In June of this year, Tony Fadell (formerly of Apple) and Matt Rogers of Nest Labs introduced “Nest” to the world. The start of “The Smart Home Revolution” is here!
Creative Commons: David Berkowitz “Next Thermostat”
It will now be possible for devices to communicate and access data through sensors to regulate temperatures, respond to smoke alarms and gather information about home behaviors.
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Nest Labs, the nextgen thermostat and smoke alarm maker was purchased by Google for $3.2 billion in January, and then proceeded to purchase DropCam for $555 million which looked to seal the deal was sealed. Nest will remain private, but will have an open platform. Many developers and companies are interested in integration with Nest, and 3 have been accepted so far. Nest has a small team in place to monitor and scrutinize all services interested to make sure they will use Nest only for what is intended and nothing else. It does look like the information gathered from Nest could be helpful to 3rd party developers in many ways.
In effort to create a more conscious and integrated world, some companies already on board include Fitness Tracker Jawbone and Mercedes-Benz. Jawbone’s UP24 band has a setting that will turn on Nest’s thermostat module when it senses the “wearer of the device” has awakened from sleep. Mercedes-Benz cars will alert Nest when driver is expected home and to program thermostat accordingly. Smart Life by LIFX can also be programmed to flash red lights when Nest’s protection module detects smoke in the home.
Creative Common: BITKOM “SmartHome Fachforum”
Developers using Nest can learn more about users than ever before such as where they are in the home, who is there and when they leave. It will be a gateway to learning more about potential customers as well. Nest thermostat module could eventually morph into the central controller for a family’s home and life activities.
Whether or not this will be accepted to users and if it will be a product that successfully attracts many 3rd party application remains to be seen. Dan Tentler, founder of security company Aten Labs and who is an expert for SHODAN, a search engine for internet connected devices says that he will wait and observe for now.
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