The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will be in full swing this week and the biggest show in the world is dropping all sorts of IoT and M2M technology on the industry. While it’s going, and for the next few weeks I’m sure, we’ll be bringing you dispatches from the show in Vegas, and helping you keep abreast of what’s new and coming up in the IoT.
Smart Home
German-Swiss smart home technology maker digitalSTROM is demonstrating how it will make it easier to integrate smart home tech , no matter which manufacturer made it. The company’s platform is designed to integrate all home electronics at the power meter, so anything that is plugged in can be integrated into the platform. The whole thing is accomplished via the company’s smart block, which is capable of connecting and adding intelligence to standard appliances and fixtures so they can communicate with the server through the home’s power lines.
“Smart Home has to be easy for customers,” said Martin Vesper, CEO, digitalSTROM. “They’re used to plugging things in, so that’s why we install at the power line. A Smart Home should work with less attention than a regular home, not more. It should be easier.”
Broadcom Corporation, a global maker of semiconductor solutions, has announced that it will spend CES showing off its 64bit quad-core processor for high-end routers, which it calls an industry-first. This router is designed to allow OEMs and service providers to deliver CPU power needed for smart home and IoT applications. It has a 1.8GHz 64Bit quad-core ARM CPU and uses Broadcom's Runner network packet processor to deliver more than 5 Gbps of system data throughput.
“With this new SoC, Broadcom is driving home network connectivity to the next level,” said Manny Patel, Director of Marketing, Wireless Connectivity, Broadcom. “By increasing the CPU performance and adding advanced features, we're enabling OEMs to build more powerful home routers that address the increased bandwidth requirements needed to support the continued consumption of high-bandwidth content, growing demand for UltraHD as well as the growing emergence of more IoT and smart home applications.”
Kolibree is a maker of a smart preventive oral care platform that connects dentists and patients and at CES, the company is planning to showcase four new games that use its connected sonic toothbrush as a game controller. The 3D motion sensors guide the user toward better brushing by showing where you brushed and where you missed. The new games are for kids from 3 to teenage years. There are also elements for adults under the Coach brand.
“The Kolibree platform strengthens the dentist-patient relationship by allowing parents to digitally share family brushing habits with their dentist as part of a personalized approach to preventive dental care,” said Thomas Serval, founder and CEO, Kolibree.
MediaTek, a fabless semiconductor and SoC company, has announced its MT7697, designed to power Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections for smart gadgets and wearables in the home. This new connectivity option will support consumers’ connected homes and lifestyles together with the company’s extensive smartphone chipset portfolio. It leverages BLE for the short range and WiFi for long range and better Internet access and a dual-band WiFi version of the chipset, MT7697D, offers 2.4GHz and 5GHz support.
“The MT7697 is a market-leading offering to further innovations in smart home applications,” said JC Hsu, Corporate VP and GM, IoT business unit, MediaTek. “It expands opportunities for developers to build connected home software and innovative devices with support from our pre-existing series of leading SoCs, and software and hardware development kits.”
The Iris line of Smart Home products at Lowe’s has gotten a big revamp and will strut its stuff at CES this week. This next generation, the brand says, offers new functionality and faster performance with updated software and hardware to make Iris simpler, more intuitive and more personalized. The new technology was created in partnership with CentraLite Systems. The new line now works with more than 75 devices for the smart home. The Iris Smart Hub and seven of its core devices were designed and manufactured by CentraLite, including the Door Contact Sensor, Smart Plug, Motion Sensor, Help Pendant, Smart Button, Smart Fob and Smart Keypad.
“CentraLite has been a great partner to us,” said Mick Koster, VP and GM, Iris Home Systems. “We worked closely with their team to develop the next generation of Iris' core devices. We want to make home automation accessible to everyone, which is why we partner with innovative companies like CentraLite to offer the best possible technology and products.”
That’s the Smart Home Roundup – keep an eye out for more from the floor at CES.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle
