AT&T Highlights Innovation as It Moves Toward Software-Defined Network

A smart car seat, an authentication platform for self-check-in at hotels and on-demand network management software were some of the "art of the possible" technologies featured at the AT&T Innovation Showcase in New York Friday. The technologies underscored AT&T's plan to shift to a 75 percent software-defined network by 2020, the company said. Product prototypes included a car seat developed by an AT&T intern that sends an alert to a phone if a loved one or pet is locked in a hot car, it said. An omnichannel analytics solution could aggregate and analyze a customer’s journey across all customer care channels, including phone calls, emails, online chats and tweets, it said. The App2Door authentication platform would let users bypass the front desk at a hotel and use a virtual mobile key to check in via Bluetooth Smart. The Pilgrim project would enable users to monitor and control all of their connected devices using a single app. A personal safety monitoring app from AT&T Digital Life would let a user connect to AT&T’s professional monitoring center when not at home and enable location services on request. A user could have the app contact the monitoring center in response to a programmed if-then scenario involving a specific situation such as walking to a car alone late at night, AT&T said.