After the smartphone, the smart home

In new technologies, home automation has more to do with science fiction than reality. If it's up to some major electronics manufacturers, it may well be that reality comes a little more than fiction. The new generation of appliances could give rise to the smart home, via cloud computing.

A refrigerator connected to the internet is not exactly new. This is something that has existed for several years. Like the washing machine or microwave oven, which, by the magic of wireless waves, you can signal the end of their work remotely.

This is when you want a quick overview of the condition of the home from the office computer or its smartphone it goes bad. The door is locked it properly? The fridge is closed? Have we really forgotten that there was a chicken on fire?

California-based Cisco think I found the solution to this problem. The key: a router for home computer can automatically detect the presence of appliances connected and routing information about them in one place, in the cloud.

By June, its new line of Linksys Smart WiFi service will provide access to cloud computing, Cisco Cloud Connect, which allows adjusting parameters remotely from his home network, to manage the priority of the various connections to the Internet and, yes, to see a glance whether the appliances are in good shape.

"The proliferation of wireless technology has created a new family of devices connected to the internet. Consumers themselves, expect everything to work just from applications and software that simplify the use and adjustment of these devices, "says Brett Wingo, CEO of home networking products for Cisco.

In addition to the settings of the wireless terminal such as, Cisco Cloud Connect will provide a web platform that appliance manufacturers, service providers and web application developers of all kinds can graft their own products or services.

"The applications will come from Cisco and developers who want to exploit the emerging market for connected home," continues Mr. Wingo. Cisco Cloud Connect will display on the screen so a list of applications, like a smart phone, except that in this case, the applications will access some features of the house.

As the phone five years ago, the connected home could experience a phenomenal growth through these cloud applications. Studies on the subject predict that homes around the world will count 15 billion devices connected to the Internet in 2015, twice in 2010. And it does not understand that laptops and tablets. "The whole house will be connected," says Wingo.