The Missing Piece of the Smart Home Revolution: The Operating System

An anonymous reader writes with this story about who will lead the IoT revolution, and whether it will follow in mobile's footsteps. "As these technologies sense and and react to changes in your environment, there are obvious parallels to computer operating systems, which receive input and return output. What does the 'operating system' for the smart home of the future look like? Alex Hawkinson is trying to help answer that very question. The founder and CEO of IoT company SmartThings is not only a leader in the market, he’s a consumer. He suggests there won’t be a singular, cohesive operating system for your home, that this stuff isn’t one-size-fits-all. 'I think it’s up to everyone to determine their own bits,' Hawkinson said. 'Some people love cameras in house, my wife wants none. It’s up to your preferences.'”

Comments

Not so sure about this...

[Frosty Piss]

Networks run by professionals can't keep the hackers out, and I want my home to have an operating system? I'm not intereested in my appliences sending me text messages, and my furnace is already on a fairly sophisticated timer. For me, at least, the answer is "no" - for the time being. I really don't see any show-stopping need beyond "wow, my house is wired!"

Re:Not so sure about this...

[epyT-R]

Your mistake is in assuming that wired homes will serve their occupants. They're meant to serve government and civil authorities at the occupant's expense. Note: I avoided using the term 'owner' on purpose.

Re:Not so sure about this...

[Frosty Piss]

Your mistake is in assuming that wired homes will serve their occupants. They're meant to serve government and civil authorities at the occupant's expense. Note: I avoided using the term 'owner' on purpose.

Makes me think of "smart meters".

Re:Not so sure about this...

[Anonymous Coward]

Your mistake is in assuming that wired homes will serve their occupants. They're meant to serve government and civil authorities at the occupant's expense. Note: I avoided using the term 'owner' on purpose.

Makes me think of "smart meters".

What it _should_ be making you think of is the "telescreen" from the book "1984".

/

Re:Not so sure about this...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

I think that you underestimate the role of the private sector in the process.

The crowning genius of free-market surveillance states is how much of the (otherwise expensive, arduous, and likely to be resented) work of surveillance can be left to private sector self interest to implement and market, with the state needing only to subpoena up the results and do relatively small amounts of supplementary spying(even this often accomplished in no small part just by buying the access).

Data provided by 'smart homes' will end up with the feds, in due time; but it'll be picked clean by every scumbag marketing weasel in the business first. Best of both worlds!

Re:Not so sure about this...

[pepty]

The government won't care unless you've figured out a way to use your refrigerator to dodge taxes. The interested parties will be private and very much for profit.

Re:Not so sure about this...

[cas2000]

it's funny how libertarian nutters believe in the exact opposite of what happens in reality.

in the real world, governments - i.e. providers of socialised health care/health insurance - don't give a fuck about what you do or eat, they provide the health care you are entitled to (i.e. whatever you need without regard for your finances) no matter what you do.

private health insurers, on the other hand, leap at any excuse to get out of their obligations - if there's anything, no matter how tiny or how irrelevant they can use to blame the patient for their misfortune, then they'll use it.

Re:Not so sure about this...

[AmiMoJo]

Can you explain exactly what is wrong with smart meters?

I work in the water industry where such meters are used. Water companies like them because they reduce costs - no need to send people out to read a little display any more. The regulator has forced the water companies to pass on the savings to the consumer.

There is a privacy aspect, but anyone who understands how the water network works will realise that the concerns are overblown. The smart meters report back very little information, because if they all used up a lot of bandwidth there wouldn't be enough to go round (M-BUS/433/868/915MHz) or would cost too much (GSM/3G). Typically they just report back the current meter reading, or at most a few data points per day. The companies don't need more because they already have monitoring equipment installed on every pipe and facility in their network. If one street starts using more water than expected they will know about it within hours and send someone to find out if there is a leak. Typically 30-40% of the clean water in the network is lost to leaks, so fixing them is a pretty big deal.

Even if they could tell when you are flushing your drugs down the loo, the metering system isn't real-time and there would be no way to know you were not just taking a dump. Their only interest is billing you.

Electricity is similar. They could try to monitor you with the smart meter, but it would be a lot easier to just install something at the sub-station or point a thermal camera at your house.

Can you point to any practical uses for or attacks on smart meters?

Black Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

Black Mirror recently did an episode that had an interesting take on this. It's interwoven into the second part of the episode.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Christmas_(Black_Mirror)

If you haven't seen the rest of their stuff (two seasons, 6 episodes + the xmas special), it's highly recommended.

I'm at a loss. And I RTFA

[Harlequin80]

This is a terrible article. Seriously it is a press release for this company and it says NOTHING. Not only does is say nothing it is full of blatant crap.

Since when does your light bulb and your sensors in ANY WAY contribute to what you OS is?!??!?!?

I'm really at a loss of where to go for what Slashdot used to be. Soilent news isn't there yet. I must be dumb because I can't figure reddit out.

I still come here and every now and again there is something good. But it's getting less and less.

No

[Mikkeles]

This is total nonsense and irrelevant to home automation.

Re:I'm at a loss. And I RTFA

[bouldin]

There has been a lot of this lately.. CEOs of companies with cutesy names like "SmartThings" and "Eyeotee" pitching their bullshit visions to posture as "thought leaders."

We have had internet-enabled devices for some time.

The only revolution here is that big business is trying to monetize your entire life, daily routines and all. They want you to trade all of your security and privacy for a crumb of convenience.

Which OS?

[AchilleTalon]

QNX if BlackBerry does the right steps right now. Next question!

Okay, I will explain. Because QNX has the track records, the reliability, the realtime features, the small footprint, the legal backing required to win there. If a house accidentally burn down to ground, with or without fatalities, the OS provider may be liable for such an accident if someone can demonstrate a glitch, bug, malfunction, etc of the OS is at the origin of the fire. It is not a playground for kids and QNX is well in advance to any other racers.

Protocols

[Dan East]

No, it's not the OS that's needed, but the protocols. For example the Internet is not an OS - it is a set of protocols built on protocols with more protocols running on top. What is needed for home automation is the protocols allowing a "dumb" device like a sensor or button to be able to connect to something that unifies everything together and lets them communicate. What OS, if any, is running on the devices doesn't matter.

Re:Protocols

[Tom]

No, it's not the OS that's needed, but the protocols.

Literally my first thought on reading the summary: "Someone doesn't know what an OS is."

In a properly engineered environment, the OS of the individual components shouldn't matter.