Pictures of the Future Fall 2007
Seamless Communication – Networked Living
Welcome to the Smart Home
The rapid increase in broadband connections is resulting in a growing number of networked homes, especially in the realm of infotainment. Siemens solutions enable new comfort and security features, while new communication standards simplify the wireless networking of individual system components.
Internet pizza via cell phone? The new CAT-iq standard links mobile phones to the Internet, opening up many new application possibilities on the road to the networked home
Peter uses his cordless telephone to go on the Internet, where he notes the number of a pizzeria and orders two pizzas. His wife, Sally, has already sent a cell phone postcard to Peter’s TV to tell him that she and their two children, Anne and David, will soon be arriving. When the pizza delivery man arrives, he is recognized by the home security system, which opens the door before he can ring the bell...
Technically speaking, this scenario could become reality tomorrow. However, to date, such a combination of communication, entertainment, and security systems—including the control of lights, heating, and blinds—has been implemented only in demonstration projects. "We still have individual systems that are very costly to install and require a lot of effort and expense to modify," says Thomas Hauser, a building automation expert at Siemens Building Technologies (SBT).
To improve things, in 2007 SBT launched Synco living, a radio-based home automation system. At the heart of the system is a central unit that enables residents to control all functions in up to 12 rooms and monitor everything on a display. There are room temperature sensors that radio temperature data to the central unit, whose heat regulator compares actual temperatures with predefined settings in every room and then adjusts heating system valves to bring temperatures to the desired level.
Synco living is based on KNX, an open global standard for building system technology. The key aspect here, says Hauser, is that "depending on the needs of the resident, the heating system can be easily combined with electrical and security applications." Some people, for example, don’t need a home security system right away, while adjustable heating systems are a fast-growing trend. Hauser also says that installation costs for Synco living are extremely low, thanks to battery powered components and wireless connections. Additional KNX-based products from other manufacturers can also be integrated into the system.
In the realm of infotainment, the PC-Internet world is merging with devices like MP3 players, digital cameras, cell phones, game consoles, and TVs. Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) believes networked homes will require powerful data storage units that can handle photos and videos, as well as Web and television content, whereby users will access such content via WLAN and the Internet. FSC already offers an expandable home server with a 500-Gbyte hard disk.
"The top priority for us at the moment is television," says Björn Fehrm, head of FSC’s Digital Home unit. Fehrm emphasizes the importance of systems for recording television broadcasts onto hard disks, thus enabling users to view programs at any time. Then there’s "Follow Me TV," which allows users to continue watching a program on a laptop that’s connected via WLAN and the Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) standard protocol, if they want to go into the garden, for example.
Telecommunication companies are now also offering TV programming via Internet (IPTV), although channel surfing requires special solutions that interact smoothly with the network infrastructure and set-top boxes. "We’ve had an IPTV platform on the market since 2000. Today, four European and more than 80 U.S. providers use it to broadcast via broadband," says Udo Biro, IPTV product manager at Nokia Siemens Networks. Depending on the provider, several hundred thousand viewers can thus now watch more than one hundred stations in high definition, download videos, or record programs, which they can watch anytime they want. "In the future, we’ll also see the convergence of IPTV solutions and mobile radio networks," says Biro. This will make it possible for someone to take a picture with their cell phone, for example, and then send it to a Web portal, from which a friend can download the photo to his or her television
Wireless home automation is on the way. The modular Synco living system from Siemens Building Technologies can be installed in existing buildings that have up to 12 rooms
Finding your Favorite Shows. Lydia Aldejohann, who is responsible for innovative business models at Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), believes the television of the future will offer a large number of personalized services. NSN already has a TV service package known as Ivon that works with new types of hybrid set-top boxes that receive TV broadcasts via conventional cables, satellite, or DVB-T channels and are also equipped with a DSL connection for interactive functions.
"We developed an intelligent software client for Ivon that creates dynamic user profiles," says Aldejohann. Such profiles allow the system to register and assess user preferences, which enables the set-top box to make viewing suggestions on the basis of an electronic program guide (EPG). Ivon also automatically records programs that fit a given user profile. The solution is being tested in Finland with Connect TV Group Oy until the end of 2007 and, as Aldejohann reports, "Ivon could become commercially available in 2008."
The merging of telephones with the Internet continues as well. CAT-iq (Cordless Advanced Technology – internet and quality)—the successor of DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications)—sends out radio signals worldwide in the unlicensed frequency spectrum and cannot be affected by WLAN or Bluetooth systems. "Internet telephony with CAT-iq is so clear that it sounds like the person you’re talking to is right next to you," says Erich Kamperschroer, chairman of the DECT Forum and head of Innovation and Technology Management at Siemens Home and Office Communication Devices (SHC). What’s more, the batteries in CAT-iq devices last longer than those in WLAN phones and the system’s range of 50 m in the home is also much greater.
CAT-iq makes it possible for cordless phones to directly access the Internet and future Internet-based networks. "For the first time, applications such as the direct dialing of numbers looked up in Internet telephone books will become possible," says Kamperschroer. The technology could also open up Internet radio to a mass market. According to Kamperschroer, CAT-iq is the only radio technology that distributes audio signals at a continual high quality. CAT-iq can also be used to supplement LAN and WLAN as a home data distribution system.
WLAN reaches its limit at the high transfer rates that are, for example, required when several TVs in a home are hooked up to the system. With this in mind, SHC offers a broadband transmission system that utilizes plastic optical fibers for high-performance home networks. Up to now, the 1.5-millimeter-thick polymer cables have been able to transmit data at up to 50 m at a constant rate of 100 Mbit/s. "But if we can improve signal processing, we can increase the transmission rate tenfold to one gigabit per second and increase the range to 100 m," says Sebastian Randel of Siemens Corporate Technology (CT). Randel expects a prototype to be ready by the end of 2007.
Dr. Joachim Walewski is currently working at CT in Munich on wireless data transmission using light. Unlike polymer fibers, which use red light, Walewski’s system employs the white light of an LED source, which is modulated too fast for the eye to register. Says Walewski: "An LED ceiling lamp with a DSL connection not only lights up; it can also send a video signal to a TV. But our current data transfer rates are too low." His target is to get the rate up from 250 kbit/s and to 100 Mbit/s by the end of 2008.
Peter in our story already enjoys such high data transfer rates. After finishing their pizzas, he and Sally watch a recording of the news, while Anne watches Internet TV in her room—brought to her by polymer cables—and David chats via webcam with friends, with whom he also swaps home movies.
Nikola Wohllaib