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IBM Demos Cloud Computing for a Smarter Home (11/2/2010)

IBM (NYSE: IBM) demonstrated its vision for a smarter home at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV.

The widespread availability of broadband communication to the home as well as the proliferation of web-enabled appliances and devices in the home means that the promise of a smarter home is finally coming to reality. Compared with previous attempts to enable smart homes, where intelligence was based on centralized control through a home server or gateway, IBM is now working to move the intelligence out of the home onto a network that can be accessed anytime, anywhere. the network.

“Cloud computing infrastructure is a new industry approach that has the potential to change the way the consumer electronics industry operates and provides services to its customers,” said Bruce Anderson, general manager for IBM’s Electronics Industry. “IBM is working to improve the user experience, open up the market, and create new efficiencies for individuals, manufacturers and service providers with its industry experience and cloud computing capability.”

IBM Smarter Home Demonstrations at CES:

The emerging capabilities of the smarter home enable services across many industries – entertainment, energy management, safety and security, and health and wellness – making consumers’ lives easier, healthier, more fun, and more productive. The following companies will be demonstrating examples of how their technologies fit into IBM’s Smarter Home vision.

* Cloud linkage: IBM is collaborating with business partner Shaspa Research Ltd to connect devices in the home to a cloud computing environment. The Shaspa Smart Home Kit provides control of household devices and appliances over a simple, intuitive user interface through a mobile phone, web page, 3D user interface or handheld screen connecting to the cloud. It serves as an integration point for applications from the four main application classes.

* Entertainment and Convenience: Polycom will demonstrate Polycom Telepresence for the IBM Smarter Home. In this demonstration, Polycom will bring its industry-leading, business-quality collaboration capabilities to the consumer market. This home telepresence will enable consumers to visit with friends and family across around the globe, catch up face-to-face, and host virtual family reunions, all from the comfort of home and in life-like, full-size 1080p HD.

HbbTV (Hybrid Broadcast Broadband TV) converges television with the power of the internet, creating an interactive TV platform based on web technologies. This provides a personalized and interactive TV experience with the simplicity and the ease-of-use of the television, creating new opportunities for broadcasters.

Philips Net TV – the internet optimized for the TV screen – integrates broadcast and broadband entertainment and provides personalized access to web services and content. Users navigate the innovative service through a cloud-based service portal managed by IBM.

* Energy Management: Emerson Electric will showcase its smart thermostats that enable consumers to have more control over their home energy usage than ever before. Residents will be able to control the air conditioning/heat intensity and temperature of their home remotely, through computers and mobile phones, resulting in significant savings on heating and cooling bills.

* Safety and Security: The IBM Boeblingen Laboratory, Germany, has created a fully instrumented smarter home prototype that is controlled through an application in the IBM developer cloud, using the Shaspa Smart Home Kit. All devices such as shutters, doors, and surveillance cameras can be controlled remotely. A 3D virtual replica of the house links to the Smart Home Kit, providing an intuitive user interface that allows the consumer to observe and control the security elements of the real house.

* Health and Wellness: IBM is working with the Continua Health Alliance, and its members including Vignet Inc, to enable end-to-end interoperability for connected heath solutions. Vignet’s “person-centered” Connected Health Services platform allows users to capture, aggregate, analyze and share data with their mobile devices, PC and Web. This platform connects health care devices to cloud based solutions for wellness, fitness, nutrition, chronic disease management, home care, body-area networks, remote patient monitoring and independent living. The Vignet demonstration of a pulse oximeter and a weight scale transmits data to a central data base in the cloud from where it can be accessed through a smart phone.

www.ibm.com/smarterplanet