Connected Homes: The Next Network Frontier

“We see these things being packaged in kits, and each kit has a different set of sensors or cameras or other devices, depending on how it is being used,” said Brad Kayton, chief operating officer and co-founder of 4HomeMedia, a member of the Z-Wave Alliance that makes a software platform and applications software.

A venture-capital-backed company called iControl uses a Z-Wave-enabled home network and broadband connection to allow subscribers to see online or on a cell phone what is happening at the front door, the back door, the pool area or any other part of the home covered by a low-cost IP camera. The service can be used as a nanny-cam to keep an eye on a vacation home or just to keep office workers in touch with what's going on at home, said Paul Dawes, CEO of iControl. “Consumers want access to that information in 10 seconds or less, and the user experience we have designed is around that concept,” he said.

The company's business model uses security services, a multibillion-dollar market today, as a Trojan horse to get into the home network before offering a wider range of services in partnership with broadband service providers, Dawes said.

New Z-Wave-enabled door locks, coming soon from Schlage and QuickSet, will allow consumers to remotely lock and unlock doors, or set up codes that will work only at specific dates and times, Z-Wave's Walters said.

“If you are at work and want to let the cable guy in, you can, but it's a lot more interesting than that,” Walters said. “The locks have keypads, and a parent who is at work all day can give each kid their own number. When the kid comes home and enters their number, an SMS message can be sent to the parent's cell phone to let them now their child is home.”

Elder care services are another such offering. Using strategically placed motion detectors and sensors on devices such as a refrigerator door, relatives living hundreds of miles away can be alerted to a lack of expected activity, Kayton said. More proactive home health care links can use networked blood-pressure cuffs or even Web cams to link patients and doctors for more proactive monitoring of seniors who want to stay in their homes.

All of these in-home networking options have the potential to be managed services for telecom service providers, cable companies or even power companies, as all have established customer relationships, billing and customer care services that could be leveraged to deliver in-home networking applications. The cable and telecom companies offering broadband seem especially well-suited to in-home networking services because of those broadband connections, which greatly expand the services for which an in-home network can be used.