Bench Talk

(Source: Stanisic Vladimir - stock.adobe.com)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an emerging industry that is redefining the way we interact with our devices and our world. Today, you’ll find a variety of intelligent connected devices in the modern home, encompassing everything from thermostats to security systems.

However, as the technology is still emerging, the industry is trying to address several open questions and challenges. Matter, a connectivity standard for the IoT, thus enables new IoT possibilities and use cases that otherwise may not have been possible. These possibilities include a path forward to making smart homes more sustainable and environmentally friendly than ever before.

In this blog, we’ll discuss some of the challenges in the modern smart home, the role of Matter, and how Matter enables energy efficiency and more sustainable homes.

A lack of interoperability between devices is one of the major challenges that exist in the IoT-enabled smart home.

A modern smart home likely consists of many different intelligent devices—such as light bulbs, control panels, and heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems—each of which likely comes from a different manufacturer. For example, a smart home may simultaneously contain Amazon Alexa–enabled light bulbs, a Google Nest thermostat, and a Ring doorbell camera and security system.

The challenge here is that these devices were not designed to operate with one another since each was custom-made by a different manufacturer. Historically, if consumers wanted to have a series of devices that could communicate with each other, they were required to purchase devices from the same manufacturer’s ecosystem. This is far from an ideal solution as no single manufacturer offers all of the smart devices that a consumer may want. Furthermore, this scheme limits the purchasing choices for the consumer.

In light of the IoT concept to create an ecosystem of interconnected devices, the inability of disparate devices from different manufacturers to communicate with one another has become a serious shortcoming.

To address this shortcoming, all of the major players in the industry—including Amazon, Google, and Samsung—united to develop Matter.

Matter is a standard that has been established through the Connectivity Standards Alliance, which serves to enable disparate smart home devices to be interoperable. Matter was designed to standardize communications among IoT devices so as to enable devices from any manufacturer to communicate with one another effectively.

Along with enabling connectivity between disparate devices, Matter is unique in that it was developed with security as a paramount concern. The Matter standard specifically includes security considerations such as proven device identity/device authenticity, secure communication, and access control to ensure that smart home ecosystems are protected from threats such as hackers.

Thanks to Matter, any device that is Matter-compliant is capable of working with any other Matter-compliant device in a safe and secure way. Now, for the first time, consumers have the choice to create an IoT ecosystem consisting of whichever devices they prefer and have the confidence that this ecosystem will unify their devices in a cohesive and standardized way.

By enabling IoT devices in a smart home to become interoperable, Matter has enabled some exciting use cases. One of these use cases makes smart homes more sustainable and energy-efficient.

In a Matter-enabled smart home, devices could share data with one another and make actionable decisions based on the aggregated data. In the context of energy efficiency, opportunities exist for the devices in a smart home to minimize the home’s power consumption based on occupant behavior and patterns.

For example, if an occupant leaves to go to work in the morning, a smart lock could detect that the house door was locked when the occupant left. At the same time, a connected motion sensor inside the home could determine the absence of motion in the home. With the shared information from these two devices, the smart home control panel could predict with high accuracy that the occupant left for work that day, and it could optimize energy efficiency.

Equipped with the knowledge that no occupants are in the home, the smart home could lower the heat through an interconnected HVAC system, turn off any interconnected light bulbs, and lower the temperature of a connected water heater to save energy.

Furthermore, a Matter-based smart home can dynamically optimize for energy savings even while occupants are in the home. Energy efficiency is often the result of cooperation between devices, individuals, and utilities. Utilities are leaning in to reward consumers that effectively use generated power and impact carbon footprint in a positive way. For example, the control panel can enact subtle changes such as opening and closing window shades in order to maintain an interior temperature without the need for an explicit heating system. Through these and other similar actions, a Matter-equipped smart home can reduce energy expenditure significantly and hence become more sustainable.

IoT is changing the way our homes operate and how we interact with our devices. By introducing Matter into the smart home, we are paving the path forward for smart homes that can be optimized for energy efficiency, even without any intervention from the occupants. Ultimately, with Matter we can design homes to create a better and more sustainable future.