<p>Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector.</p><p>Despite the obvious promise, adoption of the smart home-inspired lifestyle has been sedate. To accelerate the vision, leading smart-home end product companies and trade associations representing various wireless technologies are starting to work together to make life easier for developers and consumers.</p><h2>A fragmented sector</h2><p>Industry analysts estimate the smart-home sector will be worth more than $50 billion by 2022. It’s a lofty short-term target, but not an overly surprising one given the wide-held expectation that smart-home solutions can significantly improve users’ lives. Smart-home technology—which includes advanced surveillance cameras, smart locks, connected lighting, speakers, pet feeders and many other hybrid solutions yet to be imagined—brings numerous advantages to the home. Examples of these benefits include energy efficiency, enhanced comfort and better security.</p><p>But challenges remain, and different RF technologies is a dominant one. Well-established standards-based, short-range wireless protocols like Bluetooth LE, Thread, Wi-Fi and Zigbee are suited to particular smart-home use cases. A one-size-fits-all solution would be ideal for both application developers and end-users. Still, the competing wireless protocols trade off various technical parameters to target niche applications in the home.</p><p>This fragmentation is mainly due to big companies backing different wireless technologies and application layers in an attempt to capture the whole smart-home market. For Apple, it’s Bluetooth LE (through HomeKit), for Google, it’s Thread and Weave, and for Amazon, it’s Zigbee and Zigbee clusters. Lack of interoperability between these products leads to frustration and, in turn, results in developers and consumers losing interest in smart-home products.</p><h2>Project Connected Home Over IP</h2><p>Internet Protocol (IP)—the most common network layer used in homes and offices—is ideal for delivering interoperability, end-to-end security, privacy, and Cloud connectivity between a wireless device and another device, app or service. Leading smart home industry stakeholders have realized that by creating a universal application protocol on top of the mature IP and lower layer protocols, they can ensure interoperability between devices, platforms and ecosystems.</p><p>A key collaboration called Project Connected Home Over IP (CHIP) is formalizing the effort to bring about smart-home interoperability. Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector. The initiative plans to provide a standard application layer that can be used with a set of complementary wireless technologies agreed upon by the participants. At first, the focus will be on Wi-Fi, Thread and Bluetooth LE, followed by other IP-supporting protocols such as Ethernet and cellular.</p><h2>A meeting of giants</h2><p>Project CHIP brings together consumer products firms Apple, Google, Amazon, Samsung and Comcast, alongside several wireless chip vendors, including Nordic Semiconductor. The project aims to make it easier for manufacturers to create secure and reliable solutions that are interoperable with the major smart home ecosystems like Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. End products like smart speakers and routers can then include support for the selected wireless technologies and the CHIP application layer.</p><p>Beyond the home environment, Project CHIP also has an eye on the commercial landscape. Several companies, including Legrand, Qorvo, Schneider Electric and Nordic, have aligned to form the Project CHIP Commercial Strategy Group, which plans to address numerous smart home use cases applicable to commercial ventures. These include multi-tenant residential buildings, offices and hotels, supermarkets, warehouses and retail malls.</p><h2>Developer and end-user benefits</h2><p>Developers and end users stand to benefit from Project CHIP-enabled interoperability for smart-home (and commercial building) devices. The first CHIP release, which supports both Thread at 2.4 GHz and IP implementations for Bluetooth LE, will enable a simpler development process and provide a broader market for developers’ products.</p><p>Today, manufacturers are forced to either choose to back one standard or produce multiple versions of a product to match each ecosystem. The first option threatens to limit market adoption, while the second is expensive and extends time-to-market. Project CHIP will allow developers to support different ecosystems and lower-layer protocols without needing to code multiple versions of their applications. Soon, one product will work with all ecosystems.</p><p>The consumer will gain because a wide array of smart-home products may communicate with each other, including popular consumer devices such as Amazon Echo and Apple HomePod. A homeowner moving into a new property, for example, could continue using the existing smart thermostat even if the previous homeowner chose Apple’s Siri and the new owner prefers Amazon Alexa.</p><p>The royalty-free CHIP connectivity standard is ambitiously targeting devices across categories such as lighting and electrical, HVAC controls, access control, safety and security, window coverings, TVs, wireless access points and bridges.</p><h2>Nordic support for standards</h2><p>Nordic’s short-range SoCs will be compatible with the new Project CHIP standards. These SoCs and Software Development Kits (SDKs) for protocols such as Bluetooth LE and Thread and software frameworks like HomeKit enable developers to make the most of smart-home interoperability.</p><p>Widespread smart-home adoption is not quite here yet, but collaborations like Project CHIP will accelerate the dream of the connected home.</p><hr><p>This article was first published on Nordic's&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected Blog</a>. </p>

Promoted by the 150 companies forming the Zigbee Alliance, Project CHIP could play a pivotal role in invigorating the relatively young smart home sector.

Key collaboration fast-tracks smart home vision

<p>"I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."</p><p>These are Christopher Reeve's words. The iconic actor portrayed Superman in the 1978 blockbuster and its three later sequels. Reeve himself had to endure such obstacles towards the end of his life after becoming paralyzed from the shoulders down following a horse-riding accident.</p><p>Today, as life imitates art, a combination of adversity and technology creates the next generation superheroes. Like Limbitless Solutions, a non-profit organization spun-off from the University of Central Florida. The team of now former students is developing technology that empowers children with limb differences.</p><p>Amongst a range of accessibility solutions, the company creates personalized 3D printed prosthetic 'bionic' arms. Customized to resemble popular superhero bodysuits from movies and video games, the prosthetic dramatically improve the wearer's life quality.</p><h2>Advanced electronics</h2><p>To make the limb work, non-invasive electromyographic (EMG) sensors pick up signals generated by muscle movements in the child's arm. The sensors are stickers placed on the upper arm above muscle groups that move when flexed. When an EMG signal is detected, the bionic arm actuates. Below this is a socket to hold the prosthetic in place, matched to the individual child, and it fits regardless of whether or not the elbow is present. The forearm section of the bionic arm contains a battery pack that powers the motors controlling the multi-gesture movements.</p><p>The hand unit contains the core electronics and motors for the fine control of the individual fingers. This unit includes an Insight SiP ISP1507-AX RF module based on Nordic Semiconductor's nRF52832 SoC. It enables the bionic limb to be set-up, adjusted, and monitored wirelessly via an iOS or Android partner app. For example, by configuring the app, you can determine the degree of muscle-flexing required to generate a particular force in the fingers. The app also provides easy access to status information such as the battery level.</p><h2>Practice makes perfect</h2><p>Learning to use a new arm takes practice; determining the various thresholds of muscle strength, for example, is difficult. So to make it fun and engaging, Limbitless Solutions has gamified the process. The Nordic-powered Insight SiP module acts as the Bluetooth LE wireless controller for a computer- or tablet-based game. The games take a classic level-based approach, starting with simple gestures such as opening and closing the hand and then unlocking additional, more complex manipulations as each level is completed.</p><p>In addition to the looking part, the prosthetic arm must be comfortable, lightweight, and easy to use. The miniaturized eight by eight by 1 mm module is suitable for this purpose as it is for any other space-constrained application. Meanwhile, the Bluetooth LE connectivity allows parents to easily calibrate and adjust the arm from their smartphone, using a wireless technology they readily understand.</p><h2>Affordable technology</h2><p>Cosmetically realistic myoelectric hands that open and close can cost $20,000 to $30,000 or even more, while a neuroprosthetic arm may cost as much as $100,000. By combining cost-effective 3D printing with affordable electronics and wireless technology, the company believes it can reduce production cost to as little as $5000 per bionic arm. Essential if the technology is to become widespread as children outgrow prosthetics quickly.</p><p>As a natural next step, the company has expanded its vision to support adults with limb differences—particularly veterans and first responders—of which there are unfortunately many in the United States. According to the Amputee Coalition, nearly two million people live with limb loss in the U.S. Approximately 185,000 amputations take place each year, a number expected to double by 2050.</p><h2>Project expansion</h2><p>Through the process of a clinical trial, Limbitless Solutions has so far gifted 40 bionic arms to 36 children and teenagers. By expanding its R&amp;D and manufacturing capabilities soon, the company hopes to increase to 100 through gifts and donations. If successful, the project could give families and children hope worldwide and create thousands of more superheroes in the process.</p><hr><p>This article was first published on Nordic's&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"></a><a href="https://blog.nordicsemi.com/getconnected?utm_campaign=2021%20wevolver" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Get Connected Blog</a>. </p>

By combining cost-effective 3D printing with affordable electronics and wireless technology, new accessibility solutions empower children with limb differences.

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Key collaboration fast-tracks smart home vision

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