Managing The Connected Home

Connected Home. Internet Of Things. Smart Home. Like a procession of ants, micro computers are creeping into our homes. Sometimes I try to count how many computers I have at home. But first, what is a computer today? If we define a computer as a device with a network card (wired or wireless; the not connected ones do not count!), it is relatively easy to count MAC addresses on Ethernet frames circulating the home network. My recent count was 97. Soon I will be celebrating 100 connected gadgets at home! And among the 100 there are only about 5 real computers ("PC's"). The rest are various "things". Music players. Temperature loggers. Pods, Pads, etc.

Managing them all becomes a real job. I need an administrator. Or a new / better method of making sure they all do what they are supposed to do. And they all have the right version of software. This is important. I heard most attacks targeted at connected homes are via the new Internet - enabled TVs (as they have many security holes and can be used as nests for various trojans). And this is not only a security issue. These gadgets are connected for a reason. To talk to each other.

Take the multi - room audio. It has been a subject of my interest for almost as long as I have the WiFi network in place. Not sure exactly when, but I must have purchased my first Logitech SqueezeBox back in 2005. It is on this blog! It was not Logitech at that time. Now I have a number of them. Great system. A joy to use and even more joy to play with at the software level. The recent idea was to make the radios play the music automatically when somebody is near by. And turn themselves off when there has been no presence in the room. There is the burglar alarm, with PIR sensors around the house. So why not integrate the PIR readings with the radios? Great idea, but also a great example of how far away (conceptually) some subsystems are from each other. The security company has no idea how to do such integration. Nor the multi - room audio guys do.

I found a solution. Actually I have made a system capable of managing that kind of integration. We will have it commercially available within a few months, but the prototypes are working at homes of several pioneers. There already are many connected devices and subsystems around. But just because they all have Ethernet interfaces, does not really mean they are connected at the logical / functional layer. When I enter a room, the light comes up (but only when it is dark) and music turns on. There has to be some central logic unit managing all those interactions. And some very comprehensive, yet easy to use configuration framework.

The era of Home Servers is coming. And these servers will not be what most of you think when you hear "Home Server". They will not be serving files and printers. They will manage your entire houses. From the entrance door to the refrigerator, to the heating and AC system and to music and multimedia. Stay tuned. I will be covering the subject here quite often.