International Business Machines Corporation, STMicroelectronics NV and Shaspa announced a collaboration to tap cloud and mobile computing for manufacturers and service providers to provide innovative ways for consumers to manage and interact with their homes' functions and entertainment systems using multiple user interfaces such as voice recognition and physical gestures for a smarter home. In Las Vegas this week during the world's consumer electronics exhibition, the three companies will demonstrate a TV linked to ST's Home Gateway, running software from business partner Shaspa, and connected to the IBM cloud. Through sensors, the system can monitor home parameters such as temperature, carbon dioxide level through a wireless or batteryless IPv6 network, or human motion within the home.

The data can be communicated to a smartphone or tablet via a wireless router. In this way, the homeowner can offload much of the home management to the cloud and interact with the system using event and time-based preset scenarios. The companies anticipate that this initiative could allow consumers to use any device capable of running apps to manage a variety of personal activities such as viewing their home's energy consumption; controlling security, heating and lighting systems; activating home appliances such as washing machines; monitoring health and assisted living conditions; or engaging in e-commerce.

For example, a person with limited mobility could gesture to the TV to unlock the front door, turn up the heat or check vital signs. This project represents the future of electronics technology as sensing devices and equipment seamlessly respond to user needs and requests, emulating the way humans sense their environment. In this project, ST's Home Gateway and Shaspa's embedded software acts as a bridge between the home and cloud services provided by the IBM SmartCloud Service Delivery Platform, which gives electronics manufacturers a cloud platform to manage smart devices and rapidly introduce new consumer services.

The gateway, based on a STiH416, provides the physical connectivity, provisioning and management middleware, application protocols, and interfaces for connecting and controlling the 'Internet of Things'. The connected-home System-on-Chip runs software including Linux and a service management system compliant with the OSGi industry standard.