In the smart home that was promised, domestic appliances – thermostats, smart fridges, smart locks, smart lights – work together to manage our households with minimal interference. The reality is a muddle of systems that refuse to communicate: a patched-together collection of digital domestic servants shouting at one another in mutually unintelligible languages to little effect.
Lack of interoperability is among the most serious obstacles to expansion of the ‘internet of things’, and has long been recognised as such. A 2014 UK government report warned that competing IoT standards are a major block to growth in the sector: “Left unchecked, this carries a risk of restrictive standards being set and enforced by monopolistic providers, and of fragmentation inhibiting the interoperability of devices.”
This fragmentation is particularly painful when it comes to the smart home. Consumers are forced to patch together proprietary systems with bridges, install...