The Google-owned, smart-devices maker Nest Labs is adding more brands to its six-month-old developer program, called Works with Nest. At the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week, Nest formally announced 15 partnerships with companies whose smart products—think lighting, appliances, door hardware, and cars—can share data to turn standalone, Web-enabled objects into an integrated system.
Nest, which makes a learning thermostat and a smart smoke and carbon monoxide detector, made headlines early last year after it was acquired by Google for $3.2 billion. In June, it launched its third-party developer network to develop a suite of smart devices and systems that are inter-operable—key for the so-called Internet of Things to be viable.
The latest additions to Nest’s platform that are available now include select LG appliances, Lutron lighting controls, the Philips Hue lighting system, and UniKey’s Kevo Smart lock. Forthcoming integrations include Stack Lighting’s responsive lamps, Osram’s Lightify system, some Whirlpool washers and dryers, and smart plugs from startup Zuli that sense room occupancy. The products will sync with Nest’s thermostat and smoke and carbon monoxide detector for tasks such as regulating thermal comfort based on preset or learned conditions, turning off internal lighting when the thermostat goes into an away mode, and lowering music levels when the smoke and carbon monoxide detector senses a problem.
An integrated platform through which multiple companies can make devices that talk to each other, like Nest's, is a step toward a fully open ecosystem, with improved security and common standards, which Samsung CEO and electronics president Boo-Keun Yoon encouraged in his keynote Monday evening to CES press, industry analyst, and exhibitor attendees. “We can deliver the benefits of the ‘Internet of Things’ only if all sensors and all devices work with each other,” he said.
This article has been updated with new information.
