Telefónica, the company behind O2 in the UK, has launched an ‘Internet of Things’ product that enables consumers to monitor and control the temperature, humidity and lighting in their home or office.
It’s the first in a range of modular solutions called Thinking Things, which will let users develop their own ‘smart’ M2M solutions without any programming knowledge or the need to install additional infrastructure.
The first Thinking Things product is an Environmental Pack that enables users to monitor temperature, humidity and lighting, to remotely control this and to program automated tasks. Additional presence, pressure, humidity and temperature sensors can be added simply by clipping them on.
Thinking Things connects over the GSM mobile network via an embedded Telefónica SIM. It’ll work in most European Union countries (including the UK), along with the USA and most Latin American countries. Service is paid for in advance; an ‘ambient’ kit with 12 months’ connectivity is currently priced at €99.95 (around £79).
Francisco Jariego, Director of Industrial Internet of Things for Telefonica's Research and Innovation business, said “This is a major step in Telefónica’s journey into the Internet of Things. Our aim is for Thinking Things Open to become an open ecosystem in which any object or device can be connected to the internet”.