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Nokia has announced that it is coming up with a Home Control Center, a smart home platform. It is an application that is stated to help in areas such as home security, energy usage monitoring or device/lighting activation. The platform is unique in that it won’t be fully developed by Nokia (News - Alert) but its extensive architecture will allow third- party companies to create applications and plug-ins.

 

With the Home Control Center, consumers can monitor and control their electricity usage, switch devices on and off, and monitor different objects, such as temperature, camera, and motion. The company is also planning to bring all the systems in the home environment to be controlled via the Nokia platform.

 

"We see there is growth potential in the smart home market," said Teppo Paavola, vice president and head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia. "The home of today has intelligence everywhere, but to date there has not been a solution that is interoperable with wide range of home systems that can easily be controlled. We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform. We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."

 

Officials say Nokia is considering offering a dual-branded version of its technology for high-volume customers. It will use a Linux 2.6-series kernel as the interface in the devices while a Z-wave or security radio will also be integrated to communicate with the home devices.

 

Nokia has signed partnership agreements with RWE, a European energy company to develop applications to control temperatures in homes through the Nokia interface. This facility is stated to be available to users soon and will consist of a central control unit together with remote-controlled thermostats for the radiator. RWE plans to offer the necessary devices with new energy supply contracts.

 

"We are delighted to have secured a world-leading technology partner in Nokia for our range of smart home energy products. Our aim is to offer innovative and affordable energy-efficient solutions for every household that are simple and convenient to operate," said Carolin Reichert, head of New Business at RWE.

 

Nokia has stated that it has initiated the smart home partner program to work with other companies to jointly develop the next generation of products that will bring users intelligent mobile access to home systems.