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At the 2022 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2022), numerous smart home devices using the smart home standard Faster were unveiled. In June, the standard's final specification, SDK, and certification program will be officially launched.
Created by more than 200 companies such as Apple, Amazon, Google and others, The open source connectivity standard, Matter, is a communication protocol that leverages existing technologies such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Ethernet to allow all of their smart home devices to communicate with each other locally, rather than smart home platforms like Apple's HomeKit, Google's Google Home, and Amazon's Alexa, which need to be processed on the cloud.
Two years ago, at the 2020 International Consumer Electronics Show, major tech companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Google formed a new alliance, the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which promised to develop an open-source smart home standard that would allow every connected smart home device to work together simply and securely. The open source smart home standard, Mater, which was widely watched at CES 2022, was previously known as Project Connected Home over IP (CHIP).
Fast forward to the 2022 International Consumer Electronics Show, the open source smart home standard Fasten has become the "focus", a total of Amazon, Google, Samsung Electronics, Tuya Smart and other nearly 30 companies issued announcements that they will support the Faster standard.
First, the smart home can be quickly paired, plugged in can be used
The main feature of Matter is cross-platform compatibility, where users can control smart devices using custom apps or voice assistants. In layman's terms, your different brands of smart switches, light bulbs, refrigerators, etc., no longer need to download multiple applications and voice assistants to control.
If you have Philips Smart Bulb Hue installed, this light bulb comes with multiple apps and voice assistants, but you must now set up the app or voice assistant you want to use separately. With Matter, everything is much simpler.
The Matter protocol also speeds up local connections to devices, with faster response times, and continued use of smart home devices even when the internet is interrupted.
At CES 2022, almost all smart home businesses said "We announced our support for Matter." In addition, infrastructure receives significant support. With new chips designed specifically for The Matter, Amazon announced that device makers can now use only the Better SDK for easy setup on their Faster-certified devices without the need for an Amazon-specific SDK.
And, Amazon has confirmed that Alexa will share users' smart home devices with other voice assistants. Amazon has introduced new tools for developers, and based on Matter, Alexa can also control other smart home devices.
▲ Amazon products
Similarly, Google also showed off its own version of simplified setup, with built-in quick pairing with Support for Matter.
Tuya Smart, a Provider of IoT development platforms in China, also said it will support Matt, a company that provides smart IoT solutions for 446,000 developers and more than 1,100 smart home products.
At CES 2022, we'll also see a number of new products unveiled alongside Thread, a home IoT communication protocol technology and one of Matter's main protocols.
Apple, as a participant in the development of open source smart home standards, has not yet launched smart home devices that adopt the Matter standard.
These changes all mean that when you buy new smart home products in the future, you only need to take home and plug in the power supply, and you can use it.
Second, smart door locks, switches, lighting can be controlled with one button
In order to enhance The Internet of Things connectivity, many home appliance companies have begun to create their own alliances, including Samsung's Home Connectivity Alliance. Yoon Ho Choi, chief financial officer of Samsung, said in an interview with foreign media The Verge that the Home Connectivity Alliance was established specifically to ensure that traditional household appliances can enter the Internet of Things in the future.
Previous smart home devices can not be integrated with the Matter standard, users want to use the Smart home device using the Faster standard, you need to buy a new device again, how to make the existing smart home device compatible with The Matter is the real problem that needs to be solved. At the moment, what we do know is that Amazon's smart speaker Echo and Google's smart display Nest Hub device have an upgrade path.
However, many announcements published at CES show that creating a Better smart home will require users to purchase a fair amount of new devices. As Mitch Klein of the smart home networking protocol Z-Wave Alliance said in an interview with The Verge late last year: "We can't leave the device behind or the whole program won't work." The idea that everyone has to throw away everything and start over won't work. "The application of Matter to existing smart homes is the top priority.
At CES 2022, a number of smart door locks and smart lighting companies said that they are about to release products using the new smart home standard Mattel.
Smart lock company August and Yale University are committed to getting their smart locks to work with Matter. August and Jason Williams, president of smart door locking company Yale Real Living, said they plan to bring the first smart lock, which uses TheMate, to market in 2022. The company already has a Thread-enabled lock, the Nest x Yale Smart Lock. They are also actively looking for ways to incorporate other products from their existing ones into the new smart home standard, TheMate.
▲ Nest x Yale smart lock
At CES 2022, smart door brand Schlage launched the smart lock Encode Plus, which is also the company's first product to support Thread. "This will be the first smart lock product with hardware support for similar features, but we still don't know where these specifications will land." Schlage's Donald Beene said.
Schlage's smart lock Encode Plus
Wemo smart device products owned by connectivity technology provider Belkin announced that they are developing Thread versions of Wemo smart plugs, Wemo smart light switches and Wemo smart dimmers. GE Lighting company Cync revealed that its colored A19 bulbs and strips will be compatible with TheTter via Wi-Fi.
Smart lighting company Sengled said that when the Matter standard is launched, it will be ready to release its first Wi-Fi A19 smart bulb.
Smart lighting company Nanoleaf has also been investing more than a year in thread protocol research, showing off its power-powered lighting panels Nanoleaf Shapes, Elements and Lines at CES, all of which will use the Thread protocol and integrate on top of the smart home platform HomeKit, but also apply to Matter's compatibility.
Third, the smart home center still exists in a short period of time
After the introduction of the Matter standard, it may be possible to integrate multiple controllers, gateways, bridges for wireless network connectivity into a box similar in size to routers, but this will still take a while. Therefore, smart home centers will still appear for a short period of time.
At CES 2022, Samsung showcased a new version of Samsung's smart home platform Home Hub. But Samsung is also promising to adopt the Matter protocol on Samsung devices in the future.
Smart home brand Aqara, the maker of inexpensive Zigbee wireless sensors and home platform HomeKit cameras, said it would update its M2 and M1S gateways to move all compatible connected sensors to the Matter standard, and it also announced that it was developing a Thread version of its motion and contact sensors.
M2 gateway of Aqara
Smart home security camera company Arlo also announced its home security system, which is based on its "modular hub." Arlo's first product to get Bit support is likely to be an integrated new, full-featured sensor.
At CES 2022, edge computing company Veea also showcased an interesting smart home hub that announced it would be compatible with Mather. The Veea STAX Smart Hub consists of a Wi-Fi 6 Mesh router and a smart home hub that can add LTE or 5G cellular connectivity via stackable modules. Japanese electrostatic headphone maker STAX said it is developing a smart speaker component with a directional microphone that also uses the bridging technology of Lutron, a U.S.-based smart lighting control system company, and Philips smart lighting product Hue, compatible with smart home platforms HomeKit and Alexa.
Conclusion: Universal connectivity standards are the future of the Internet of Things
Smart homes desperately need a common connectivity standard, and the advent of Matter will allow smart devices to run locally, even without a network. It is worth mentioning that local control is also an important step in maintaining the privacy of smart homes.
"The news about Mattel posted at CES is a testament to the hard work that CSA (Connectivity Standards Consortium) members have put into the development and testing of Matter in 2021." Tobin Richardson, CSA chairman who oversees Matter, said, "At the heart of this global solution are hundreds of companies and thousands of engineers who have created a more open and innovative Internet of Things, and I'm very excited about what's coming in 2022." ”
Source: The Verge