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The OSGi Alliance 2004 World Congress to Feature Tour of the eNeo Labs Connected Home in Outskirts of Barcelona Powered by OSGi Technology (10/8/2004)

The networked life and working environment is one of today's hot topics, with "Smart Homes" undergoing trials in several countries around the world. A leading example is the eNeo Labs Connected Home located in the outskirts of Barcelona, Spain, and unlike other smart home projects, the eNeo Labs Connected Home is not a pilot but features a real family living at the home. Nearly every device in this home is networked using OSGi technology. Hundreds of technology executives and developers from Europe, Asia and the Americas will gather this October 11-15 in Barcelona, Spain for the OSGi Alliance 2004 World Congress at the Hilton Barcelona. This event will draw the world's top experts on commercially available and developing OSGi implementations, offering focused tracks for the mobile, automotive and home markets as promised by its theme "Convergence: Going Mobile, Driving, and Staying Home with OSGiSolutions."

Nearly every aspect of the eNeo Labs Connected Home from lights, blinds, centralized vacuum, shower, security cameras to the swimming pool is networked and automated. The "nerve center" of the eNeo Connected Home is the IPbox residential gateway based on OSGi technology. Many of the domestic and automotive innovations developed and trialed at eNeo will be unveiled to the public for the first time during the OSGi Alliance 2004 World Congress. Space is available on a first-come first-serve basis for up to 40 registrants of the OSGi Alliance 2004 World Congress. eNeo Labs is sponsoring the tour of the Connected Home, including round-trip transportation and refreshments.

The technology at the eNeo Connected Home consists of a residential gateway -- the IPbox, a middleware system named eNeoNet and an aggregation of advanced services accessible via eNeo Labs residential portal SiempreEnCasa ("Always at Home"). The IPbox residential gateway is permanently connected to a broadband network through ADSL. This permanent, always on, broadband connection allows full management and service provisioning of services between the Data Center and the eNeo Connected Home.

At the touch of a button the family members residing in this home can invoke pre-programmed scenarios for "Waking Up", "Going on Vacation", "Leaving Home", "Watching Cinema" among others. Selecting any one of these scenarios activates pre-programmed settings on the various devices from different manufacturers in the home. Also, since the eNeo Labs Connected Home features a real family, the project is providing invaluable feedback on the sociological impact of these services on the daily life of this family. The home is built using environmentally friendly and sustainable construction materials, and it uses solar energy.

"We are excited to offer registrants at the OSGi Alliance 2004 World Congress a glimpse of how OSGi technology is creating Smart Homes of the future," said Javier Zamora, General Manager of eNeo Labs. "The eNeo Connnected Home is seamlessly automated home which adapts to the personality of its occupants. OSGi technology is the glue that enables us to create a devoted personal assistant -- albeit an invisible one -- tirelessly catering to the preferences and needs of the occupants of the home, from within and providing secure access from mobile phones and automobiles when they are away."

www.osgiworldcongress.com