HomeOS

Last updated
HomeOS
Developer Microsoft Research
Working stateUnknown (as of October 2013)
Official website www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/homeos-enabling-smarter-homes-for-everyone/

HomeOS was the working title of a home automation operating system being developed at Microsoft Research in the early 2010s. [1] [2] Microsoft Research announced the project in 2010 and abandoned it in 2012. [3]

Contents

HomeOS communicated with Lab of Things, a cloud-based Internet of Things infrastructure also developed by Microsoft. [4] [5] [6]

Microsoft's slogan for their HomeOS project was "Enabling smarter homes for everyone." [7]

Microsoft's HomeOS development team has written three sample applications that make use of multiple devices, including a "sticky media" app that plays music in parts of the house that are lit up, but not other rooms; a two-factor authentication app that uses audio from smartphones and images from a front-door camera to turn on lights when a user is identified; and a home browser for viewing and controlling a user's access to all devices in a home. [8]

Some staff who worked on the project cited Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's focus on enterprise applications, productivity software, and cloud computing as the reason for the stalled development. [3]

See also

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References

  1. Dixon, Colin; Mahajan, Ratul; Agarwal, Sharad; Brush, A.J.; Bongshin, Lee; Saroiu, Stefan; Bahl, Victor (April 2012). "An Operating System for the Home". Microsoft Research Publications. Microsoft . Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  2. Foley, Mary Jo (10 September 2010). "Microsoft experiments with 'HomeOS' and home app store ideas". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  3. 1 2 "Microsoft had a plan to automate your home before Apple and Google — but never did it". businessinsider.com. 4 December 2015.
  4. "Lab of Things Wiki". CodePlex . Microsoft. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  5. Higginbotham, Stacey (15 July 2013). "Microsoft pushes HomeOS further with Lab of Things, but where's the mobile angle?". Gigaom . Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  6. Foley, Mary Jo (15 July 2013). "Microsoft adds a Lab of Things to its HomeOS". ZDNet. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 14 January 2015.
  7. "HomeOS homepage". Microsoft .
  8. ""Microsoft's HomeStore: Home automation, with an iPhone-inspired twist"". zd.net. 7 October 2010.