The adaptation of regular Sensor technology for home healthcare is predicted to accelerate in growth over the next five years; this is according to research published by ResearchandMarkets. According the paper, sensor technology previously used in non-medical fields are now being adapted to improve healthcare services provided to the elderly and others in their homes.
At first, we thought it would be Microsoft HomeOS that would be the system to bring it all together in the connected home, then early this year our attention turned to Alljoyn as that solution. Now, this week Prodea, an eight-year-old electronics company up until recently only a few us had heard about has become the third option.
Last year saw Microsoft sending a clear signal about their energy use, the company signed a 20-year power purchase agreement for wind energy in Texas. They have gone as far as defining their commitment to smarter energy use in their Global Public Policy Agenda. Going forward every business division within Microsoft will have to account for their energy use and their impact on the environment, even their use of air transport will be measured.
The collaboration between DSP Group, Rockethome and Prosyst has delivered another home automation solution for service providers. DSP said they have integrated Prosyst’s mBS OSGi (Open Service Gateway initiative), Rockethome’s smart home plug and play solution with their DECT and ULE chipset into one end-to-end home automation and security platform. The solution will provide a cloud and OSGi Internet of Things (IoT) architecture that allows service providers to enhance their service offering.
QNAP the makers of NAS (Networked Attached Storage) has become the first of such companies to be certified by Control4 to work with its home automation solution. The certification of QNAP storage systems has made easier for users and integrators to add storage to Control4 as part of their home network.
With $900k in seed funding and not comfortable with just providing baby monitoring solutions, Evoz has set its sights on the bigger connected home market. Today the company announced plans to expand in this space through partnership with hardware manufacturers such as Belkin and telecom provider British Telecom (BT). Evoz said, the uniqueness of their platform mean they can offer smarter connected solutions.
ZigBee Alliance has announced that a number of his members are working of developing a standard for the NAN. NAN is defined as a utility's last-mile, outdoor access network that connects smart meters and other utility devices to Wide Area Network (WAN) communication points. ZigBee pointed out that an important of the NAN standardization is to help seamless interoperability between utilities and product manufacturers.
Venstar has release new developer Application Programming Interface (API) for its ColorTouch Thermostats (Models T5800 and T5900). Now, developers can use ColorTouch's built-in API (in firmware updates 3.08 and newer) to create applications that will allow the thermostat to be controlled by third-party applications, including home automation companies.
Venture capital (VC) funding into smart grid technology companies came in at $405 million in 63 deals in 2013, compared to $434 million in 40 deals in 2012. Total corporate funding, including debt and public market financings, came to $579 million in 2013, compared to $506 million in 2012. There were 94 total VC investors in 2013, with 12 active investors participating in multiple deals. There were three IPOs in 2013 (including one in the fourth quarter), raising a combined $162.3 million.
The value of the world’s digital home entertainment systems market* has increased by over $3 US billion from 2012 to 2013, this is according to a report from Electronics.ca Publications. Entitled "Digital Entertainment in the Home: Technologies and Global Markets", they estimated that by 2018 the market is expected to grow to US $176.3 billion, and register a five-year compound annual growth rate of 3.2% from 2012 to 2018.