This week’s Smart Living roundup features Google’s HomeKit competitor, a way to turn your boring garden into a smart one, and a collaboration between a car and an appliance manufacturer.

Google expected to launch HomeKit competitor at I/O

Google I/O, Google’s annual developer event, will be kicking off later this month and we can expect to see new products from Google such as the next version of Android, (Android Lollipop anyone?), updates for Google Glass and other wearable technology.  What’s more, Google is said to be launching a platform dubbed Nearby that’s similar to Apple’s HomeKit, recently revealed at the iPhone maker’s own developer conference, WWDC.

According to reports, Nearby is a service that allows the automation of connected devices, such as “periodically turning on mic, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,” and will be connected to Google+ so people can share things as they happen.  Though this sounds like another way for Google to garner data on user behavior, or possibly a hacker’s opportunity to turn devices on without consent, it can actually be used for the smart home.

Google’s recent acquisition of Bump, SlickLogin, and Nest are all indications that Google is venturing deep into the home automation market.  Nearby could allow for the automatic activation of features when one device is bumped against another, or the use of sound to unlock your door, or have Nearby be incorporated in Nest to make its thermostat and smoke detector offer more automation features like changing the temperature depending on who’s at home or in the room.

Nearby could also be associated with other Internet-connected devices to perform automatic actions based on one’s proximity.

Smart gardening

It’s nice to have a little patch of heaven in your backyard to plant flowers and vegetables, but if you don’t know where to start and what plants you should be growing, you could end up with wilted plants even before they bloom.

Edyn is a smart way to help people grow luscious gardens even if they don’t have a green thumb.  This solar powered smart garden system is able to analyze your soil to determine what plants should be seeded and when plants need to be watered. Edyn connects to the home WiFi so data gathered is synced to Edyn cloud, accessible using a smartphone app, and there’s an option to add a smart water valve so plant watering is automated and regulated when needed.

With Edyn, soil is analyzed for moisture, pH and nutrition to determine the need for fertilizers.  Edyn alerts users of changes that needs immediate attention and when it’s time to harvest.

At the moment, Edyn is on Kickstarter and has surpassed its $100K funding goal with 22 days before the project officially closes.

Toyota and Panasonic connect cars to homes

Toyota Motor Corporation and Panasonic Corporation announced that they are co-developing a cloud service that will link cars to home appliances.

Toyota and Panasonic both have existing cloud services that make users of their product experience a more convenient life by connecting people to home appliances or cars.  With the collaboration, the two companies are working on a cloud service that fuses their existing offerings.

The initiative started last year, with Toyota and Panasonic recognizing the opportunity for business to overlap. Details on how the cloud service will connect automobiles and home appliances are sparse, though we expect to learn more with the cloud’s launch sometime during the second half of this year.

photo credit: Globalgrasshopr via photopin cc