Wireless

November 21, 2003
Philips to deliver new age consumer experience

BANGALORE -- Wireless is critical to our business, because connectivity is the common thread for all our applications. Wireless is one of the killer technologies because people do not like wires. You can trip over wires as well as cut them. Consumers love wireless as they want to be mobile. You can stay connected everywhere without trying to find a plug in your room. Wireless is the enabling technology and we see it getting into mainstream applications. For Philips’ vision of ambient intelligence, wireless is an integral component.

In our research environment, we have developed what we call ‘ambient intelligence’, which is a merger of all these technologies where the hardware part is moving into the background. In this set-up, only user interfaces are visible. Ambient intelligence consists of a cluster of ‘embedded devices’ with a user-friendly interface that functions as an extension of our natural movements, through, for example, touch panels, heat and weight sensors and intelligent cameras with eyeball tracking. It means that your home can keep track of what room you want lights in, how much and when.

Ambient intelligence is not only about humanising the man-machine interface (MMI), but also about combining the interface with broadband communication channels from the Internet, phone video and audio services that come into our homes, to deliver all sorts of content, when and where required. The challenge for researchers is to make these systems intelligent enough to recognise who we are and what we are doing, so that they can deliver content and services that are personalised to our needs and preferences.

Wi-fi and Philips' connected planet strategy

Philips is combining a unique series of partnerships with the telecom industry, with a slate of new products designed to accelerate consumers’ access to the rich content and services promised by today’s broadband and wireless technologies. Under the umbrella of ‘connected planet’, Philips will broaden its application of wireless, broadband and mobile-enabling technologies to provide seamless accessibility to entertainment, information and services.

Based on open technical standards such as WiFi and UPnP, the Philips Streamium family of products enables the wireless transmission of digital media content throughout PC and audio/visual environments. Connected Planet is about freeing people from the existing constraints of technology that they had to accept until recently. As we have seen broadband, wireless and digital media technologies grow in availability and functionality, we can give consumers intuitive, spontaneous access to content.

Dawning of connected consumer age

As consumer electronics company, we are very excited about the concept of connected consumer age that is dawning. This is made possible by a combination of broadband communications, interactive wireless technology and secure digital content. In addition, the place where this is all beginning to happen is in the home, or what we, at Philips, call Connected Home. The home of the future will look more like the home of the past -- no wires, fewer boxes, and much more intuitive. The connected home is made up of a broadband connection to the outside world with multiple interlinked devices joined by a wireless home network. Philips recently executed a unique project along with other industry players to convert over 300 households in Singapore into connected homes.

The Philips Connected Home is a linked environment of devices and home appliances that can speak to one another, creating greater personalised control, productivity and convenience -- in other words, a more comfortable living environment for people. This is going to affect our personal expression, productivity, and ability to mould domestic environments to our needs through features such as smart lighting. This will allow much greater empowerment in other areas such as personal healthcare.

The big picture called broadband

Broadband adoption will also spread beyond homes and offices, as will the Connected Home. Eventually, the Connected Home will become the connected individual, with home content linked to the car, hospitals or libraries. Broadband technology will be an enabler to connecting people’s homes to their communities and allowing them to intuitively take their content with them wherever they are. Broadband adoption around the world varies – it is most advanced in Asia, where Korea shows astonishing take-up. The United States comes second and Europe is the slowest adopter. However, by 2005 it is predicted that 80 percent of homes in South Korea, 40 percent of homes in the US, and 30 percent of homes in Europe will have broadband access.

More importantly, it is forecast that by 2005, 20 percent of homes in the US and 13 percent of West European households will have all the characteristics of Connected Homes. That is a huge market developing at a pace that resembles the adoption of color TV in the 1970s, the adoption of the PC in the 1980s, and the take-up of DVD in the 1990s. For consumers, pricing is becoming accessible -- five years ago it cost EUR 120 to embed an Internet connection in a TV set, by 2005 it will cost less than five Euro.