SmartThings opens up its home automation platform to developers
To say SmartThings' Kickstarter campaign was a success is an understatement: the Internet of Things outfit, which offers a clever array of home automation sensors, routers and smartphone apps, raised more than $1.2 million (over four times the company's original goal), nabbed over 6,000 backers and quickly sold out of its first batch of kits. Naturally, the company isn't stopping there -- it's making good on its goal of providing an open-source platform for developers, as it announced the availability of its Developer and Inventor Toolkit. Now, interested parties can create and develop their own SmartThings, and can collaborate with like-minded folks to come up with even more ways to take advantage of the platform. Additionally, it supports several types of wireless standards, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee and Z-Wave, giving it interoperability with various home automation systems.
As a refresher, SmartThings connects a large number of household items -- appliances, automatic door locks, thermostats, humidity sensors, presence sensors, power outlet switches, IR remotes, secret bookcase doors and plenty more -- to a central router which then can be controlled through a smartphone app. Thanks to the openness of the platform, the number of use-case scenarios is rather significant, which certainly makes it more appealing to users. If you're interested in learning how to get started, head below to the press release and go here to get the whole enchilada of information.
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Today at the AllThingsD: D11 conference SmartThings, the open platform for the Internet of Things, announced the public roll out of its Developer and Inventor toolkit. SmartThings helps turn your smartphone into the remote control for your everyday life. With the toolkit, developers can now build applications for the physical world that solve real problems and inventors can create new types of connected devices that integrate with the SmartThings platform.
The SmartThings platform can already help solve practical problems in your life such as alerting you when you forget to close the window when a storm is coming, adjusting the thermostat when you come/go, turning your lights on and off, closing the garage door when the car leaves, etc. SmartThings embraces and depends upon the developer and inventor community to continue to produce new and exciting use cases of its platform. So far the open community has created a SmartThings-controlled pet feeder, a baby mobile controlled via voice sensor, a movie theater remote to dim the lights and start the popcorn, and many more.
The SmartThings Developer & Inventor Toolkit includes everything needed to create and rollout new SmartThings, such as an open community at build.smartthings.com that enables collaboration with other developers and inventors around the world;open source examples for more than 50 SmartApps; training, documentation, and support from the SmartThings team; and afull web-based, integrated development environment (IDE).
