New Architecture to Support Personal Health, Home Automation, Security and Energy Management
Beaverton, Ore, USA – 12 September 2013: Global home networking standards group, UPnP Forum, has announced publication of SensorManagement Device Control Protocols. UPnP SensorManagement architecture is intended to support a wide variety of sensor and actuator applications ranging from wellness/fitness using personal health devices to home automation, security and energy management. This comes on the opening day of IBC, which is the premier annual event that brings together everyone involved in the world of content creation, management and delivery.
Sensor/actuator technologies have developed to attach sensors and actuators to communications networks providing end-users the ability to remotely control and monitor devices. However, the design of sensors, actuators and network attachments has focused on the requirements of particular deployments (such as ZigBee®, Bluetooth, X10, KNX, Z-Wave) creating islands of simple connectivity for home automation, energy management, automotive and health/wellness ecosystems. The UPnP Forum’s Sensor Management specifications allow sensors and devices in these existing ecosystems to be bridged seamlessly into the IP home network that IT and AV devices currently connect to. The result is a single integrated solution that spans underlying network technologies.
A less well-served area in sensor ecosystems is the retention and distribution of sensor data once it is delivered. Many devices host multiple sensors requiring coordinated processing of multiple sensor data streams. Frequently, analysis of sensor data acquired over a period of time can provide valuable insight into trends, such as household power consumption measured month-to-month and year-over-year or personal health trends such as weight, blood pressure and glucose levels over time.
UPnP SensorManagement architecture has set as its goals: supporting attachment of existing sensor/actuator solutions to UPnP networks; distribution of sensor data among one or more UPnP network clients and providing retention of sensor data accumulated over time for long-term trend analysis. Sensors managed by UPnP SensorManagement devices may send acquired data directly to other UPnP Network clients via HTTP protocols. A UPnP network client which hosts a SensorManagement DataStore service may retain this data which can then be subsequently read by other UPnP network clients as needed.
Russell Berkoff, the E-Health & Sensors Working Committee Chair, says: “By combining SensorManagement device(s) to access home-based sensor networks, along with mobile devices for on-the-go data collection, UPnP SensorManagement architecture can provide the ability to aggregate data from multiple sensor sources. Home smart AV devices can then access, process and display retained sensor data providing compelling solutions to end-users of UPnP based networks. UPnP preserves customer investment in existing sensor networks by treating sensors (or actuators) as data sources and/or sinks.”
The Forum’s E-Health & Sensors Working Committee defines interfaces for devices in the home network to communicate with each other in order to share and manage sensor information measured in a distributive fashion. By utilizing UPnP SensorManagement architecture, solution providers can combine the strengths of UPnP Home Networking standards with a new generation of personal health devices based on IEEE-11073 or ANT+ standards to provide real-time and/or historical processing of personal health data for display on existing home network AV devices.
For further information about UPnP Forum, please go to
www.upnp.org. Alternatively, you can follow the Forum on Twitter @UPnP_Forum or join the Forum’s Facebook community. You can also view the Forum’s YouTube video, which gives an overview of UPnP technology and describes how the Forum’s standards and specifications are addressing the home networking needs of today.
