In 10 years broadband will be virtually everywhere, and all our gadgets – including cars and white goods – will be online. Steve Freeth finds there is an Internet upheaval in the smart home.

Revolutions have a habit of starting small, and nothing gets smaller than Twitter, the 140-character messaging service that lets users share their every thought online.

Annoying, its critics say, but like a lot of things on the web the hugely successful Twitter is starting to find a far more serious purpose at home.

Users are starting to make Twitter connect home devices such as washing machines, lights and security cameras via emails – or ‘tweets’ – to create their own virtual home automation network.

No surprise then that business is also taking an interest. One company, Botanicalls, is selling a Twitter-enabled kit that lets you know when your plants need watering.

Internet protocol (IP) is set to fundamentally reshape the way we approach the networked home.

IP is nothing new, of course – all our PCs come with it. The technology simply indicates the assigning of unique Internet addresses to virtual space and, increasingly, real objects. This is being called the Internet’s ‘third age’.

As long as you can tap into cyberspace you can communicate, connect and control via IP. And getting you hands on more IP will be much simpler in future.

The world is expected to run out of the first four billion Internet addresses created in the early days of the web – often called IP version 4 – by as early as next year.

Version 6 (IPv6) will make sure that doesn’t happen again any time soon. It will handle something like 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses, leading some experts to predict that one day every house could have hundreds of them.

Geoff Mulligan is chairman of the IP for Smart Objects (Ipso) Alliance, which was recently formed with partners such as Cisco, Ericcson and Sun Microsystems to promote the spread of IP.

“There’s no reason why the Internet shouldn’t be in nearly everything,” he says.

“Instead of a range of proprietary technologies with complex gateways in our houses, IP offers open flexibility across a range of mediums, from wired to WiFi.”

Certainly interest in IP-embedded products – or sensor linked appliances – from consumer electronics companies, telcos and media companies is growing.

We already have numerous web-enabled laptops, games consoles and smart phones at home, but they are rapidly being joined by IP-ready media servers, MP3 players, digital photo frames and DVD players.

In other words, the real IP home invasion is being led by the public’s ever-growing appetite for flexible home entertainment delivered seamlessly around the house and across a number of gadgets.

And the tipping point, despite teething troubles with streamed online movies to date, seems to be the imminent arrival of the online TV.

Using Ethernet, wireless or some third connection such as Apple TV, this television set category has been the big story at consumer electronics shows in the United States, Japan and Europe in the past two years.

Sony’s Bravia line has attracted much attention. However, Samsung, LG and Panasonic, to name just a few, have unveiled similar models.

It’s not just the hardware either – some of the latest Blu-ray DVDs allow viewers to link to the web for a more interactive experience via chat rooms, emails or additional options for content.

Home entertainment may be leading the IP charge, but other web-ready objects are starting to appear.

We have seen the web-linked fridge, car, coffee maker and alarm clock, and several companies have announced prototypes for ovens, dryers and water heaters in recent years.

Miele in the US has apparently been looking for ways of connecting white goods to the web, and LG is reportedly selling IP-based washing machines and air-conditioners in the Chinese and South Korean markets.

The analyst organisation Multimedia Intelligence says more than 80 million consumer electronic devices with Ethernet connectivity were sold in 2008 – mainly video game consoles. It predicts that almost 250 million IP-connected devices will be shipped globally by 2013.

“The IP-connected home will change the way we engage with content in the many ways we need it,” Rick Sizemore of Multimedia Intelligence says.

“Now we can really have bi-directional communications between content owners and the end consumer via a lot more devices than just a PC. It is a market untapped by business.”

This looks like changing rapidly.

Nick Libertone of Control4, which distributes IP-based products such as touch screens, says the availability of IP componentry in home automation is still limited but it will soon be in everything.

“It’s mostly in the audio-visual side at this stage, but whole-house communication is the holy grail in home networking, and IP has the ability to deliver that much more effectively.

“There is a lot of proprietary technology in homes that can’t communicate, and something like IP has a lot going for it.”

That seems to be the message from Cisco, Nokia, Panasonic and Ericcson, which have announced home networking solutions that can be remotely accessed via mobile phones and the web.

The Linksys by Cisco Media Hub, launched recently here, is a prime example. It simplifies networking across the growing number of media devices at home and can also be managed remotely from the web.

Graeme Reardon, Australia and New Zealand regional director for Cisco’s Consumer Business Group, says IP will fundamentally change how we work and play at home.

“IP is a whole new ball game for the networked home, and something like the Media Hub will allow consumers to manage and monitor a range of devices with their own IP.”

The smart or networked home has long been an appealing vision, but despite inroads over the past decade a mass market has not materialised. IP might just be the missing link.

The US-based Continental Automated Buildings Association released a study at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It confirmed that consumers have largely resisted home technology when sold just in terms of control or automation.

The study suggested that the growth of the market will depend on finding a ‘killer application’ for all that networking technology. One area in which such an application looks like taking shape is energy management and, as with entertainment, IP could be key.

Daniel King, whose Perth company Intelligent Home is installing IP projectors that can email alerts on performance, says the trend is moving out of the commercial sector and into homes.

“IP will give us more control, and customers love the fact that updates can be sourced online and service visits dispensed with,” he says.

“Issues like better energy performance – which IP can help with – will resonate with customers.”

Some experts say IP may be promoted by utility companies looking for ways of curtailing power use in homes. The introduction of smart meters across Australia is already providing a platform that networked IP appliances may capitalise on one day.

Certainly, business is looking for new ways of using home networking and the web to help home-owners understand and improve their energy footprint.

One of the latest examples is Google’s decision to test a tool called Google PowerMeter, which shows home energy consumption almost in real time on a user’s computer. The company says that access to home energy data can save 5-15% on electricity bills.

Although there is excitement about the potential of IP in creating a smarter home network, there is still disagreement on whether it makes the process simpler. However, most companies agree that it does require much better networking skills on the part of designers and installers.

“IP will put a lot more focus on specialist network technicians so that all the web-enabled devices work seamlessly with each other – and there are no traffic collision problems,” Daniel says.

The wisdom in that comment was made clear last year. An Australian man became news when he found security flaws in his web-connected Jura F90 coffee maker.

The machine, which uses the Internet for performance and diagnostic support, had become linked to his home PC. This opened up a hole that could lead to remote hacking – and possibly free cappuccino.