By: Sorab Ghaswalla
Global companies and professionals who are interested to know more about the emerging new field of The Internet of Things (IoT) may get a legup by reading up on the newly setup AllSeen Alliance, a non-profit organisation dedicated to the growth of the IoT.
The Linux Foundation, another non-profit organisation dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, setup the Alliance in the middle of December last year. The AllSeen Alliance is the 11th Linux Foundation Collaborative Project.
Of course, by now, most of you are aware that the Internet of Things or Internet of Everything is based on the idea that devices, objects and systems can be connected in simple, transparent ways to enable seamless sharing of information and coordinated and intelligent operations across all of them.
The AllSeen Alliance looks to expand upon the IoT,” which research agency Gartner has predicted will add US$1.9 trillion to the global economy by 2020. It’s going to revolutionise the way we use our gadgets and machines today, and affect almost every sector that uses gadgets – health, Internet, Information Technology, of course, consumer durables, and so on.
Founding members of the AllSeen Alliance include some of the world’s leading, consumer electronics manufacturers, home appliances manufacturers, service providers, retailers, enterprise technology companies, innovative startups, and chipset manufacturers. Premier level members include Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image and TP-LINK. Community members include Canary, Cisco, D-Link, doubleTwist, Fon, Harman, HTC, Letv, LIFX, Lite-on, Moxtreme, Musaic, Sears Brand Management Corporation, Sproutling, The Sprosty Network, Weaved and Wilocity.
For those who are interested in joining up, an opportunity is coming up at the international consumer electronics show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA later this month.
The members of the Alliance will contribute software and engineering resources as part of their collaboration on an open software framework that enables hardware manufacturers, service providers and software developers to create interoperable devices and services. This open source framework allows ad hoc systems to seamlessly discover, dynamically connect and interact with nearby products regardless of brand, transport layer, platform or operating system.
The initial framework is based on the AllJoyn open source project, which was originally developed by and is being contributed to the Alliance by Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated), and will be expanded with contributions from member companies and the open source community. Products, applications and services created with the AllJoyn open source project can communicate over various transport layers, such as Wi-Fi, power line or Ethernet, regardless of manufacturer or operating system and without the need for Internet access. The software runs on popular platforms such as Linux and the Linux-based Android, iOS, and Windows, including embedded variants. The initial codebase is available on the website for developers to access and begin evaluating at http://www.allseenalliance.org
Here’s an example extended by this newly-formed alliance of the greater intelligence and interoperability made possible with the framework as the common language among the devices and services, a family that installs a smart lock built with the framework for their front door will seamlessly be able to connect it to smart lights that also use the framework and security cameras from other manufacturers. Unauthorised entries can trigger the lights to flash and the camera to take a photo of the intruder and send a notification and picture to the smart TV. At the other end of the spectrum, factory floors – evolving environments with systems that need to adjust dynamically – can benefit from the framework’s ability to enable a self-aware network that can constantly learn what new equipment has been added and what capabilities or interfaces that equipment has so that it can immediately begin playing its part in the manufacturing process.
Image Credit: AllSeen Alliance
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