Subject: [NEXTEL-1] IBM Helps Build Connected Community

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 21:01:02 -0400

IBM Helps Build Connected Community
Mon Apr 7, 1:38 PM ET

Jay Wrolstad, Wireless.NewsFactor.com

IBM (NYSE: IBM - news) is taking the home of the future to the next level:
the connected community. Together with a developer and other business
partners, the tech giant is using both wireless and wired technologies to
create a broad array of automated services for homeowners.

At the Village at Tinker Creek, a 170-unit
housing development constructed in Roanoke,
Virginia, by Commonwealth Builders, each
home features an integrated system with
"smart" technology for remote management of
heating, air conditioning and security systems,
as well as a customized portal with access to
community information. Residents also have
wireless local area network (Wi-Fi) access
throughout their US$200,000 homes.

Connectivity Ecosystem

This is the first community of its type in the
country, says Gene Cox, director of mobile
solutions for IBM's pervasive computing division,
and serves as a template for future housing
developments. "We have stitched together an
ecosystem with our partners so that the
wireless local area network access points are
installed as part of an intelligent infrastructure,"
he told NewsFactor.

The partners -- CP Technology of Taiwan and
China-based SVA -- are using IBM's WebSphere pervasive-computing
platform to offer Web and mobile access to household controls as well as to
neighborhood information, local news, shared calendars, and security and
utility management.

CP Tech's NetAppliance service gateway connects external data networks
to internal home and office networks, while SVA's Web-based iHome
application enables residents to control lighting, heating, air conditioning
and security systems from anywhere in the world.

Keeping an Eye on the House

Among the proposed benefits for homeowners are more efficient energy use,
reduced insurance premiums and improved security.

For example, if a person gets to work and cannot remember if he or she
closed the garage door when leaving the house, that individual can log on to
a personal portal, view the garage via a Webcam security system and verify
that the door is closed -- or remotely close it.

Inside the home, said Cox, Wi-Fi access is available for PCs, tablets and
laptops, as well as smart, 802.11-enabled appliances as they are rolled out
by manufacturers.

The number of homes with wireless and wired networks has increased in
recent years, Cox said. "We are setting up the infrastructure so that others
can add value in the future. When consumers see what this type of system
can do, we are confident they will buy into it."

Home-Networking Push

IBM foresees a day not too far off when self-reading utility meters are
directly linked to billing services, appliances can sound an alert when the
equipment is about to fail, and online security systems become more
common.

It could happen, but Tom Gramaglia, director of Internet media and
consumer communications at the Yankee Group, said widespread
acceptance of custom home-networking systems in new homes is relatively
small at this point.

The bigger market, in the near term, is adding Wi-Fi access points to
existing homes, Gramaglia told NewsFactor. "Most people just want
wireless access for their laptops or PCs. This is fun to think about, but
connected and Internet-enabled appliances don't exist yet; there are only so
many things you can connect with WLANs now."

According to the Yankee Group, just 8 percent of PC households in the
United States have home networks, of which 25 percent are wireless, 65
percent are Ethernet, and 10 percent use power lines or phone lines. The
installed base of wireless home networks is on the rise, though, growing
from 14 percent to 25 percent from 2001 to 2002.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=75&ncid=738&e=8&u=/nf/20030407/tc_nf/21208

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