Smart homes tomorrow: Yeh tera e-ghar, yeh mera e-ghar!

In 2016, gadgets will talk to each other in a common lingo, through a single app.

'Connected home', 'Internet of things', 'intelligent devices' -- these buzzwords have been around for some time now, with no concrete products and services that tie them together. A few days back at its second anniversary celebrations in Shenzhen, China, Honor, the e-brand owned by Huawei, unveiled its strategy to make smart homes truly smart -- and connected.

Picture this: Your refrigerator, home theatre system, microwave, and air conditioner use the same operating system and are controlled remotely by your smart phone. Honor is making this a reality, by tying up with global partners of all these electronic devices. Honor Lite OS is an all new thin operating system that links all of these devices using a new communication protocol called HiLink – a common universal language for inter-household devices.

HiLink connects devices from various vendors via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Honor plans to make its Lite OS completely open source to encourage the community to create applications and sync up more devices. At its launch event, Honor announced collaborations with home appliances maker Haier and automated homes solution provider Broadlink.