Do telco services fit in prototype digital home?

‘If these walls could talk’ is a common expression, but ‘if these walls could text, learn and respond to their resident’s queries’ is when things really get interesting. In the UK, researchers have developed a prototype for a house that can do just that – learn and adapt to its inhabitants. Called the InterHome, the concepts could change how consumers view energy, home automation and security, as well as present a compelling case for service providers to stake their claim in the InterHome of the future.

A dollhouse version of InterHome was developed by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire for the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition held in Cairo in July. The project made it to the top 12, but it’s also a concept that is ready to be taken to the real world, according to its developer Johann Siau, senior lecturer at the University's School of Electronic, Communication & Electrical Engineering. He along with the students involved are in discussions with companies in the building services, electric services, control and monitoring spaces, as well as the Building Research Establishment, to make InterHome a reality.

“[The idea] originally came from investigating the original system, which is quite complicated to set up,” Siau said. “There are a lot of users that need to be set up on the existing home automation system before they can actually get it to work. The idea [with InterHome] is to get the house to learn from your behavior and adapt itself to your behavior. It’s actually knows when you are at home and when you are out and it will automatically, optimally control your home for you.”

The house relies on standard legacy or updated home automation systems. Through a Windows Mobile-powered touch-screen wall display installed in the home, as well as through the Web or any SMS-capable mobile phone, residents can monitor and control systems in their house. Siau said the in-home monitor uses a very low-powered embedded device system that uses less power than a standard WinMo device. Using Windows Presentation Foundation, the user interface is intuitive, Siau said, and runs 24/7.

For example, if a door is unlocked or broken into, the system would trigger an SMS to automatically alert the resident on his or her handset. Consumers can also proactively use the system to turn lights or the thermostat on and off and reduce the amount of energy used in the home, thus cutting CO2 emissions. Siau doesn’t yet have an estimate on how much an InterHome would cost consumers to install, but it could potentially save them up to 300 Euros, or about $424, in a year.

“We are potentially looking at different business models, but the one that will probably sustain InterHome to the future is subscription-based like how mobile phone providers actually subsidize the handset and subscribers pay monthly charges,” Siau said. “The same business model could apply and sustain InterHome for the future. At the moment it will be different ones but, in the future, we hope that the manufacturing company will be able to provide a new approach for the consumer.”

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the manufacturing company, however, to provide the new approach. As a relatively new and untapped market, telcos could be one of the providers benefiting from the movement. Today telcos provide the backbone or delivery pipe for InterHome and related systems, but Siau believes there is a more active role that they could play. The current system runs over the GSM network. Ideally, InterHome will actually be able to dial a cell phone, Siau said, so that if someone were to break in the house, the service would automatically dial an emergency service and play back a recorded feed of anything that happens during that time.

“Instead of hosting it onto our own service, they could provide a service that is chargeable to the end user – just like a mobile subscription fee,” Siau said. “That could be additional service being offered by the telephony or mobile provider to provide the remote access service to the home.”

InterHome can also potentially scale up to eight rooms’ with up to 16 connected devices in each. That is potentially 128 devices per household each with some kind of service plan or data charge associated with it. Based on an industry standard for home automation, X10, Siau said that having successfully tested X10 in both the UK and Cairo, it should be feasible over any power-line communication network. His next task is to experiment with wireless home automation protocols, he said.

“The whole idea is to be able to use existing products already out there,” Siau said. “We are trying to integrate our system as we’ve now developed it with existing automation systems so we could actually make use of retrofitted homes or people who are trying to retrofit their homes. We are trying to come up with something new, but on the other hand we are trying to adapt to what’s already in the market so it gives us a wider catching net.”

Creating a full-fledged InterHome would, by its nature, require service providers to form partnerships with utilities companies, security providers or electric companies that are also staking a claim. This is already starting to happen in the US where telcos, including AT&TandQwest are teaming up with companies providing smart meters, an important component of the InterHome. Bill Ablondi, director of home systems research at Parks Associates, said that partnerships between telcos and electric companies are not necessarily new, so it will just be a matter of defining which companies own the relationships in the home.

It would make sense for this kind of service to be part of the communications bundle, Ablondi added. Home monitoring or remote energy management could be add-on services carriers offer, potentially even free, as part of a triple play of services to the home, he said. As far as a timeframe for when InterHome-inspired homes will become the norm, Siau said there are too many uncertainties to make a prediction. It depends largely on how much of a push comes from the government in terms of fundingand energy conservation. It also could be influenced by customer interest stemming either from the potential cost savings or energy savings. According to Ablondi, this is a potentially sizable market. He said a reasonable assumption is that between 30 to 40% of consumers – given the economy – are likely to be receptive to programs that could save them 15 to 20% on their electricity bill.

“How large these are will vary by geography,” Ablondi added. “In parts of the US where electricity doesn’t cost at much, you might not care. If you are in NYC and can save 20%, tell me what I need to do. It depends on your geography, utility bill and the infrastructure you have at your disposable.”