The software colossus and seven other new members sign onto the Internet Home Alliance, signaling a growing interest in high-tech homes.
Microsoft is one of eight new companies joining a group dedicated to promoting the connected home.
Microsoft said it will announce its membership in the Internet Home Alliance (IHA) on July 22. The IHA brings together companies from a wide variety of sectors–including kitchen appliance makers, software vendors, and hardware companies–to conduct tests of wired rooms involving real consumers.
For example, in March the group launched a test kitchen project that allowed participants to experiment with interconnected kitchen devices including a Polara refrigerated range from Whirlpool, a “flipscreen entertainment center” from Icebox, integration services from IBM and a printer from HP.
Jonathan Cluts, director of consumer prototyping and strategy at Microsoft, said the company was eager to join so it could work with other companies and gauge where the home-networking market is headed.
“In order for this to really succeed, you need to have a wide range of companies working on it,” Cluts said.
