News

Control and Monitoring of Smart Home Devices and Appliances

September 03, 2015 by Jeff Shepard

The AllSeen Alliance today announced the Home Appliances and Entertainment (HAE) Service Framework, a standard AllJoyn-based interface for controlling and monitoring smart appliances and entertainment devices in the home. The HAE Service Framework is an output of the AllSeen Alliance's Smart Spaces Working Group, one of six working groups dedicated to advancing AllJoyn by focusing on critical, horizontal areas of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Major contributors to the HAE Service Framework include Electrolux, Haier, Honeywell, LG Electronics, Lowe's, Panasonic, Sharp and Sony. These members have identified a minimum set of operations across devices to enable control and monitoring capabilities regardless of vendor. The HAE Service Framework will allow devices such as air conditioners, air purifiers, air quality monitors, ovens, refrigerators, robot vacuums, washers and TVs to be controlled by a common set of interfaces so that users can achieve a seamless and uniform experience across manufacturer and brand of their home appliances or devices.

Industry reports estimate that 45 million smart home devices will have been installed by 2018 with market growth upwards of $40 billion by 2020. But the current smart home market is fragmented, with competing manufacturers developing disparate smart home systems and technologies. In addition, many smart systems available on the market today have complex interfaces that make functionality for consumers limited or challenging. To integrate devices across vendors in an efficient and cost effective way requires a standard interface and API.

The HAE Service Framework builds on top of AllJoyn to make it easy for appliances and entertainment devices to work together and with other AllJoyn-enabled products. When paired with existing and future AllJoyn service frameworks -- such as the Lighting Service Framework -- rich scenarios that address real-world needs are possible. For example, an LG washer machine would be able to send a notification to the screen on an Electrolux refrigerator to alert the homeowner the cycle is complete.

"We need a common, open technology like AllJoyn in order to provide a truly connected experience for consumers," said VP Taeg-il Cho, Head of Creative Innovation Center, LG Electronics. "For devices like LG webOS TV to interact seamlessly with an Electrolux oven or Panasonic washer, we must all build upon a common framework. The HAE Service Framework enables us to collaborate with other companies in the smart home space and work together to overcome existing interoperability issues."

This is the second major technical milestone from the AllSeen Alliance's Smart Spaces Working Group. In October 2014, the Connected Lighting Project announced the availability of a Lighting Service Framework to "enable new levels of interoperability between connected devices and lights but also provide third-party developers building applications a way to discover and control lighting in an open, common way across manufacturer."