Overview

The adoption of broadband internet and the proliferation of wifi-connected devices such as smartphones, web tablets, and netbooks has resulted in the computer network becoming a standard feature of the modern home. But there are a number of ways in which the modern householder is yet to realize the full benefit of this home networking revolution.

OpenHome is an independent body committed to redressing this through the design, implementation, and promotion of open standards. It stimulates innovation by transforming the home network into a rich environment for applications that fit with the way people live.

ohOs

Users of a personal computers and portable computing devices are familiar with the process of installing applications according to their own personal tastes or needs. But there are a number of applications that do not fit neatly into this pattern of deployment and use.

The OpenHome Operating System, ohOs, fills this gap by providing a place to deploy software that is for use not only by a single individual but by all the members of a household. And in doing so ohOs opens the way for applications that:

Allow householders to access and control a wide range of domestic appliances, such as lights, media players, and security cameras, organized from the perspective of the home as a whole.

[Illustration of someone controlling lights using an iPad-like device]

Allow householders to view, share, and maintain structured information that is meaningful in the context of the home, such as a calendars, family address books, or photo albums.

[Illustration of someone putting car servicing appointment into a family calendar using an iPad-like device]

Provide opportunities for creativity and fun within the family or other domestic setting.

[Illustration of householders jointly doing a crossword using a range of devices?]

Provide rich, user-friendly control over otherwise technically challenging networking facilities, such as parental control over internet access.

[Illustration of a child unable to access the internet from their bedroom at night with happy care-free parents downstairs?]

Provide a trusted domain for archiving and messaging that keeps all information safely within the boundary of the domestic network.

[Illustration of someone storing the code for a safe using an iPhone-like device?]

ohOs achieves this by providing lightweight, always-on, networked computing for applications that can be installed from a readily accessible app store and used by any web-browser-enabled device. More details are avaliable here.

ohMedia

UPnP AV is the most successful non-OpenHome open standard that attempt

Implementations

OpenHome maintains that open standards are best developed in parallel with real-world implementations of those standards. This ensures that they are both fit for use and immediately available for use.

In pursuit of this principle, OpenHome publishes an ever-growing suite of high quality, open software that is actively maintained and already proven in successful commercial products.

This includes:

ohNet, the OpenHome networking stack, which facilitates the creation of service-oriented, SOAP-based networking software with inherent UPnP support.

ohSongcast, which implements OpenHome standards for one-to-many transmission of audio around a home network

ohNetworkMonitor, which provides facilities for troubleshooting home networking problems