By John Park, Executive Director of OCF
Every year, the Consumer Technology Association (CES) event draws a diverse crowd looking to see the latest technological innovations. From robotics and virtual reality to IoT, CES is for anyone interested in technology’s impact on our everyday lives. This year, the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) kicked off CES with our IoT Breakthrough Event, which debuted products – that will be commercially available this year – from industry-leading companies BSC Computer GmbH, COMMAX, SURE Universal, Haier, LG, Resideo, and Samsung.
OCF’s 2020 Vision
David McCall, Senior Director of Consumer & Industrial IoT Standards at Intel Corporation and President of OCF, presents on OCF’s vision and recent updates to OCF specification
Attendees gathered at the Barrymore Restaurant in Las Vegas on January 6 to learn more about OCF’s vision from OCF President David McCall as we enter 2020. Part of the OCF mission includes enabling IoT manufacturers to bring OCF Certified products to market, ensuring interoperability and security across the IoT ecosystem. This year, the new OCF 2.1 specification is aimed to advance the IoT across all vertical markets, including smart home and commercial buildings, with the addition of the OCF Universal Cloud Interface (UCI). The OCF UCI is a standardized API for cloud-to-cloud and device-to-cloud communications, helping solve today’s cloud interoperability challenges.
One of the critical concerns of the ever-expanding IoT is implementing and maintaining numerous proprietary cloud interfaces. Today, many manufacturers struggle with developing and supporting propriety cloud APIs when collaborating with other companies. With OCF UCI, they no longer have to spend the time and resources to develop and maintain their own proprietary APIs. Manufacturers implementing OCF UCI now have assurance that cloud server connectivity between their devices and other OCF UCI-compliant devices will work seamlessly and securely. Smart home consumers will also see an improvement in user experience, with IoT products that “just work,” resulting in increased customer satisfaction.
With 41 billion connected devices projected to exist by 2025, the OCF 2.1 specification and OCF UCI are needed to address universal IoT concerns and support the projected market growth. OCF members are able to certify their devices to the OCF 2.1 specification today, and we anticipate advances in IoT interoperability with OCF Certified devices this year.
First Look at Upcoming 2020 Commercial Products
David Kaufman, Business Development Director at Resideo Technologies and Vice-Chair of the Certification Work Group of the Open Connectivity Foundation, walks through live smart home demo scenarios.
Event attendees of the OCF IoT Breakthrough event got a first look at upcoming OCF-based commercial products, with live smart home kitchen and living room scenarios demonstrating secure, seamless interoperability between a variety of manufacturer’s devices. OCF member companies BSC Computer GmbH, COMMAX, SURE Universal, Haier, LG, Resideo, and Samsung demonstrated 20+ products, including mobile apps, tablets, door locks, smart mirrors, air conditioners, robot cleaners, sensors and more. The live demonstrations featured device-to-device communications, as well as OCF UCI device-to-cloud and cloud-to-cloud communications. Those who were unable to attend can view the kitchen and living room demonstrations on the OCF YouTube channel.
We are thrilled to see OCF UCI come to fruition and for the emergence and commercial availability of OCF 2.1 certified products. Our member companies have worked extremely hard to bring these initiatives to life and are looking forward to enabling IoT advancements even further in 2020 and beyond.
Those interested in the OCF UCI can download the specification and open source implementation from the OCF website. For more information on OCF UCI and member company plans for 2020, please read the official announcement.