[Translation] The Home Kit Framework - Learn More About Apple's Home Automation Protocol

Hello! I want to share the translation of an article that is interesting for many people who are fond of smart home systems and Apple lovers.



When home automation began in 1996, there were only a handful of smart home systems — and they didn't work together. But things do not stand still. There are currently hundreds of smart home systems - which also do not work with each other.

Every week, smart home systems appear on Kickstarter. It seems like everyone in the industry wants to invent their own bike.

Over the years, we have often wondered what will happen if Apple transfers its famous user experience to smart home systems.

No more guessing. Having previously mentioned the main report at WWDC, this fall Apple announces the presence of “HomeKit” in iOS 8 firmware and from the preliminary documentation we can find out the following:

HomeKit is a new format for communicating and managing connected devices in the user's home. The program can give users the ability to detect devices in the house and configure them, as well as the ability to set actions to control these devices. Users can group actions together and call them using Siri.

Thus, instead of just providing a touchscreen interface for our smart homes, Apple effectively uses the iOS device as an automation center in your system.

The prefix i is not here for a red word. It’s not just iOS or iPhone, it’s Integration ...

HomeKit provides seamless integration between devices that support Home Automation Protocol and Apple's iOS devices, opening up new possibilities in home automation. By promoting a common protocol for home automation devices and making a public API available to configure and interact with these devices, HomeKit makes it possible for a market where home control applications are independent of the provider that makes home automation devices, and where these devices are from manufacturers can be integrated into a single unit without sellers who need to work directly with each other.

As follows from the documentation, HomeKit includes basic functions, such as “detect”, and this allows third-party applications to perform three main actions ...

1. Detect devices and add them to the cross-device home configuration database;
2. Show, edit and perform actions with data in the home configuration database;
3. Interact with configured devices and services to perform actions, such as turning on the light in the living room, for example.

Controlling with Siri is another important feature. In the past, entire computers, along with sound mixers and microphone networks in the house, tried to create something that these days is very easy to do with a smartphone.

For example, you can say Siri, “I'm going to sleep,” and this will dim the lights, close the doors of the house and garage, and set the thermostat.

According to the developer documentation, the HomeKit data hierarchy looks like this:

Homes (HMHomes) are a top-level container and represent a structure that the user usually sees as one house. Users can have several houses that are far apart, for example, the main house and the suburban. Or they may have two houses that are located close to each other, but are considered as different houses, for example, the main house and the guest house in the same territory.

Rooms (HMRoom) are optional parts of the house and are separate rooms in the house. The rooms do not have physical characteristics: size, location, etc. They are simply names that are understandable to the user, such as “living room” or “kitchen”. Room names are used in teams, such as, for example, “Siri, turn on the lights in the kitchen.”

Devices (HMAccessory) are installed in homes and are tied to rooms. These are real physical home automation devices, such as an automatic garage door. If the user has not configured rooms, HomeKit associates the device with a special room by default.

Service (HMService) - the actual functions that the device performs. The device has both user-controlled functions, such as light, and its own functions, such as a firmware update service. HomeKit primarily works with features that users control. One device can be responsible for several user functions. For example, most automatic garage doors have a function to open and close the door, as well as a function to turn on the lights.

Zones(HMZone) - This is an optional grouping of rooms in the house. “Above” and “below” can be represented as separate zones. Zones are exclusively complementary in nature - rooms do not have to enter them. By adding rooms to the zone, the user has the opportunity to give Siri commands, such as: “Siri, turn on the whole light below.”

We hope to soon learn more about HomeKit, as well as see what new equipment Apple partners will offer. Is it possible that Apple’s new move will be enough to get the whole industry following the common protocol?

Or will the closeness and lack of support for other operating systems mean that HomeKit will adhere to many other standards that came before it?