Home Automation and Home Networking

There are a couple of networking projects around to make life easier. Some are about home entertainment and some have a more general and comprehensive approach to connect whole households. There are already some devices that do connect everything like the Screenfridge by Electrolux does, a fridge with a computer screen. Future use of such devices may be automated delivery by barcode scanning or rfid chips, when a product is no longer available. Other usage of connected homes might be to start the heating or washing machine before coming home and industrial usage.

In the following there is an introduction to some projects. In a couple of days there will be a showcase about new networking innovations and devices at this blog after visiting the IFA. You may have a look at this blog or the feed on Friday for possible live reports and updates.

Futurelife is a experimental project in switzerland. They are always testing new technologies. Information is available by press releases.

inHaus is called the intelligent home. It is a project about innovations for offices and hospitals and the like.

AMD with AMD Live and Intel with Intel Viiv both are active in optimizing the home networking and multimedia experience.

For specialized information sources and standardization projects you may visit the following sources about Home Automation and Home Networking Standards.