading to countless offerings that don’t work together. Intel is taking a radically different approach based on proactive research into ways to increase smart home adoption. Our multi-tenant, smart home platform reference design is open, flexible, scalable, secure, and one on which any company or service provider can offer solutions, regardless of the industry to which it belongs.” Intel wants to build the smart home of the future with Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. The new Intel Smart Home Development Acceleration Platform is initially available on its Quark processors and is designed to connect "things" in the home. The kit supports and manages development environments for a range of capabilities that will extend from basic smart home hubs to advanced home controllers, helping developers build and deploy new applications while ensuring compatibility across OS updates 32
