As the 2017 CES showed earlier this year, elements of the Internet of Things such as self-driving cars and smart everything are (still) the future.
However, aside from the countless gadgets, appliances and electronics was something more interesting: the display of logos below the devices that signified which systems they work with, representing all the major tech innovators.
While there was no shortage of platforms or hubs, in the end, it all comes down to those protocols.
Protocols are the ways different devices connect with and control, interact and communicate with each other, such as the way USB cables connect printers and computers and other devices to each other so they can communicate. USB is controlled by a consortium that defines the standards and ensures that we don’t end up with 90 different sized connectors, as we used to.
Today, most connected homes use at least two or three protocols across various silos, each device with its own apps and protocol, with no standardization, creating a not-so-connected IoT in homes.
advertisement
advertisement
For example, I have a connected system with thermostats, cameras and smoke detectors in my home, plus smart TVs, smart locks and connected switches, security camera and an Internet-connected sprinkler system.
However, my futuristic-sounding home is not as intelligent as I’d like. I can unlock my door with a touch on an app and the environmental control system knows that I am home based on my location, but that’s where the intelligence of my IoT world ends.
My motion detectors and other gadgets can’t tell my switches and lightbulbs to go off or my connected washing machine to go on once we leave, and my sprinklers have sprayed me multiple times in my driveway.
The lack of interoperability, stemming from a lack of uniform standards and protocols, is a major challenge for the smart home product category. Wireless standards with different radio frequencies are competing rather than communicating with each other.
Software ecosystems and tech companies are dueling it out for central hub and protocol dominance. Some devices work together, others don’t. This scenario is keeping smart homes from becoming truly connected and holding back the Internet of Things from its full promise.
However, when these devices do work together — there are some marriages of connected devices available on the market as well as cloud-based apps to help homes get smarter — we see that greater IoT connectivity, and greater connectivity between protocols, is indeed possible.
Clearly, we need more standardized protocols to deliver what the electronics shows get us excited about: an integrated IoT environment with multiple devices that communicate with each other.
Hopefully, by the 2018 CES we’ll see the transition from homes connected to separate apps to truly smart homes with a network of interconnected intelligent devices; and sprinkler systems that don’t turn on when I’m standing in my driveway.
