Category Archives: Home automation

Belkin, Home automation, Machine to Machine (M2M)

Belkin Announces WeMo SMART, a Platform to Bring Internet Connectivity to Everyday Devices

Belkin today announced WeMo SMART, a program designed to bring its simple, Wi-Fi based WeMo home automation platform to new brands and a wider variety of household devices. Jarden Consumer Solutions (“JCS”), a leading provider of global consumer products brands, will be the first company to partner with WeMo SMART for its Sunbeam®, Crock-Pot®, Mr. Coffee® and Oster® brands.

“As smart devices become more prolific in the home, we wanted to give companies an easy way to reinvigorate traditional product categories with internet connectivity and the ability to integrate with other household devices and cloud-based services,” said Jamie Elgie, senior director of product management at Belkin. “JCS is the perfect initial partner because its brands make the exact kind of products our fans have been asking us to integrate with WeMo.”

The WeMo SMART platform allows companies such as JCS to bring smart capabilities to their products quickly and without developing a separate hub, by using Belkin’s existing WeMo technology, app development and cloud server. Mature product lines can be quickly brought into the smart home realm, giving them increased functionality and the ability to be controlled via smartphones and tablets.

“With Belkin’s focus on the tablet and smartphone market and recent successes in creating simple solutions for Internet connected devices, it is a natural partner to help some of JCS’s best-known brands create appliances that people can use to make their homes smarter, safer and more flexible,” said Alejandro Pena, senior vice president and general manager, Global Appliances.

By expanding WeMo to other known brands and appliances, Belkin gives people the ability to remotely monitor, program or interact with more devices in their homes from anywhere. The first JCS products with WeMo will launch later this year, with additional product offerings through 2014

 

Computer Electronics, Computer Hardware, Home automation, Machine to Machine (M2M)

Zonoff Releases Low-cost Wireless Home Automation Architecture

Zonoff, Inc., today announced the launch of the “Zonoff Distributed Radio Architecture” (ZDRA). The new architecture includes hardware reference designs for an ultra low cost wireless radio solution code-named “Sentry” which will be demonstrated by Zonoff at the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

“The release of ZDRA and Sentry is the next logical step for Zonoff,” explained Mike Harris , Zonoff’s CEO. ZDRA and Sentry facilitate communication back to the home’s primary automation controller, which houses the “brain” of the connected home via Zonoff Home Software.

“Other companies have traditionally depended upon a dedicated home automation controller box to contain both their control software and the specific radios required for RF standards used in home automation, such as Z-Wave, ZigBee and others. Essentially, we have separated the control software from the radios, enabling the radios to be placed wherever they may be needed in the home, without the need for a wired Ethernet connection. The benefit is that consumers can use their existing WiFi network to add any home automation device in any location,” Harris explained.