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Technology Standards - General

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Article Title Author Company eMag Issue Article Synopsis
The Open Home Control Project Uwe Freese Open Home Control

Apr 2013

 Open Home Control is an Open Source project that concentrates on the building of home automation devices. The idea is to have an Open Source alternative to proprietary commercial systems.
The Freedom of Wireless USB Technology Christopher Cowlan

Mar 2009

 With the overwhelming success of USB technology as the preferred interface, comes the challenge of organizing all of the cabling from desktop peripherals. Users with multiple USB peripherals find the clutter of cables unsightly and inconvenient to their workspace. With many different USB connections for mobile devices, such as cellphones, cameras, MP3 players and PDAs, it becomes increasingly difficult to use them on the go. To overcome these challenges a new method for connecting peripherals has come to fruition. A method, which offers the same benefits of a physical USB connection without the need for unsightly cables, a technology known as certified wireless USB. Using an ultra-wideband radio frequency ranging from 3.1 – 10.6 GHz, 127 devices can connect to a single computer up to 10 meters away without a hub. Connections made less than 3 meters away from the host can benefit from speeds typically USB 2.0, while connections from 3 to 10 meters will operate at 110 Mbps. Devices that support dual role or direct connections with each other can also operate with wireless USB technology.
Small Form Factors for Home Technologies Thinagaran Perumal

Nov 2008

 The rapid miniaturization and cost reduction in the sector of consumer electronics has created opportunities for equipping our homes with inexpensive sub-systems that manage and configure various tasks. These sub-systems comprise of energy management, digital home entertainment, home automation and assistive technologies that plays important role in driving the development for home technologies towards comfort living and lifestyle.
Classic Home Toys Installment #19 The Final CD Format: HDCD James Russo

Nov 2008

 HDCD is capable of higher quality sound reproduction because HDCD encodes the equivalent of 20 bits worth of data in a 16-bit digital audio signal by utilizing custom dithering, audio filters, and some reversible amplitude and gain encoding. Peak Extend, which is a reversible soft limiter and Low Level range Extend which is a reversible gain on low-level signals. There is thus a benefit at the expense of an increase in noise.
Filling the Home with Music not Wires Jim Reeber HomePlug

Apr 2008

 HomePlug Powerline communications technology has been helping homeowners network their computers and share internet connections since 2001 – all without installing any new wiring.
In-home Wiring Jim Farmer Wave7 Optics

Dec 2007

 This paper presents recommendations for wiring homes for video, voice, and data connections from fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) Optical Network Terminals ONTs. The material generally follows the terminology and recommendations of the National Electric Code, the Telephone Industries Association (TIA), and BICSI. References to all three are presented at the end of this document.
PLC (Powerline Communication) for Triple Play and IPTV Whole-House Distribution Frederic Onado SPiDCOM Technologies

Jun 2007

 All households have electricity, so they are network-ready; there is no need to install new cables or do “truck-rolls”. Then, with several electrical sockets in every room, IPTV & Triple-Play services are available everywhere in the home with consistent performance.
What's so different about HDMI? Amy Fraley TV One

Feb 2007

 Devices are categorized as being Sources, Repeaters, Sinks or cables and every device must handle uncompressed digital video and audio signals according to strictly enforced guidelines.
HDMI Secrets – buy an HDMI cable, get a DVD player free Raj Nair ComLSI Inc.

Feb 2007

 There is no need to believe cable vendors touting strange advancements in their cables… simple Cat-5 cables can do the job! In actual fact, Cat-5 and Cat-6 cables have the necessary standardization and design maturity ensuring optimality for high-speed data transfer.
Smart Phones to Smart Homes SmartLabs, Inc. SmartLabs, Inc.

Oct 2006

 Will the trend that created the smart phone lead to the mass acceptance of the smart home as well? It’s a smart bet.
From Old Cars to High-speed Home Networks Mark E. Hazen Intellon Corporation

Aug 2006

 AC powerline and coax cable both networking together is what Intellon Corporation calls a hybrid network, sort of a parallel to the hybrid cars of today – both have two means of conveyance adding to the overall power.
A New Standard for Home Control Products Lew Brown Monster Cable

Jun 2006

 Each Z-Wave product/module acts as a sender and receiver in the network, offering two-way communications to make sure that one device knows the other received a command.
HDCP—Is Doom Upon Us? Evolution Audio Video Evolution Audio Video

Apr 2006

 You know, it’s a shame a minority of knot-headed pirates have to spoil the recording concept for us all but I have to wonder if things would really be all that different if those guys just didn’t exist. I suspect not. Resistance, is futile… or perhaps more accurately, a matter of time.
HD DVD vs Blu-ray, Battle Lines Blur Wayde Robson Home Theater Focus

Apr 2006

 The story between the lines seems to be which manufacturers aren’t taking sides at all. Conditions indicate a great possibility of a unified product sooner than we might have first suspected.
HD-DVD First out of the Gate at CES Steve Sechrist Insight Media

Feb 2006

 Whether Blu-ray manufacturers know it or not, it is now a horse race for the mind share and eyeballs of the consumer, and early reports in from CES seem to indicate that the HD-DVD camp is first out of the starting gate and taking a lead in that race.
HomeToys Interview Jon Adams and Robert Nguyen Freescale and Panasonic Electronic Devices

Oct 2005

 ZigBee technology is intended to take much of the pain and difficulty out of adding short-range, robust wireless to products that once relied upon expensive wiring or proprietary radios.
Benefits of USB Device Connectivity silex technology America Silex Technology America, Inc

Aug 2005

 Silex takes a look at the Top-10 ways businesses, government agencies, homeowners, resellers, and system integrators can utilize USB device servers to connect USB devices directly to a network.
Z-Wave as Home Control RF Platform Thomas Jorgensen Zensys A/S

Jun 2005

 Zensys provides a mass-market home control technology, which is low cost, low power, easy-to-use and reliable. The mesh network Z-Wave system, with its self-organizing and self-healing features, combined with flexible but simple installation procedures, provides an easy-to-use network solution.
Making Sense of Today’s Home Control Technologies Raoul Wijgergangs Zensys

Apr 2005

 The Z-Wave protocol is designed for residential control systems. Typically these systems have between five and two hundred plus nodes, distributed around the home and garden. The system is designed for easy installation because homeowners install and manage the system themselves.
Realizing the Promise of the Connected Home Raoul Wijgergangs Zensys

Dec 2004

 Z-Wave is delivering on the promise of the connected home, providing reliability, interoperability, convenience and relatively low-cost all in a chip the size of a dime.
Intel Enables Sharing of Digital Content on the Home LAN Steven R. Bard Intel

Oct 2004

 Designing and validating a digital home product to Intel® NMPR conformance places developers at the fore front with a compelling digital home product.
WWL - Wiring Without a License Paul Deshaies Lifestyle Automation

Feb 2004

 Naturally the Integrators who have been out there for a few years kind of like the free-wheeling Old West environment of the Low Voltage Industry. Like the Old West this will not last forever, standards have risen to the surface. Not so new concepts will begin to take on larger meaning.
Standards Schmandards John Stagl IDM Technologies

Oct 2003

 Standards provide a level playing field for both the builder and the installer. They also provide a uniform and predictable infrastructure for the customer. The question is not whether standards will become universal, its when. Builders and installers that strictly implement standards now will develop their reputations early. Installers that skirt standards now will also be developing reputations.
UPnP™ Technology Gains Momentum Karen M. Stash UPnP™ Implementers Corp

Apr 2003

 The mission of the UPnP™ Forum and the UPnP™ Implementers Corporation (UIC) is to enable new networked experiences for consumers and to create revenue opportunities for device companies. As described herein, the standards already adopted and certified provide an excellent foundation for this mission and the standards being created now will carry this mission into the future.
First OSGi World Congress Announced OSGi

Aug 2002

 OSGi is a global, cross-industry consortium, with membership open to any interested party, including Internet service providers, network operators, original equipment manufacturers, independent software vendors, end users, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profit organizations.
HomePlug Reality Graham Wilson

Apr 2002

 Analysts believe that HomePlug has an advantage over other home networking mediums, such as phone lines, because of the higher ratio and availability of power outlets over phone jacks, the increased reliability of powerline home networking over wireless standards, the cost effectiveness of deploying powerline technology, and the ease with which it may be installed.
Bluetooth: Finally Making An Impact Navin Sabharwal Allied Business Intelligence

Apr 2002

 The outlook for Bluetooth technology is once again positive, albeit cautiously so. Bluetooth at its core is an embedded play. The desire to purchase add-on, aftermarket Bluetooth solutions is limited. For Bluetooth to succeed integration cost and power consumption are key determinants.
OSGi: The Glue to Fix your Home Network Ralph Kehmeier ProSyst Software AG

Feb 2002

 It turns out that installing a service gateway is not a do-it-yourself home project. The hardware needs to fit with whatever home devices you want to connect, the software has to be written to work with the devices, and the home devices have to be designed to work with the service gateway. But cheer up: OSGi service gateways are already available, and are predicted to become wide-spread in the near future. One day soon your OSGi-managed home system will make George Jetson look like a Luddite.
IEEE 802.11g William Carney Texas Instruments

Feb 2002

 "The IEEE has defined a clear path for 802.11g that bridges 11, 22 and 54 Mbps, making multi-mode products based on one standard a reality," said Allen Nogee, senior analyst Cahners In-Stat/ MRD. "By already offering 22 Mbps capabilities with the ACX100, TI and its customers are well positioned to enable the first step in the deployment of 802.11g compliant products in the 2.4 GHz band."
HomePNA Networks the Home with Existing Wires HomePNA HomePNA

Dec 2001

 At COMDEX 2001 HomePNA announced the Voice-over-HomePNA (VoHPNA) protocol, which extends its 2.0 specification to include support for digital voice services. This announcement makes HomePNA the first home networking protocol to deliver a network-based framework for delivering toll-quality digital telephony services for consumer price points.
HAVi and IEEE 1394 Amit Dhir Xilinx

Dec 2001

 The digital home continues to evolve and smarter appliances continuing to perpetrate the home. These smarter appliances and the need for sharing broadband data, voice, and video is pushing the need for home networking. While several technologies exist the technology that provides high-speed and reliable delivery of voice, data and video will win. IEEE 1394 is one such home networking technology that provides both high-speed and reliable delivery. The proliferation of 1394 as the A/V standard will be accelerated through the use of HAVi as its middleware solution to connect disparate devices, thus providing a complete solution to the consumer.
802.11b Wireless Lesley Kirchman Actiontec Electronics, Inc.

Dec 2001

 The newer, and at this point more expensive, 802.11a standard is able to transmit data at speeds up to 54 Mbps, which is more than adequate for today’s video and audio technologies. In fact, according to a recent report from the Gartner Group, Inc., it has “enough capacity to simultaneously support two streams of standard television content, data traffic among multiple PCs in the home and an HDTV stream”.
HomePlug - Strength in Numbers Graham Wilson Cogency Semiconductor Inc.

Oct 2001

 When you consider the versatility and diverse capabilities of powerline home networking solutions, it is clear that there is strength in numbers. Bringing together 90 companies from a range of industry sectors ensures that consumers who want to create a home network will be provided with a variety of cost-effective, HomePlug-certified products that will all work together.
FCC Decision Bolsters HomeRF Navin Sabharwal Allied Business Intelligence

Oct 2000

 For HomeRF, the FCC decision, while a long time coming, is a major victory. Without a positive decision there was a real possibility that HomeRF would have been fatally caught in a pincer movement between IEEE 802.11b's higher bandwidth and Bluetooth's lower cost.
CEBus Products from EGi Ron Horton EGi

Oct 2000

 EGi (Emerald Gateway International) has been creating products using CEBus technology since 1996. In that time, EGi has built a reputation for creating visionary products and, along with parent company DSC, is establishing itself as a leader in bridging the gap between home security and home automation.
CEBus Parable Herman Cardenas SMART LLC

Oct 2000

 SCP products will probably not be commercially available until sometime in late 2001. However, not to worry, a plan is in place to insure that the CEBus/Home Plug & Play products that you buy today will integrate and interoperate with the SCP products you may buy tomorrow. You can expect that SCP products will offer a whole new world of possibilities and features.
HomeRF Update Ben Manny HomeRF

Aug 2000

 The HomeRF Working Group is happy to report that our first shipping products, including Intel's AnyPoint and Compaq's Symphony-HRF product line, are receiving glowing reviews in the marketplace.
CEBus Demonstration System Zhou Yong

Aug 2000

 As a feasibility study, the demonstration system mainly contains two simple subsystems: HVAC and Light System. Other devices include smoke detector, clock, etc. All the devices can be found and manipulated on the TV screen with a remote controller.
Dave Rye @ X10 X10 (USA) Inc.

Oct 1999

 X10 has changed a lot over the years and I've grown with it. I was 23 years old when I joined Pico and that was 25 years ago. I've spent more than ½ my life with X10! It's been a fun 25 years and I'm looking forward to what the future brings.
CEBus Design Evan Price Domosys Corporation

Aug 1999

 The software development must first begin by deciding how to implement the CEBus/Home Plug & PlayTM protocol stack. Two options exist here: the developer can either write the stack themselves, which is a long and arduous process taking several man-years, or purchase a tool that integrates the protocol stack with their code.
Home API : Innovations in Home Automation Integration Steven Totolo

Apr 1999

 Recently, the growth in the number of home automation standards has made integrating products from different manufactures and network protocols difficult if not virtually impossible. Home API will provide a common layer of functionality above present and future network protocols, lessening integration problems.
HomeRF Wireless Steven Totolo

Feb 1999

 SWAP defines a common interface specification that supports wireless voice and data services in the home. It was designed to operate with the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the Internet.
HomeAPI Group Interview Bob Hetherington

Feb 1999

 Home API allows a software developer an easy way to discover controllable devices in the home, the control attributes of the devices (on/off, volume up/down, channel, time, temperature, status, etc.), and the current state of the device, and it provides the ability to modify or change the state of the device.
INTRODUCTION TO THE SMART HOUSE® SYSTEM Kenneth P. Wacks

Dec 1997

 "The fundamental goal of SMART HOUSE is to provide integrated wiring for all current home services and to include provisions for home automation technology. Cost savings are promised from reduced labor to install an integrated wiring system.
HA Standards Mike MacAdam Domosys Corporation

Dec 1997

 "Consumers are willing to buy reasonably priced solutions as long as there is no danger that their purchase will become obsolete i.e. there is a standard. Manufacturers also need standards before making the large investments necessary for low cost production. An ideal standard will allow developers to differentiate their products with features and include the flexibility to evolve over time according to the needs of the market."
X-10 Myths & Realities Dave Rye

Oct 1997

 "Myth: X-10 can't transmit analog data. / Reality: X-10 currently has systems installed (which X-10 developed for Honeywell) employing PLC transmission of both temperature and light levels transmitted using X-10 protocols after A to D conversion."
What Does Home Plug and Play Mean to the Consumer Robert Heiblim CEBus Industry Council

Apr 1997
Home Plug and Play for Consumer Electronics Kurt Kyvik Intellon

Apr 1997
Lonworks - An Introduction Mark Lockareff Echelon

Dec 1996

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