Partners Join at CES to Jumpstart the ‘Internet of Things’

LAS VEGAS -- Cloud-based software company People Power unveiled at CES an app for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets that will give users free webcam monitoring capability as part of the company’s plan to jumpstart the “Internet of Things.” The app, due to be available for the iPhone in March and Android devices in May, is being positioned as a way for consumers to reuse old smartphones. From the app, users can monitor elderly parents, sleeping babies, pets or the front door over a phone’s Wi-Fi connection, enabling consumers to give video monitoring capability to devices that would otherwise be recycled or “tossed in a drawer,” said David Moss, co-founder and chief technology officer.

"The app will give everybody free wireless Web cameras” with no service fee or app fee, Moss said. Consumers will plug in power to the phone “like you would with any Web camera” to transform an old phone or tablet into an Internet Protocol Web camera, he said. Users connect their new phone to the old phone or tablet using the app, “and I can see what’s going on,” he said. Users can rotate between front and back cameras on a phone or tablet using the app, he said.

Moss showed us the app at the Monster booth, where People Power was showing the app with Monster Central plugs to control lights and connected appliances. The app gives consumers a free entry point to home monitoring and the Internet of Things, and “then you can add on with Monster plugs” for control, he said. Users can create a rule using the app to use the phone or tablet as a security camera based on motion detection or sound. An iPad Mini could be programmed to snap a picture of a motion-driven event or non-event, such as a burglary, a child coming home from school or an elderly parent taking medications, he said. If the device doesn’t detect a child entering the front door at 4 p.m., he said, a text or email notification could be sent right away to alert a parent. Audio triggers can be programmed as well. “If somebody rings the doorbell, I can get a message,” he said. People Power is using push notifications initially and is also talking to carriers about text message bundles that consumers might purchase as an “add-on” to the app, he said.

People Power is launching the app, called Presence, first with Monster and will extend to other manufacturers to create “an ecosystem of devices,” Moss said. Consumers don’t want separate apps for security cameras, thermostats and lights, he said, but want one app that manages all home control events. The first release is Wi-Fi-based, but People Power’s software is open-source code with an open interface, allowing “any company to connect,” he said. To work with control devices from partner companies, users scan the QR Code on the back of a module and the product is registered as part of the control system of the app, he said.

People Power demonstrated its app in four other booths at CES, too, including Huawei, Simplicikey, GreenPeak and Arrayent. People Power’s hope is to give a start to the Internet of Things, which is supposed to be a 50-billion device, $2 trillion market by 2020, but that “hasn’t really started,” CEO Gene Wang told us. “You have to have a ’thing’ to get started,” he said, and that’s what People Power hopes to deliver with its app. Users then will need to setup devices to things “they really care about,” he said, for the connected universe to evolve. In addition to providing control for devices in the home, the app will also show users how much phantom control connected devices are using and enable them to shut off power to those components, including TVs, PCs and audio receivers, he said.