HomeOS

HomeOS
DeveloperMicrosoft Research
Working stateUnknown (as of October 2013)
Official websitewww.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]

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]

  1. ^ Dixon, Colin; Mahajan, Ratul; Agarwal, Sharad; Brush, A.J.; Lee, Bongshin; 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. Archived from the original on September 13, 2010. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  3. ^ a b "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. Archived from the original on 10 March 2015. 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.