AT&T has just announced a new security and home-automation system called Digital Life, which will be an IP-based platform that allows users to monitor and detect activity throughout their house remotely, and “take action” (as AT&T put it) on devices like PCs, tablets, and smartphones.
AT&T actually goes so far as to say “there are no capacity limits to the number and variety of devices [they] can connect to and integrate,” since it’s an all-digital system.
Functions include access to automation, energy and water controls, and security systems. AT&T will thus be introducing a new branch called the Digital Life group, which will work in “AT&T owned-and-operated 24/7 security monitoring centers.”
You’ll be able to “try before you buy” at an AT&T store or through other unspecified AT&T distribution channels, and no matter your current wireless provider, you’ll still be able to get in on the service. That is, of course, if you live in Dallas or Atlanta, where the first round of trials will begin.
Just a few weeks ago, we got a chance to check out the AT&T Research Labs, and it’s clear that AT&T has high hopes for pushing itself into every corner of your life. They already have a major share of the pie when it comes to wireless subscribers in the US, but then there’s AT&T U-Verse and now AT&T Digital Life.
In the labs, developers are already working on ways of registering who’s approaching a home through bio-acoustical transmission (the detection of vibrations in the bones through sensors in a phone or wrist watch) and having the home automation system decide whether or not to automatically unlock the door or announce a guest.
And AT&T wants access to your car, too. We saw prototypes for Got My Stuff, a system that scans the car for a list of pre-determined and RFID-tagged items to see if you’ve remembered them. The idea is that a customizable dashboard would be available via an app across multiple devices.
AT&T is already working on “the car of the future” in collaboration with Porsche, QNX, and Panasonic, so a push into the home right now only makes sense in preparation for a push into our automotive lives.
