Tech world giants Samsung Electronics and Arm Holdings are teaming up with Google's Nest to develop what could be the most innovative smart home standardsever. The new Thread specification will be an effort to make sensors, cameras, appliances and other in-home devices communicate with ease with one another. It comes on the heels of a major boost in interest this year with smart home ideas.
The idea, dubbed Thread, was announced this month and the companies hope to be able to deliver certified products by next year that could be integrated into one large smart home. While it could be a ground breaker and game-changer, it must go beyond the concepts already on the market to link home devices, such as Bluetooth Smart and Z-Wave.
This won't create a new dimension to standards, as Thread says its specifications are based on existing products and standards and is only adding additional software to easily streamline one's home to be linked together for security, routing, setup and device wake-up. It hopes to also increase battery life in order to make the daily routine a bit easier on the customer. This, according to Thread Group President Chris Boross.
"We wanted to use something off the shelf, but ... we knew that we had to do something new to make the best products," said Boross, who also works on the product marketing team at Nest.
The entirety of the concept is to push the Internet of Things farther. The IoT is basically a means of controlling data points and linking together the wireless world we currently live in. By delving into the home, Google and its partners believe the IoT of the home can be achieved, but some analysts argue that while this is positive for the smart home and competition in the sector, it does little to push the envelope.
Some analysts point that by not going for a new way of looking at the IoT, including new and innovative software ideas, it continues to run up against the same problems.
Still, there is much grounded excitement that three of the tech world's largest are teaming up to help develop and push forward the Internet of Things through arguably the most important place in today's society, the home.
