Technology Leaders Establish the AllSeen Alliance to Advance the ‘Internet of Everything’

Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image, TP-LINK and more unite to enable interoperability across multiple devices, systems and services and support broadest cross-industry effort to accelerate Internet of Everything

SAN FRANCISCO, December 10, 2013 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux and collaborative development, today announced the formation of the AllSeen Alliance, the broadest cross-industry consortium to date to advance adoption and innovation in the “Internet of Everything” in homes and industry.

The Internet of Everything is based on the idea that devices, objects and systems can be connected in simple, transparent ways to enable seamless sharing of information and coordinated and intelligent operations across all of them. As no single company can accomplish the level of interoperability required to support the Internet of Everything and address everyday, real-life scenarios, a united, pan-industry effort is needed to deliver new experiences to consumers and businesses.

The AllSeen Alliance looks to expand upon the “Internet of Things,” which Gartner predicts will add $1.9 trillion to the global economy by 2020, to include more functionality and interactions across various brands and sectors, such as the connected home, healthcare, education, automotive and enterprise.

Founding members of the AllSeen Alliance include some of the world’s leading, consumer electronics manufacturers, home appliances manufacturers, service providers, retailers, enterprise technology companies, innovative startups, and chipset manufacturers. Premier level members include Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image and TP-LINK. Community members include Canary, Cisco, D-Link, doubleTwist, Fon, Harman, HTC, Letv, LIFX, Lite-on, Moxtreme, Musaic, Sears Brand Management Corporation, Sproutling, The Sprosty Network, Weaved and Wilocity.

“Open source software and collaborative development have been proven to accelerate technology innovation in markets where major transformation is underway,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “Nowhere is this more evident today than in the consumer, industrial and embedded industries where connected devices, systems and services are generating a new level of intelligence in the way we and our systems interact. The AllSeen Alliance represents an unprecedented opportunity to advance the Internet of Everything for both home and industry. We are very happy to host and help guide this work.”

The members of the AllSeen Alliance will contribute software and engineering resources as part of their collaboration on an open software framework that enables hardware manufacturers, service providers and software developers to create interoperable devices and services. This open source framework allows ad hoc systems to seamlessly discover, dynamically connect and interact with nearby products regardless of brand, transport layer, platform or operating system.

The initial framework is based on the AllJoyn™ open source project, which was originally developed by and is being contributed to the Alliance by Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated), and will be expanded with contributions from member companies and the open source community. Products, applications and services created with the AllJoyn open source project can communicate over various transport layers, such as Wi-Fi, power line or Ethernet, regardless of manufacturer or operating system and without the need for Internet access. The software runs on popular platforms such as Linux and the Linux-based Android, iOS, and Windows, including embedded variants. The initial codebase is available on the website for developers to access and begin evaluating at http://www.allseenalliance.org

As an example of the greater intelligence and interoperability made possible with the framework as the common language among the devices and services, a family that installs a smart lock built with the framework for their front door will seamlessly be able to connect it to smart lights that also use the framework and security cameras from other manufacturers. Unauthorized entries can trigger the lights to flash and the camera to take a photo of the intruder and send a notification and picture to the smart TV. At the other end of the spectrum, factory floors – evolving environments with systems that need to adjust dynamically – can benefit from the framework’s ability to enable a self-aware network that can constantly learn what new equipment has been added and what capabilities or interfaces that equipment has so that it can immediately begin playing its part in the manufacturing process.

The AllSeen Alliance becomes the 11th Linux Foundation Collaborative Project. These are independently funded software projects that harness the power of collaborative development to fuel innovation across industries and ecosystems. By spreading the collaborative DNA of the largest collaborative software development project in history, The Linux Foundation provides the essential collaborative and organizational framework so project hosts can focus on innovation and results. Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects span the enterprise, mobile, embedded and life sciences markets and are backed by many of the largest names in technology. For more information about Collaborative Projects, please visit: http://collabprojects.linuxfoundation.org/

Supporting Comments from Premier Members

Haier

“The AllSeen Alliance is poised to unleash limitless possibilities for interactions across devices, objects and systems and larger market opportunities for developers and manufacturers,” said Guodong XUE, Director of Standard and Patent department, Haier. “We are planning to implement the AllJoyn-based framework across our line of appliances and look to advance technologies that transform consumer experiences.”

LG Electronics

“The AllSeen Alliance will foster a vibrant ecosystem of developers and hardware makers who will together bring consumers practical and useful solutions using the communication between different devices in the home, spanning from audio and video devices, appliances, mobile phones, tablets, and others,” said Richard Choi, Head of the Smart Business Center at LG Electronics. “This can range from simply being able to connect your home speaker to your mobile device or can be as sophisticated as controlling your entire home through your smart TV.  We look forward to providing further value to consumers by leveraging our participation in the Alliance to develop innovative connectivity services for users.”

Panasonic

“Open source software and collaboration are well-known for fostering innovation. We are eager to apply these principles to moving the market forward for the Internet of Everything,” said Mamoru Yoshida, Managing Director, Panasonic. “The AllSeen Alliance’s collaboration will address the immediate needs of the market while creating the necessary foundation for new opportunities that will advance the market.”

Qualcomm

“Today’s announcement represents the logical next step for broad adoption of a common software and services framework that will foster a dynamic ecosystem, helping to unlock the promise of the Internet of Everything. It was just this sort of collaborative approach we envisioned when Qualcomm Innovation Center first developed AllJoyn and made it available to the open source community,” said Rob Chandhok, president, Qualcomm Connected Experiences. “The direct peer interactions that the AllJoyn-based framework enables will greatly enrich user experiences. We envision that users will be able to add the benefits of ‘the Internet of Things near me’ to the cloud-based services they already enjoy.”

Sharp

“The AllSeen Alliance is an industry collaboration that will deliver a common platform for interoperability among appliance, devices and more. The result will be new, innovative experiences for consumers in their homes,” said Fujikazu Nakayama, Senior Executive Managing Officer, Sharp Corporation. “Open and collaborative software development will unlock this promise and help us together achieve expansion of the market.”

Silicon Image

“As the number of screens in the home and office grows, so must the ability for devices and services to discover, connect and interact,” said David Pederson, Vice President, Standards and Corporate Marketing, Silicon Image. “The goal of the technical collaboration of the AllSeen Alliance is to support seamless connectivity and, as a result, the market for consumer devices, apps and services should grow for all.”

TP-LINK

“The AllSeen Alliance shows great promise for making the promise of the Internet of Everything a reality. With companies and organizations from across industries participating in this collaboration, interoperability among devices and things is closer than ever,” said Wei Chen, Product Manager of Mobile Internet, TP-LINK. “We manufacturer a wide variety of computer networking products, such as WiFI routers, and the connected smart home is a strategic focus for us. The AllSeen Alliance and the AllJoyn open source project are key elements of this strategy.”

For more information and to see the complete membership roster, please visit: http://www.allseenalliance.org

About The AllSeen Alliance

The AllSeen Alliance is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to driving the widespread adoption of products, systems and services that support the Internet of Everything with an open, universal development framework that is supported by a vibrant ecosystem and thriving technical community. The Alliance hosts and advances an industry-supported open software connectivity and services framework based on AllJoyn technology with contributions from premier level members Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image and TP-LINK; and community members Canary, Cisco, D-Link, doubleTwist, Fon, Harman, HTC, Letv, LIFX, Lite-on, Moxtreme, Musaic, Sears Brand Management Corporation, Sproutling, The Sprosty Network, Weaved and Wilocity, as well as the open source community. This secure and programmable software connectivity and services framework enables companies and individuals to create interoperable products that can discover, connect and interact directly with other nearby devices, systems and services regardless of transport layer, device type, platform, operating system or brand. For more information, please visit: http://www.allseenalliance.org

About The Linux Foundation

The Linux Foundation is a nonprofit consortium dedicated to fostering the growth of Linux and collaborative software development. Founded in 2000, the organization sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and promotes, protects and advances the Linux operating system and collaborative software development by marshaling the resources of its members and the open source community. The Linux Foundation provides a neutral forum for collaboration and education by hosting Collaborative Projects, Linux conferences, including LinuxCon, and generating original research and content that advances the understanding of Linux and collaborative software development. More information can be found at www.linuxfoundation.org.

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 Trademarks: The Linux Foundation, Linux Standard Base, MeeGo, OpenDaylight, Tizen and Yocto Project are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. OpenBEL is a trademark of OpenBEL Consortium. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.AllJoyn is a trademark of Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. (“QuIC”).