SmartLivingNEXT at the Smart Living Summit 2024

“Innovations in building energy management” – that was the motto of this year’s Smart Living Summit. The focus was on intelligent solutions that meet the requirements of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and promote new networking of consumer IoT, smart home, building automation, smart health and eMobility. Michael Schidlack, Principal Researcher at the Research Association for Electrical Engineering (FE) at ZVEI e. V. and consortium leader in SmartLivingNEXT flagship project, presented the research project and the associated innovation potential to an interested specialist audience. His presentation focused on explaining the concept of a universal, cross-manufacturer and trustworthy ecosystem for all digital smart living services: “The digitalization and networking of living and living areas can create many new applications and digital services that make living more energy-efficient, safer and more comfortable. In order for these to be introduced to the market at affordable costs, the necessary data must be made universally accessible not only in new buildings, but also in existing buildings. And, if possible, without additional hardware costs and regardless of the building technology installed.”

This is possible with SmartLivingNEXT. At its core is a trustworthy access point to all relevant data in residential buildings. The special feature: proven digital technologies already used in residential buildings can be integrated into the SmartLivingNEXT ecosystem. The data flowing into the ecosystem remains in its respective original system and is made usable for further applications and services through semantic enrichment (using SENSE WoT). Data providers and data users retain complete control over the shared data and can decide whether it may be used for the development of new, intelligent services and applications. “We call this the ‘best of both worlds’ strategy. Manufacturers do not have to fundamentally change their technology or business models. The Smart LivingNEXT ecosystem simply adds new and AI-supported smart services, which can then scale quickly and securely across a large building stock.”

This makes many new applications conceivable, for example in the areas of energy monitoring, assistance and care, home security or housing management and building maintenance. Michael Schidlack concludes: “With SmartLivingNEXT, Germany is taking on a clear pioneering role in the digitalization of residential buildings. The launch of SmartLivingNEXT marks a milestone in the development of the smart living ecosystem realized according to European values.”

The Smart Living Summit was organized by Bayern Innovativ GmbH, the SmartHome Initiative Deutschland e. V. and the Wirtschaftsinitiative Smart Living (WISL e. V.).